Josh Ethan Johnson studies humans the way some people study rare birds—except his “species” is everywhere, walking around in real time, impossible to pin down. He’s been photographing proper from early on in life, and that instinct eventually led him to create Wrong Side of the Lens, his ongoing YouTube series where he turns the focus on street photographers themselves—those who spend their lives chasing strangers through the world’s public spaces.
For the last twenty years, Johnson has tracked Homo sapiens through cities, backroads, subcultures, survival zones and places that barely qualify as environments at all. He watches how we adapt, how we self-mythologise, how we build cultures and burn them down again before anyone can even name the cycle. That speed—the way human culture creates and erases itself—is what drives his work. Film, video, digital: he uses whatever medium will catch the behaviour before it flickers out.
His research has taken him around the world, often into vulnerable situations, not for shock but for understanding. What actually motivates this restless genus? What keeps us reproducing ourselves culturally, emotionally, socially? Is the momentum we call “progress” really evolution—or just a prettier version of collapse?
Johnson’s archive feels like an ongoing anthropological experiment disguised as street photography. Instead of conclusions, he offers material: fragments, indicators, scenes that ask the viewer to become a co-investigator, to catch the patterns he might have missed.
Hi Josh! It’s a pleasure to sit down with you! First question that I always ask. How does a regular day look like for you in New York?
Josh: I wake up pretty early to take the dog to the park M–F before I work from home all day. It’s about a 2-mile walk roundtrip, but I stay to chat with the park buddies while my dog goes person to person begging for treats. I’m home around 10 a.m. to start my workday. I’m at my home office for the bulk of the day, juggling commercial work and mixing in my own projects in the cracks. After, my wife and I typically cook up something gourmet for dinner and find some quality entertainment on one of the 100 streaming services we keep for some reason. It’s a routine I’ve yet to tire of.
I’m curious, growing up in DeKalb, Illinois, what kind of kid were you? What did you enjoy doing, and how did you spend your time?
Josh: How’d you know about DeKalb?? It was actually an even smaller town next to DeKalb called Sycamore. About 12k people — not tiny, but small enough for me to want to leave eventually. I wasn’t unhappy there, but I moved to Milwaukee in high school and was excited to live in a proper city. I was a good kid really, interested in lots of stuff. I was good at sports but dedicated to drawing and learning the drums at very early ages. I liked getting good at things. I also loved playing in the woods, which explains my current infatuation with fly fishing. I was pretty average academically but was good at the things I wanted to get good at. My friends and I were typical boys in some respects but pretty sharp smart-asses. We made funny videos and radio sketch recordings. I remember our parents being stunned that we were so sarcastic and sharp.
Hah, I did my research! :D…. So how did you get introduced to photography? And how did you first start out practicing with your camera?
Josh: My mom always took family snapshots — flash photography. Nothing fancy. Always a cheap, sometimes disposable camera, but I always loved those images. Been chasing that aesthetic ever since. We had HUGE family photo albums and I loved seeing what life was like before I was born. I remember having friends over and not knowing what else to do with them, so I’d make them sit and go through the photo albums. We were like in 6th grade and they must have been like,
“This is boring as shit… but I like Josh so I’ll pretend.”
Alright, so what made you want to start documenting the streets, everyday situations, and various homo sapiens?
Josh: It was a very natural thing for me starting when I was very little. I always obsessively drew people, faces. Loved painters like Picasso and Egon Schiele. I mean… what kind of fucked-up kid relates to Francis Bacon paintings?? I remember loving going into the big city — aka Chicago — and seeing the variety of people and neighborhoods. I wanted to experience each hood first-person. I’ve always been a quiet student of human behavior, and in college it kind of clicked that photo and video were strong mediums to help explore that curiosity.
With that in mind, what do you look for when you’re out looking for your next motif to capture?
Josh: Whatever it is, it’s not conscious. But looking back at what has historically caught my attention, there are some similarities. The subjects usually don’t frame their own lives as interesting. Their egos are in check. The situations have to come very naturally. I don’t like knowing very much about them before documenting. And the big one — which changes — is they have to potentially have the answers to some of my questions at that time.
How important is authenticity in your work? And can a picture still be good if it doesn’t have any?
Josh: The words “authentic” and “good” are concepts so enormous and defined differently depending on the person, mood, or day that it’s a tricky one to answer. When I’m making my work, I know I have a stronger relationship to it when it comes naturally. When I force things, it intrudes on that authentic feeling. What people like of mine is sometimes different than what I’m most proud of, and I trust my own compass more. No offense, general public, but I do this mostly for me.
What makes photography and video your preferred medium of expressing yourself?
Josh: Good question. Really one of my favorite questions since I’m still figuring that out. I used to be an obsessive drawer and painter… from kindergarten to art school, before pivoting to music for many years — but all while taking public photography without thinking much about it. I think I got turned off by how editorial mediums like drawing and painting were. It was always my thoughts, my ideas, my work. Me me me me!
