Stella Johnson is a photographer and educator known for her passionate and honest documentary projects. She received a Core Fulbright Scholar Grant to photograph in Mexico in 2003, and Fulbright Senior Specialist grants to teach in Mexico in 2006 and in Colombia in 2018. The University of Maine Press published her monograph, Al Sol: Photographs from Mexico, Cameroon and Nicaragua in 2008. Her second monograph, ZOI, was published in 2019 by Wild Greek Press. Johnson’s photographs have been widely exhibited in the United States and internationally.
A dedicated educator, Johnson holds teaching positions at Boston University and Lesley University College of Art and Design. She also teaches workshops in Greece, Cuba, Colombia and Mexico. She was a 2013 and 2019 finalist for the Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellowship, Photolucida Critical Mass Top 50, twice, and a nominee for the Boston Foundation’s Brother Thomas Fellowship. Johnson’s work has received numerous honors including a New England Foundation for the Arts Cultural Collaborative Artist-in-Residence Grant and Julia Margaret Cameron Award.
Johnson holds a BFA from The San Francisco Art Institute and an MS in journalism from Boston University. Her work is held in public collections including The DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, The Haggerty Museum of Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Portland Museum of Art, and The Southeast Museum of Photography, among others.