Born in Sweden and now based in Prague in the Czech Republic, Johansson has built a global reputation for photographs that blur the boundary between reality and imagination. His images look convincingly real at first glance: quiet landscapes, familiar countryside homes, everyday roads and fields. But within seconds, something shifts. A road begins to peel away from the earth. A field folds into itself like fabric. The landscape bends to the logic of a dream.

Johansson describes his practice simply: unreal ideas implemented in a realistic way. The phrase captures the essence of his work. Rather than using photography to document the world, he uses it to invent one — carefully assembling impossible scenes from hundreds of individual photographs.

Growing up on a farm in Götene, Sweden, the wide landscapes of the countryside left a lasting imprint on his visual language. Many of the environments that appear in his images echo those early surroundings: open skies, quiet fields, and the iconic red houses scattered across rural Sweden. These familiar settings provide the grounding that makes his surreal transformations feel so believable.

Creativity was part of Johansson’s life from the beginning. As a child he loved drawing and spending time on computers, often escaping into imaginary worlds through games and illustrations. When he received his first digital camera as a teenager, those two interests suddenly converged. Photography became less about capturing reality and more about reshaping it. Manipulating photographs allowed him to create scenes that could never exist in front of the lens alone.

This mindset continues to guide his process today. Every image begins with a sketch — a rough visual idea that slowly evolves through planning and experimentation. Johansson then photographs the many elements needed to build the final scene, often traveling to multiple locations to collect the right pieces. Lighting, perspective, and materials must align perfectly so that, when assembled, the image feels seamless and believable.

The photography itself may take only a day, but the planning can stretch across months. The final stage — combining all the elements — is like solving a visual puzzle. Johansson insists on working only with photographs he has taken himself, avoiding stock imagery or computer-generated elements in his personal projects. The result is a meticulous process that yields only a handful of new works each year.

That slow pace reflects the ambition behind each image. Every photograph operates like a small universe: a self-contained narrative where the viewer is invited to wander and invent their own story. Johansson often draws inspiration from children’s books and the imaginative freedom they encourage — spaces where ordinary environments transform into places of wonder.

Despite the technical complexity behind the scenes, the experience of viewing his work remains playful and open-ended. A viewer might interpret one image as a metaphor, another as a visual joke, and another simply as a moment of impossible beauty.

For Johansson, that sense of curiosity is essential. His images are not meant to dictate a single meaning, but to spark thought and surprise — small disruptions in how we expect the world to behave.

Those curious to explore more of his surreal landscapes can discover his latest projects and exhibitions on his website, where new visual worlds continue to unfold.