An emergency rescue worker who is as good a shot with a Luger as with a Leica, Johnson has climbed the radio antenna atop Chicago's Hancock Tower, and eaten rats with Vietcong guerrillas on her quest for pictures. She has traveled from the Antarctic to Tibet, and done in-depth portraits of celebrities, including: Barishnikov, Stevie Wonder, Michael Douglas, Gloria Estefan, Mr. Rogers, and the entire Supreme Court. Yet many of her favorite assignments have been emotional stories about ordinary people -- a family struggling with AIDS (Life), a woman undergoing breast reconstruction after cancer (Life), children coping with the brain death of their mother (Newsweek).

Committed to developing the talents of a new generation of photographers, Johnson teaches at the Eddie Adam's Workshop. Her own vision is subtle: To invite the viewer to find the meaning in the frame. Her shooting style is equally low key. At 5'1" she has the ability to become virtually invisible, making her subjects unconscious of the camera and allowing her to make photographs revealing and compassionate. She says,"We have the responsibility to be both educators and journalists, not to manipulate people, but to honor their stories, to share a view of life and perhaps make a difference to others."

Johnson earned a B.A. in Photographic Illustration and Photojournalism at the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1975. After graduating, she became a staff photographer at The Pittsburgh Press. Before becoming an Aurora contributor, she was a contract photographer for The Black Star.