page_title: Charles Ellis Johnson
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Charles Ellis Johnson / Biography / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: Madame Lydia Mamroev Mountford holding a stereo camera on a Palestinian street.
context_page_description: Charles Ellis "Charlie" Johnson was an American Latter-day Saint photographer known for his work both in Utah and around the world. He grew up in St. George, Utah, and gained an interest in botany and theater. While operating a drug store in Salt Lake City, he started dabbling in photography and opened a photo studio. He photographed actors and actresses at the Salt Lake Theater, including some artistic nudes. He took photos of Utah attractions, and in 1903 traveled through the Ottoman Empire to take photos for the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. In 1917 Johnson moved to San Jose, California where he continued operating a photo studio.
context_section_description: In Salt Lake City, Johnson worked as a druggist for the ZCMI. In 1889 he partnered with Parley P. Pratt to operate the Johnson-Pratt Drug Company.  Johnson made and sold various family patent medicines, including his "Valley Tan Remedies." During the 1890s, he became involved in the American Star Bicycle craze by selling them and becoming vice president of Salt Lake's Social Wheel bicycle club.
  After dabbling in photography, Johnson joined Hyrum Sainsbury to open a photographic studio.  Johnson soon became the undesignated "official photographer" of the Salt Lake City Theater.  He was the official Utah correspondent for the New York Dramatic Mirror.  He started taking risqué photographs, likely because of his work with burlesque theater, and often incorporated elements of orientalism.  He took glamour photographs of actresses, artistic nudes, and risqué stereoviews.  He was the only Mormon photographer during his time who sold risqué photographs.
  In the 1890s, Johnson became the unofficial photographer for the LDS Church. He photographed the dedication of the Salt Lake Temple and LDS Church leaders. He traveled with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to the Chicago World's Fair in 1893, and visited San Francisco in 1896. Johnson advertised his studio as an "Information Bureau [for] everything about Utah and the Mormons."  He became a "social Mormon" by maintaining the appearance of being a Mormon while eventually dissociating himself from the LDS Church.  While Johnson spent most of his time in Utah, he also traveled extensively, taking photographs in New York, Paris, and London. His trademark phrase was "You see Johnson all over the World."
  In 1897 Johnson photographed and befriended the actress Lydia Mary Olive Von Finkelstein Mamreov Mountford at the Salt Lake Theater. Mountford returned to Utah in 1903 and hired Johnson as a photographer for her Jerusalem exhibit at the St. Louis World's Fair. They traveled through Palestine and Jerusalem in the Ottoman Empire taking pictures of the scenery. At the World Fair in 1904, Johnson and Mountford found that the exhibit's management had repudiated Mountford's contract. Johnson tried with little success to market his photos in St. Louis.
  After returning from his tour, Johnson formed an "unconventional relationship" with businesswoman Minnie B. Ridley and hired her to help him with his businesses in Salt Lake City.  In 1917 he liquidated his assets and moved to San Jose, California to live with the Ridley family, where he operated another photographic studio. He died from a heart seizure on February 21, 1926 and was buried in Oak Hill Memorial Park.
caption: Lydia Mountford (center) stands in the streets of Palestine during Johnson's 1903 tour.
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