The Queering of Photography by Asa Johannesson

Stills is thrilled to announce its spring exhibition: The Queering of Photography by Swedish artist Åsa Johannesson, marking her first solo exhibition in Scotland. The show will run from 1 May to 27 June 2026, with a preview on Thursday, 30 April, from 6–8pm.

Åsa Johannesson is an artist whose practice spans photography and writing. Over the past twenty years, she has explored the possibilities of a queer visual vocabulary within photographic portraiture, merging queer documentary approaches with performative formalist aesthetics. Her work interrogates how identity, desire, and community can be represented and reimagined through photography.

The Queering of Photography (2015–2025) is Johannesson’s most ambitious project to date. Developed in collaboration with the London LGBTQ+ community and during residencies at the British School at Rome, the project examines the nuanced relationship between queer identity and photographic representation. Working with a large format plate camera, Johannesson produces images that blend classical studio portraiture with playful subversion. Her photographs feature human figures, Roman statues, and carefully selected studio props, capturing moments of intimacy, performativity, and queer sensibility.

The exhibition draws on a decade of interconnected works, including Looking Out, Looking In, Frame, Figural, Figurative, Turn, and Skin. These series encompass black-and-white studio portraits, studies of Roman statuary, experimental ‘profil perdu’ Polaroids, and Polaroid emulsion sculptures. Each piece reflects Johannesson’s commitment to both tradition and experimentation, revealing photography as a space for transformation, joy, and critical inquiry.

By “queering” the photographic process, Johannesson foregrounds overlooked queer gestures, aesthetics, and narratives, challenging conventional representation while creating a new visual language. The Queering of Photography invites viewers to engage with a meticulously crafted yet playful exploration of gaze, pose, and composition, offering a profound meditation on identity, desire, and the possibilities of queer representation within contemporary photography.





ABOUT THE ARTIST
Åsa Johannesson is an artist working across photography and writing. She studied at the Royal College of Art and her doctoral thesis examined possibilities of nonbinary logic in the theorisation of the photographic image. Åsa has exhibited her photographic work internationally, including at Centrum för fotografi (Stockholm), Queer Britain (London), Landskrona Foto (Landskrona), and FutureLab (Shanghai). Her most recent book, the research monograph Queer Methodology for Photography presents new approaches to making, writing and thinking about queer photography. Åsa’s prose poetry collection And I wanted to see it: my queerness in the best light is forthcoming. Åsa is based in London, UK and her hometown Växjö, Sweden.
www.asajohannesson.com
@asajohannes

ABOUT STILLS
Stills is a centre for photography based in the heart of Edinburgh. We offer exhibitions and production facilities as well as a range of engagement opportunities for anyone to discover, enjoy and understand photography. Stills was established in 1977. Since that time it has become a champion for the important and powerful role that the medium of photography plays in the world today. This exhibition has been organised in line with Stills’ commitment to annual presentations of internationally-renowned work that has not previously been exhibited in Scotland. Stills is 50 years old in 2027.