Tonika Johnson
Leading Lens
"I take pictures that have an emotional impact for myself and accurately show another side of the community I love."
Photographer, Manager, and Community Activist. This fearless leader of the Englewood Arts Collective organized the group in the Summer of 2017 with a mission to unify, represent, and contribute to the creative demographic of her neighborhood. A photographer/visual artist and life-long resident of Chicago’s South Side neighborhood of Englewood, Tonika Lewis Johnson co-found Resident Association of Greater Englewood (R.A.G.E) in 2010. R.A.G.E.’s mission is to “mobilize people and resources to force positive change in Englewood through solution-based approaches."
Within her artistic practice, Tonika often explores urban segregation and documents the nuance and richness of the black community. As a trained photojournalist and teaching artist, she has been engaged in building an artistic legacy that gained citywide recognition in the last three years. She was featured in Chicago Magazine as a 2017 Chicagoan of the Year for her photography of Englewood's everyday beauty, countering its pervasive media coverage of poverty and crime. Her Englewood-based photography projects "From the INside," and "Everyday Rituals," were exhibited at Rootwork Gallery in Pilsen, the Chicago Cultural Center, the Harold Washington Library Center and at Loyola University's Museum of Art (LUMA). Her Folded Map project, visually investigates disparities among Chicago residents while bringing them together to have a conversation, was also exhibited at LUMA in 2018. Since then she has transformed this project into an advocacy and policy-influencing tool that invites audiences to open a dialogue and question how we are all socially impacted by racial and institutional conditions that segregate the city. In 2019, she was named one of Field Foundation’s Leaders for a New Chicago and most recently, she was appointed as a member of the Cultural Advisory Council of the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events by the Chicago City Council.
Click below for social media, personal website (full portfolio) and downloadable resumé. Email: tonika.johnson@gmail.com
