Stephen Johnson Photography News
December 2019
Death Valley Dawn from Dante’s View. 2018. Canon EOS 5DS R
Death Valley in Winter Workshop. January 25-28, 2020.
Upcoming Workshop:
Digital Black and White Vision and Printing Hands-on Workshop
January 11 - 12, 2020
Welcome to the December 2019 Edition of the Stephen Johnson Photography Newsletter.
I’ve been on the road for two weeks traveling from Connecticut to Washington, to South Carolina. As is usually the case, this trip was a mixture of work, friends, (this time family too), and exploration. Lately it seems I’ve barely looked at the work just made before I hit the road again. December should bring some home and rebuilding time.
—Steve
This month's View From Here column presents a gallery of photographs from November’s trip along the east coast.. We hope you find the column interesting and will consider sending us some comments. As these Newsletters can cover many subjects, let us know of topics you would like to see addressed.
Check out the workshops we’ve added, including our popular Black and White Printing and Death Valley in Winter workshops in January.
FEATURED PRINT December 2019
Trees, Forest and Field. Tilghman Island. Maryland. 2019.
Canon EOS 5DS R.
Trees, Forest and Field. Tilghman Island. Maryland. 2019.
Canon EOS 5DSr. EF24-105mm Lens
9.5x14 Pigment Inkjet Print $195 each
Wandering down the Eastern Shore of Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay in an overcast dusk brought a somber feel to most of what I saw. This view of autumn trees against forest was particularly beautiful. There was no need for color in the rendition and so I thought of the photograph as black and white when I made it.
We're offering a 9.5x14 inch print of the photograph for $195, matted to 16x20 inch board. This print at this price is offered through December 31. We'll be taking orders until then, and shipping them out by January 15, 2020.
LATEST NEWS:
I’ve been on the road for most of November and so most of what is new is from the trip and in this Newsletter. Many good plans are developing for 2020 including lectures in Nashville and Baltimore. I hope you will stay tuned.
Now that school has been on for a few months, we continue to encourage class visits to the Space Exhibit. We hope teachers and parents will be in touch to arrange a visit.
Our 2020 Workshop Schedule starts in January with our Digital Black and White Printing followed by one of my favorites Death Valley in Winter. See what a great experience students have had on Steve's Workshops by exploring Workshop Testimonials.
Other Worldly is currently showing in our galleries joining the new Space Exhibit with the Life Form Exhibition. On display now at Stephen Johnson Photography.
Death Valley
Upcoming Events & Workshops
Custom Workshop Scheduling: We have set up polls for recently requested workshops to see who might be interested and able to make some dates:
Black and White Printing Workshop February 2019. Canon EOS 1Dx.
NEW PHOTOGRAPH
Manzanita and Cliffside. Hetch Hetchy. Yosemite, CA. 2019.
Canon EOS 5DS R.
Manzanita and Cliffside. Hetch Hetchy. Yosemite, CA. 2019.
Canon EOS 5DSr. EF24-105mm f/4L IS II USM lens
Visiting the site of Hetch Hetchy Valley is a very emotional experience for me. As I mentioned in last month’s Newsletter, damming and flooding this spectacular twin of Yosemite Valley in the 1920s may be among the most blatant scenic sins the United States Government has committed. But it is here, water and power is flowing to the San Francisco Bay Area, its removal is another conversation. Walking the cliffside trail above the water brought this view of the complex form and color which I imagined could be a beautiful print on my Hahnemühle Museum Etching paper. I loved imagining what the print could be as I was standing in front of the scene. Although with a different set of challenges and considerations, that is the process that Ansel Adams called pre-visualization.
Reedy Falls. Greenville, SC. 2019.
Canon EOS 5DS R
THE VIEW FROM HERE
by Stephen Johnson
One of the most blessed part of my life is the way photographic curiosity keeps me pushing to explore and stretch my notions of the world. These last few weeks have been an emotional and touchstone journey with some teaching along the way and most preciously, family and friends.
As is typical of these Newsletters, most of these photographs are in color, presumably because the color was important to the scene. I’ve discussed this in past Newsletters, but as I love black and white as much s color, for me, if the color isn’t important to the scene, it is probably making the photograph more ordinary looking and probably should be in black and white. It is also sometimes true that black and white renditions just don’t hold the nuance of differentiation that an image can need. But when black and white sings, it can bring an abstraction and form emphasis that is at the heart of why I was seduced by photography so long ago. Sometimes a photograph can be strong with either approach even while conveying very different emotions.
Black and white work still means a great deal to me. It’s why I teach classes like the Black and White Vision and Printing course coming up in January. It is also why I’ve spent some tutorial time on the subject.
The Journey
This recent journey started at a friend’s Goat Farm near Harford, CT with some east coast Pizza, old friends, and amazing goats. My first stop was a good indicator of the vastly different visual experiences I was traveling towards.
“PK" a Boer Goat. Pond Meadow Farm near Hartford. CT. 2019.
Canon EOS 5DS R.
The trip hit an early bump with some challenging news I read in the cold rain of the New Haven Amtrak Station. Itineraries not only incessantly drive a trip forward, sometimes they help you from getting stuck in a hard place. I had a train to catch, so on I went through New York and onto Washington DC. The roll of the trackside landscape, the train on tracks, pulling ever closer to family and friends let my mind drift a bit. It was good to let go of any new control, and be pulled down the tracks southward.
Altered State. New Haven Amtrak Platform. 2019.
Canon EOS 5DS R.
Washington DC
I love visiting Washington DC, and often have a hard time believing I am actually there. The city is full of grand buildings (some built by enslaved Africans) and monuments, at their best to honor ideals, with such a long journey yet to go.