Ultimately, I don’t think photo and video are much different, actually, but they at least have some perception that what is captured in photo or video may have taken place. I love the world of “street” photo because it allows for a loose play on genres like journalism, fine art, documentary, absurdities, humor, and “real life.”
You pose the question of whether culture is progressing or regressing. After 20 years of documenting people, where do you personally land today — closer to hope or to doubt?
Josh: Oh shit. Got a few days for me to work this out? It’s a big one. If we were to litigate whether culture is progressing or regressing, and both sides had top-shelf lawyers, we’d be here so long that culture would have already changed and shifted before any verdict was reached.
One thing that’s fun for me to track with others and even myself is: how people answer that often reflects more on us than anything external. Like a Rorschach test, our interpretations say instantly more about us than meaningless abstract ink blots.
In general, I’m a self-defined “cautious optimist.” At least partially for self-defense reasons.
You’ve placed yourself in “vulnerable environments” to understand what motivates people. What’s the most challenging or uncomfortable setting you’ve encountered, and what did it reveal?
Josh: When I first started to take photo more seriously, I was in art school. The black-and-white 35mm teacher was a respected street photographer in Minneapolis, MN, and had us self-assign our final project. I chose to ride around the public bus system at night, after class, for several weeks taking candid and portrait photos. I was, and still would be, scared as shit. People in those environments often are already in their own protective personal spaces, and it put me way out of my comfort zone to capture that.
I’ve since realized that cameras are such a great buffer and excuse to interact that I don’t get too uncomfortable anymore. Or maybe I’m able to dissociate effectively and go to a happy place.
As a documentarian, do you try to remain neutral, or do you allow yourself to feel empathy for your subjects? Does empathy interfere with or enrich the research?
Josh: I definitely allow my own views and editorial to be present. I’m of the ultimate opinion that there’s no capturing of reality that remains completely objective — although I respect the hell out of things like quality journalism that attempt it. That’s not what I’m doing though. My thing takes parts of journalism but adds elements like subconscious questions, humor, commentary, and abstraction that negates the hell out of it being neutral. The second you choose to capture something through a particular lens focal length, put an edit in a video, plaster a bed of music through your cut — you’ve editorialized.
However, as Richard Sandler said best in his episode of Wrong Side Of The Lens, it can be a “lie that tells the truth.” This sort of storytelling can be a departure from journalism or cinéma vérité but still attempt to get at the essence of a thing. The truth… whatever the hell that is.
You’ve mentioned “patterns” that have emerged in your research. Could you share one pattern or behavioral phenomenon that you think defines the human species today?
Josh: We’re vastly more alike than not, so there are too many to list. A few maybe need to be seen and/or heard: eventual gravitation toward low-stress environments. People want to have a purpose, as trivial as it may seem. We like good music and grilled foods and for people to laugh at our jokes once in a while.
Working across film, video, and photography — what determines which medium is right for a particular observation?
Josh: Good question. I don’t sit and think too hard about this, but I think it has more to do with the mood I’m in. Photo allows for so much more mystery than video since it’s a fraction of a second taken out of context. It’s fun to allow the subject and their story to suggest how much context — or not — the documentation should have. The lack of context that photo intrinsically has can be a real advantage to that medium. Withholding info with intent can draw the viewer in to ask questions. Video is much harder to do that with since there’s audio and 24 frames per second giving instantly more context. The good thing about today is that the same camera that can take 120fps 4K also takes fantastic photos, so you can fire off both and decide in post-production what you want to curate.
After twenty years of documenting humans, do you feel closer to understanding what motivates us, or does the mystery just deepen?
Josh: I’ve seen many of my curiosities around humans pretty well satisfied. If ever a new question should arise, I have a camera at the ready to help me reconcile those. It’s a multi-pronged approach though. My documentations are only one of many ways I learn about humans. Living in NYC and interacting with people, reading good books, getting out of my comfort zones — all are great ways to study the human species as well.
About 3 years ago, you started Wrong Side of the Lens. What was your inspiration behind starting the project?
Josh: It was actually more like 6 or 7 at this point. Like most things that I’m proud of, it started small as an experiment. I saw this community of street photographers around me that were giving crazy amounts of energy to a thing that was little understood to the public at large and even the community itself. My initial idea was to turn the camera around on those used to being in control and have them tell a short story about a photo or photo project — seeing if this extra context helped or hurt their images. It was very quickly obvious it was worth talking with more people and capturing bigger stories. I’d already done this with everyday people in a project called FACES, which is another lifelong project with no end in sight. But for WSOTL it was kind of a perfect storm for me combining my interests in editing, filmmaking, music, photo, design, and letting the subjects tell their own story.
