Gerry Johansson is a sensitive, low-key photographer who has been an active contributor to Swedish photography for several decades. His images of urban and rural cultural landscapes, in which human beings are present only via the traces they leave, are familiar to many photography aficionados.

Gerry Johansson was born in 1945; he developed an interest in photography as early as during his teen years. He lived in New York in the early 1960s, and it was there he began to document city environments. His photos from that period bear witness to his deep interest in the work of American photographer Robert Frank, so sharply criticized at the time but with a reputation of mythical proportions today. The spirit of Walker Evans is also evident in Johansson's work. Later he studied graphic design at Konstindustriskolan (today the School of Design and Crafts at the University of Gothenburg), after which he worked in graphic design for fifteen years. During this period, he was also honing his own photographic talents, and since the mid-1980s he has worked as a freelance photographer

Gerry Johansson's odyssey through photography has ranged across a variety of landscapes and continents. The Hasselblad Center exhibit in 2007 consisted of photos from the United States and Sweden. In Johansson's work, the tradition of Hasselblad Award Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander and William Eggleston is evident. The viewer may also call to mind the work of early twentieth century French photographer Eugène Atget, who depicted the deserted streets of Paris. Johansson's photos are made in accordance with the same unembellished esthetics, and endless perspectives.

Gerry Johansson's series entitled Sverige (Sweden) comprises photographs taken in Swedish conurbations between 1988 and 2005. The pictures are borne up by their iconographic signs and symbols, and the viewer feels very much at home with them. The melancholy often considered a characteristic Swedish trait is tangible, but his images open up to various levels of interpretation. There are trompe l'oeil effects as well - photographs of existing places form the backbone of his fictional narrative. His photos also offer us the opportunity to analyze times and places, things we recognize and can relate to. Representation is important in his work, not only physical representation, where the photos were taken, but more importantly the aura contained in his images.