Paul Aaron Johnson was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1957, and currently lives and works in New York City. He has a BFA from The Cooper Union. Johnson first became interested in 3D photography while taking a class from the artist Alfons Schilling at The Cooper Union in 1977. Johnson started his career as a director of film animation and special effects right after graduation in 1979. He then switched from film animation to computer animation and special effects, working primarily on the Flame in the 90’s as film animation gradually became obsolete. Throughout his career as an animator, Johnson continued to pursue his interest and work in 3D photography.

Around 2004, Paul Aaron Johnson started working with the NewSight auto-stereoscopic computer display in collaboration with Gerald Marks who was his silkscreen instructor at The Cooper Union. Jerry Marks was also introduced to 3D imaging by Alfons Schilling at The Cooper Union a few years before Johnson, and eventually changed careers to pursue 3D imaging full time. The NewSight 3D computer monitor is capable of displaying a range of 2 to 24 different views of a subject simultaneously without the need for special glasses, very similar to the 3D lenticular process. Johnson’s work with the NewSight auto-stereoscopic 3D display pushed him to find a more permanent, higher resolution means of presenting his auto-stereoscopic 3D work that could be displayed in galleries without a computer display. This forced Johnson to research and develop his own techniques for doing digital lenticular photography and digital lenticular printing.

Paul Aaron Johnson is currently working as a 3D lenticular photographer and has done lenticular projects for The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Ball-Nogues Architects, and the “Top of the Rock” at Rockefeller Center.