When you flipped the camera toward the photographers themselves, what surprised you most about how they responded to suddenly becoming the observed instead of the observers?
Josh: The funnest part was seeing how much they had to say and how good they were on camera despite sometimes crippling levels of self-consciousness and apprehension to be on film. Some went on to make their own shows or at least speak to the camera more on social media, which I take a little credit for — helping them realize they have something to say.
Street photographers often operate in a grey zone — part artist, part voyeur, part urban anthropologist. While filming the series, what did you discover about the psychology that drives someone to photograph strangers day after day?
Josh: The answer to this requires a preface about how my experiment in WSOTL is skewed and biased to some degree. There were about 18 people that participated in Season 01. Many of those came naturally and without much curation on my end. They were either in my community and responded to my open call initially or were friends of friends who came highly recommended.
This was the sample size that helped me study and reconcile some of my takeaways on the subject of street photographers, so it’s somewhat anecdotal. I also don’t give my energy to people I don’t like, which means I am curating a bit — which is why I think my findings are skewed.
That being said… I found these people and other street photographers are doing this for really pure and altruistic reasons. I always say that if they were shitbags who wanted to make a million bucks, street photo would literally be the last path to choose. These are curious people often with personal questions needing answers. It’s really as simple as that. There are plenty of examples one could cherry-pick of people capitalizing on this movement to get into the MoMA, but often their reputations and plagiarized work catch up to them.
Many of the photographers in the series talk about the “superpower” of giving or withholding context. As the filmmaker, how did you navigate that tension — deciding when to reveal their magic tricks and when to protect the mystery?
Josh: Another good question. Sometimes I let the photographer decide whether or not to divulge their “magic trick,” as Julian Master put it. Julian was adamant that a good photo should never tell the “real” story behind the image, allowing the viewer to imagine whatever tall tale their imagination creates. I asked him — I think off-camera — why then he’d spent a day with me doing exactly that and giving context to dozens of his best work. His answer still cracks me up: he’s grown sick of 99% of his work and isn’t precious with them anymore.
Other photographers didn’t want to talk specifically about an image for these reasons, and I completely understood and told them we should just talk about why they don’t want to talk about that. I remember seeing their gears turning and thinking,
“Oh yeah… that could be fun.”
At no point in the series do we dork out on gear or photo-industry talk. Bigger concepts are more fun for the subjects and me to wax poetic on.
Physical risk is a recurring theme in the series. Did documenting their practice change the way you think about the ethics, danger, and adrenaline that fuel street photography?
Josh: Yeah. It probably did. I love all kinds of photography, from microscopic photos of bacteria to street photos where the camera gets 2 inches away from the subject. The latter approach is really a sociology experiment more than anything else, which I fully support when done correctly. And while I’ve done some of that in my time, I don’t care to practice much of that these days. Glad other people do and find the conversation that provokes very interesting and valid.
Sometimes that ultra-close, seemingly aggressive style comes from a pissed-off, punk-rock place — which can make for great work — but isn’t as productive as if it came from a more curious, altruistic place. Either way though, I find it gets a productive conversation going so…??
You worked with both pioneers and the new generation. What differences did you notice between these eras — in their approach, philosophy, or the way they interpret the chaos of the street?
Josh: Hmm… I don’t think it’s much different. If they’re any good, it comes from a place of curiosity and not much else.
Real quick. When do we get WSOTL season 2? And what projects are you currently working on?
Josh: I ran out of self funding $$ for WSOTL but hope to make more eventually if I can figure out $$ without compromising the vibe.
As for other projects… I’m always looking for the next FACES episode and lending my photo and video skills to water conservation non profits around fly fishing and nature issues.
Can you tell me about some of your favorite memories from shooting in the field?
Josh: I’ve been invited into funeral dance-party dinners in the Bronx. I’ve had many people share their most intimate secrets with me and my camera. I’ve been on spontaneous adventures through the Bahamas exploring castle ruins turned secret homeless art galleries. I’ve had the privilege of being trusted to tell people’s life stories without knowing them prior. I’ve been chased out of homes and invited into others. Photo is a passport into worlds you can’t easily imagine.
Other than the camera and lens, are there any essential items that you always bring with you when shooting?
Josh: A decent lavalier. Audio is the trade secret to quality video production. But the best camera is the one that you have on you at the time… so don’t let gear ever get in the way of a good story. Content is king, and fuck all that high-production bullshit. It’s just slappin’ a silk hat on a pig most times.
So what do you hope that we, the observers, take with us after viewing some of your photos?
Josh: Shit. Besides anything you want — and thank you for looking at them — my pie-in-the-sky takeaway hopes would maybe be just to encourage people to use the camera as a means to explore their curiosities. There’s no better tool to get to know yourself and make yourself vulnerable to the world around us. The only things we take to the grave are the times in life we’ve made ourselves most vulnerable. Friendships, relationships — and that’s it. Then we’re dead forever. Make these 40–78 years count. Not sure if my photos say all that, but one can hope.
