The Queering of Photography (2015–2025) is an ambitious long-term project that investigates the complex relationship between queer identity and photographic representation. Developed in collaboration with the London LGBTQ+ community and at artist residencies at the British School at Rome, The Queering of Photography presents a meticulous study of pose, gaze, composition, and the materiality of photographic imagery.

Rooted in the conventions of classical studio portraiture and produced with a large format plate camera, the work comprises formal yet playfully subversive photographs of human figures, Roman statues, and studio props. Through rigour and playfulness, Johannesson cultivates a distinctly queer sensibility within the photographic process – one that challenges and reimagines how identity and desire are represented. The project’s title underscores this strategy: a process of “queering” that reclaims playfulness as a critical mode of inquiry, foregrounding overlooked queer gestures and aesthetics within photographic traditions and histories.