JACK of all TRADES

From photography to design, senior Evan Johnson has never been afraid to try something new, and now, he has self-published a magazine

BY GRACE LOGAN

Senior Evan Johnson has always been a jack of all trades.

One day a photographer, then a writer and, maybe the next day a filmmaker.

In 8th grade, Johnson had a day off of school. He could have spent the day skating, or biking, or playing Roblox like he usually did. Instead his curiosity pushed him to learn how to use Adobe Photoshop. He was bored and always wanted to learn, so why not?

That’s how it went — from boredom came the “so why nots,” and the “so why nots” continued as Johnson grew.

He had always loved taking photos, so why not try out for photojournalism?

He had always wanted to design, so why not learn how to?

He had always loved to be creative, so why not make a magazine (zine)?

And so he did. He did it all.

He won the national Sports Feature Photo of the Year contest. He got the hang of design. He

DESIGN BY EVAN JOHNSON

created Well Dressed Wednesday (WDW), a zine featuring him and his group of friends, Micah Reeves, Michael Houser and Ian O’Neal.

“It felt right to [have them featured in the zine],” Johnson said. “If I was going to do something creative I would want to do it with them. It was the obvious answer.”

Freshman year, the group dreamt of starting a podcast reviewing music together. They created a name for themselves, The A.M. BOYS.

Sophomore year, they dreamt of making music and becoming the next “Odd Future” or “BROCKHAMPTON” together.

Always, they dreamt of creating something together.

Now in their senior year, they pursued their own interests individually, but continued to support each other unconditionally. Their bond is shown in Johnson’s work on WDW.

From planning to taking photos to designing…

THE REST OF THE A.M. BOYS ON:

FEELINGS ON WDW?

And designing… And designing…

The dream of being creative together never died.

“We got to share the bond of just being ourselves with each other,” Johnson said. “When we’re balding, gray and wrinkly, we will look back and remember those days. The zine is coming out so close to graduation — this is one thing we can share even if we aren’t geographically close to each other. We will still have this thing to look at as a symbol of how close we are.”

On distribution day, Johnson looked in the mirror.The boy stared at the man.

He scanned his outfit: black Dr. Martens, white tube socks, light brown shorts, a semi-wrinkled white dress shirt and a black tie.

The man stared back.

Evan Johnson will always be a jack of all trades.

He is a photographer, writer and filmmaker. But most importantly, he will always create fearlessly.