The Van Gogh Effect

- Blurb -

In 1996, Lynn Johnson was assigned by National Geographic Magazine to photograph a story about Vincent van Gogh, titled A Lullaby in Color. Published in Octoberof the following year, it followed van Gogh through his youth in Brabant, through his most creative time in France, to his last resting place in Auvers-sur-Oise. The story combined her black & white photographs and reproductions of some of van Gogh' s most popular paintings. Twenty-two years later, Johnson, who has been continuously working for National Geographic Magazine, was approached to produce a photographic exhibition on Vincent van Goghin collaboration with photographer and curator Patricia Lanza, in corporating original story images and new unpublished work created by both. In 2018, Johnson and Lanza returned to the places where Van Gogh lived and worked to produce new photographic work. The resulting images show both public and private spaces,and artefacts that are not normally revealed, and some inaccessible to the public. They worked both shoulder to shoulder and solo -a creative collaboration made richer by their love for van Gogh and the places he revealed to them. They travelled toSaint Paul Asylum in St. Remy de Provence, France where van Gogh lived and painted for one year. The asylum, closed to the public, is still a haven for women with mental health challenges. Lanza and Johnson were permitted to document a unique asylum art programme developed for the patients over the past twenty years. They also visited the farm in Auvers-sur-Oise, where van Gogh was rumoured to have been shot by boys visiting from Paris, a theory that was presented in the biography Van Gogh, The Life by Pulitzer prize-winning authors Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith. This book is a photographic journey of van Gogh' s life, supported by text and quotes from his letters, celebrating his connection to the natural world and his exquisite sensitivity to light and colour. Today, millions of people travel in van Gogh' s creative wake and the authors hope this book will add both new visual information and a fresh perspective for all who find themselves on their own creative pilgrimage. Lynn Johnson (photographing human conditions, a National Geographic fellow and teaching at the Syracuse University' s Newhouse School of Public Communications) and Patricia Lanza (former staff photo editor and contract photographer of National Geographic and former Director of Talent and Content for the Annenberg Space for Photography, Los Angeles) bring the perspectives of both curator and photographer, each with over forty years of experience in front of and behind the camera. A series of exhibitions, starting at the Leica galleries in Los Angeles and then Boston, and travelling the world after that (foreseen are London, Paris, Tokyo, Kyoto, Leica Museum, Wetzlar, Germany, Schilt Gallery, Amsterdam, Museum of Photography, Seoul) will create excellent and worldwide attention to the work of both artists as well as to the bookin general. Essays by, amongst others, Christian Caujolle (artistic director of Photo Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and founder and former artistic director of l' Agence VU and Galerie VU) and Dr. Jean Marc Boulon (Director of Saint Paul Asylum at Saint Remy).