Lynn Johnson collection

Lynn Johnson is a photojournalist based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Johnson completed a bachelor's degree in photojournalism from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1975. After graduating, she became the first woman staff photographer at the Pittsburgh Press photographer where she worked for seven years. In 1982, Johnson left the Pittsburgh Press and started her freelance career working for the photo agency Black Star and, later, Aurora.

Johnson's photography has been featured in numerous magazines and newspapers such as LIFE, Newsweek, Smithsonian, Sports Illustrated and the New York Times. In addition, her work has been published in several books including Power to Heal (1990), Women in the Material World (1996), and Nature's Medicines: Plants that Heal (2000). Her work has extended to assignments with foundations for Alcoa, Heinz, Jewish Healthcare, and the Pittsburgh Foundation, and she has photographed well-known individuals such as Aimee Mullins, Tiger Woods, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Fred Rogers (Mister Rogers Neighborhood), and United States Supreme Court justices. Since the 1990s, she has regularly photographed and contributed to National Geographic magazine.

In 2004, Johnson completed a master's degree at Ohio University which she attended as a Knight Fellow. Her master's thesis, "Hate Kills," explored the impacts of hate crimes in the United States. Johnson also teaches photography and is a visiting professional with the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and a Photo Camp Instructor for National Geographic.

Johnson has received numerous professional awards and honors for her work, including the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for Coverage of the Disadvantaged (1985), multiple World Press Photo Awards (1985, 1988, and 1992) the National Geographic Photographers Photographer Award (2013), and she was a finalist for the Pulitzer for Explanatory Reporting for her work in National Geographic Magazine's Gender Revolution issue (2017).