#227 • Johnny Johnson "River Dance", "Breach of Worlds" & "Frozen Eden" Photographs

Part of The Johnny Johnson Estate Auction (timed auction by Alaska Premier Auctions & Appraisals)

Starting at $5.00

Status: Available

Bidding closes Nov 3, 2026 7:15 PM AKST

Category: Art

Three signed and numbered photographs by Alaska wildlife photographer Johnny Johnson (1947-2025). The first work, "River Dance", is dated circa 2015 and numbered 16/950. Johnson described the scene: "As the sun set, I knew it was time to get off the river, but it was just too beautiful—too exciting. I decided to stay a little longer and was rewarded when an adult grizzly emerged from the crimson current with his prize— a large sockeye (red) salmon. It seems the gulls are always present hoping for scraps. During the three months I spent documenting life on a salmon stream for the National Geographic, I learned a great deal about the importance of salmon to a healthy watershed. Each day was an adventure, a new chapter in my understanding of our vanishing wild world." The second work, "Breach of Worlds", is dated circa 1994 and numbered 63/950. Johnson described the scene: "A humpback whale performs a full body breach near Admiralty Island in Southeast Alaska. When 40 tons of whale bursts from the water your heart stops and for a few quick seconds this behemoth of the deep appears. Then in a great crash of water it is gone." The third work, "Frozen Eden", is dated circa 1999 and numbered 37/450. Johnson described the scene: "To make this photo of an emperor penguin rookery, nestled on the fast ice between huge tabular icebergs, I traveled by Russian icebreaker through the Indian Ocean from Capetown-South Africa to Perth-Australia. During this 7000 mile, five week voyage I photographed several colonies of emperor penguins along Antarctica's wild and rarely visited eastern coastline. Emperor penguins breed on sea-ice, in the coldest conditions endured by any bird. The juveniles are carried out to sea as the ice breaks into floes. Fully independent, the young must moult to the diving plumage of an adult coat before their ice floe disintegrates, dumping them into the sea to dive for their own fish. In this picture some chicks have begun to moult to adult plumage - can you spot them?" All pieces are signed, dated, and numbered in the lower left corner in gold leaf ink and printed on Fuji Crystal Archive Supergloss or Ilfochrome. A care guide and artist's biography are included on the reverse. Each one is shrink-wrapped on board, and the largest measures approximately 18.5" x 24.5".