Ok Josh, now to something totally different. In a parallel universe, who would you be and what would you be doing?
Josh: Maybe a mountain hermit like in the Robert Redford film Jeremiah Johnson.
- I love nature.
- I wouldn’t even need to change my last name.
He did have to kill lots of beavers and Native Americans, which I don’t think I’d care for, but living off the land and trading for the rest seems fun in theory.
My ultimate dream is to start a massive dog-rescue compound where I cook the human workers and dogs the highest quality organic foods and take the dogs on daily fly-fishing, horseback excursions. Me on the horse — unless the dogs are into it.
Outside of photography and filmmaking, what’s something you’re obsessed with right now — maybe a hobby, a show, or even a food — that keeps you grounded or inspired?
Josh: As I attempt to work into almost every conversation, including this interview… fly fishing. I’ve been completely obsessed for about 6+ years and it’s derailing my life. Greater NYC has some world-class rivers that are my siren call most weekends of the year. I fish by myself, sometimes with friends, sometimes with my dog, and the long car rides and time in nature are something I’ve grown to need to exist in a city like NYC. Like many NYC’ers, the trick to loving NYC is leaving periodically… making the reunions that much sweeter.
Can you tell me a story about a time when a connection with someone had a big impact on you?
Josh: When I was in art school around 1999 in Minneapolis, I met someone on the streets who I ended up doing a long-term photo project on. He had a home but was kind of transient and had some mental-health issues. I was only 19 at the time and wasn’t able to be as much help to him and his wife as I wished I could have been. We had a great time together and maybe that was something, but I felt bad I couldn’t do more. I had some personal issues at the time and didn’t have the extra emotional reservoir to tap into, and I always felt bad about that. Nowadays, I try and set boundaries with subjects to be clear about my objectives and limitations so as not to run into this — which still happens all the time.
What qualities do you find most important in the people you choose to spend time with?
Josh: I’m interested in people who don’t think of themselves as interesting or important. That could be because they’re naturally selfless and egoless, or it could be a result of life humbling them, but I enjoy showing those people how valid and unique their stories are.
If someone is peacocking down the street or asks me to take their picture, I cross the street. Often the same people who wear the color yellow.
Anybody you look up to?
Josh: Shit. A million people probably, but it’s not in that false-deity, “praise Jesus” sort of way. I admire aspects of many people, but I’m not sure I can think of anyone I’d want to switch lives with. I like my life. I’ve worked hard to reach my balance, which shifts incrementally every day. I’d hate to hop into someone else’s life and have to start that process over again. I could use much more money though… that’d be super nice.
What motivates you?
Josh: If I knew that, my therapist bills would be non-existent. I’ve always been a busybody. I’m glad I’m a motivated person and worry that understanding what’s behind that may disrupt it. Since I don’t live in a vacuum, it’s nearly impossible to know with any certainty, but I try to make sure my motives are not to prove anything to others and only let my own curiosities guide me. I do share things on social media, which could be seen as potentially looking for external validation, but I could easily argue that social media has connected me with enormous communities of like-minded photographers, fly fishermen, documentary makers — respected peers not trying to enter a pissing contest. I’m way over competition. It’s a gross thing I used to employ in my creative endeavors but now triggers my gag reflex.
How would you describe a perfect day?
Josh: These are fun questions. Sleep in a little, then breakfast with my wife, dog, and cat. Hike in nature with the dog, wife, and the dog’s best human and K9 friends. Hike along a mountain stream where I catch a wild trout on a dry fly. Streamside snack of meats and cheeses. Have a challenging and productive talk about politics, art, or philosophy with a new or old friend. Take a nap. Cook dinner and watch a great movie. In bed by 11 p.m.
Alright Josh, I always ask these two questions at the end of an interview. The first is: What’s your favorite movie(s) and why?
Josh: Movies are arguably the most inspiring medium to me. So damn many movies leave me awestruck, so I hate to single one out but… gun to head… if I had to pick one… One that comes to mind that whenever I see it, I think, “FUCK I wish I made that movie,” is Boy by Taika Waititi. It’s a perfect film. It’s simple, story-driven, original, quirky, earnest, funny, sad, and full of surprise. It’s everything art needs to be for my dollar.
The second is: What song(s) are you currently listening to the most right now?
Josh: Shit… another medium I hate to single one thing out, but between 80s funk, boogie, bossa nova, dirty disco, boom bap, and millions of other genres, I don’t know where to start.
Here are some names:
Ann Steele, Daniel Lopatin, Lord Echo, Kashif, Powermountain, Grant Cutler, Al Jarreau, Mk.gee, Andy Shauf, Labi Siffre, Pete Rock, Giorgio Moroder, Mtume, Jai Paul.