Bio

Sisc (Sissy) Stella L. D. Johnson is an artist whose photographs begin with her family and the places that shape their lives. She is drawn to the ordinary, quiet moments and the ways memory, people, places, and time influence one another across generations.

Working with photography, text, family archives, and public records, Johnson creates long-term projects that consider how memory is carried, how places influence identity, and how experiences echo through generations. Alongside her documentary work, she photographs landscapes and wildlife, finding meaning in the familiar and in the often-overlooked details of everyday life.

Johnson earned an Executive Master of Business Administration from the Quantic School of Business and Technology and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography, summa cum laude, from George Mason University. She is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Media Arts at Maine Media College.

In 2021, Johnson was awarded an OSCAR Research Grant by George Mason University to create and develop her Photography & Text: Adolescent Mentorship in Alternative Learning Spaces program. In partnership with the Fairfax County Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court, she led photography and writing workshops for court-involved youth in residential probation programs.

Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions, including Legacy of Neglect at the Morgan Arts Council's Icehouse in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, and Across the Commonwealth at Mason Exhibitions, George Mason University. She has also exhibited in juried and group exhibitions throughout the United States, including Las Laguna Art Gallery, Praxis Gallery and Photographic Arts Center, The Humid, and Photoworks at Glen Echo Park. Her photographs have received the Overall Best in Show Award in the Resilience exhibition and have been published in Artistonish Contemporary Art Magazine and the George Mason University College of Visual and Performing Arts Annual Report.

Johnson lives in Manassas, Virginia, where she continues to develop long-term documentary projects while photographing the surrounding landscapes and wildlife.