The first glance of the Washington Monument or the US Capitol always stirs something in me. Despite the huge work ahead to keep moving towards the ideals expressed in many of our founding documents, and the recovery needing to lie ahead, it always feels special to me here.
I took a long walk, wandered from the Lincoln Memorial, slowly along the Reflecting Pool, the WWII Memorial, the Washington Monument and as the sun moved low in the western sky. I was luck to catch the last open hour at the amazing new National Museum of African American History and Culture. I have to go back and spend many hours.
Very Different Interpretations. Black and White or Color (use arrows). Backlit Tree in Morning Light. HDR Demonstration. near Hartford, CT. 2019. Canon EOS 5DS R.
Pond Grasses and Trees near New Haven. CT. 2019.
Canon EOS 5DS R.
Washington Monuments through Lincoln Memorial Columns. 2019.
Canon EOS 5DS R.
Abraham Lincoln Statue. Lincoln Memorial. Three photo vertical panorama stitch. 2019.
Canon EOS 5DS R.
Rising Flock of Birds, Washington Monument. 2019.
Canon EOS 5DS R.
Battlefield Panorama, from Pennsylvania Monument Tower. Gettysburg. 2019.
iPhone 7.
Gettysburg
With every visit back east, I try to widen my range of exploration. Gettysburg had long been on my list.
I had never been to Gettysburg. I knew of the huge battle, Lincoln’s address had certainly touched me. I had never explored the battle details, nor tried to take in the sheer carnage. At first sight, these big open fields seem incompatible with the huge deadly battle that took place here on July 1-3, 1863. Leaving over 7,000 dead and 40,000 casualties, the horror is hard to fathom.
Union Major General John Fulton Reynolds, killed on the first day of Battle. The Gettysburg Monuments did seem strikingly strange. 2019.
Like many of us interested in photography, the photo history of the Civil War has drawn me in. A particular photograph by Alexander Gardner and/or Timmothy O’Sullivan titled “Confederate Sharpshooter at Devil’s Den” from Gettysburg had long disturbed me. I featured it in my Ethics chapter in my last commercially published book, Stephen Johnson on Digital Photography. It was a set-up photograph of a moved body trying to illustrate actual events. The staging was not generally understood at the time. I needed to visit the site, but had no idea it would be so well documented. The reality of the death wrought from this site and this created photo is deeply disturbing.
“State of Louisiana Gettysburg Monument “Spirit Triumphant” represents a wounded gunner clutching to his heart a Confederate battle flag while above him the Spirit of the Confederacy sounds a trumpet and raises a flaming cannonball” National Park Service text. 2019. Canon EOS 5DS R.
Library of Congress. 1863.
Sharpshooter’s Site. Devil’s Den. Gettysburg. PA. 2019.
Canon EOS 5DS R.
Devil’s Den. Gettysburg. 2019.
Canon EOS 5DS R.
I want to send a special thanks to my friend Dan Pence who generously spent his day driving us up from Washington DC. Dan had been to Gettysburg before, was great company and a good guide that helped me visualize the very complex and deadly events that happened here.
Oak with pillowed sky atop Devil’s Den. Gettysburg. 2019.
Canon EOS 5DS R.
Back in DC after a weekend with family in Maryland, my rental car drive through Rock Creek Park to National Airport took me past Arlington National Cemetery.
As it turned out, my flight home was though Dallas Ft. Worth on Friday November 22. I’m not sure if knowing that is what prompted my visit to Arlington those few days before. It might also have been a little extra time and driving right past the cemetery.
In Washington I’m frequently fixed on promise and loss. Time at the Lincoln Memorial and John F. Kennedy’s Eternal Flame are bound together in my heart.
The Eternal Flame. John F. Kennedy Grave site. 2019.
Canon EOS 5DS R.
Robert Kennedy Grave site. 2019.
Canon EOS 5DS R.
My own memory of loss and shock into adulthood was the loss of Robert Kennedy in June 1968. Bobby lies just west of his brother with a single white cross and name on an unassuming stone marker.
To South Carolina
An old friend’s 22 year ago move to South Carolina, brought me for a long overdue visit. I first met Dona Ottosen in 1975 in Lee Vining Canyon on a Mono Lake Eastern Sierra landscape photography workshop put on by UC Santa Cruz Extension. It was taught by two people who later became life-long friends, Al Weber and Ralph Putzker.
As a Textiles instructor at Foothill College, Donna went on to lead a Cultures of the Southwest class Foothill College in 1978 where many friendships were made and solidified. It was a trip that has stayed fresh in my memory, friendships made still in place, some renewing. The trip fostered one on the best songs I’ve ever written, Wupatki, entranced by dying embers of the campfire, long after the workshop retired, thinking of the moon rising over Anasazi ruins earlier that evening. I felt transported back a thousand years.
After Donna retired from a post-arts career working as a counselor for the US Navy, she moved her family to South Carolina for the cost of living and a more rural life. I had not seen her since she left the Bay Area in 2007. I was delighted to be able to add a swing down to Greenville South Carolina to the trip.
Donna graciously took me on a tour of Greenville, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
My dear friend Donna Ottosen, 2019.
Canon EOS 5DS R.
Dam and Buildings. Reedy River. Downtown Greenville, SC. 2019.
Canon EOS 5DS R.
There is a curious mixture of the natural and man-made with the Reedy River running right through downtown Greenville. It reminded me a bit of Ashland Oregon and the integration of the shops and cafes with the falls and river. Where the water was once a source of power for industry and sustenance for human thirst here, it has now also become a celebration of natural form and drama. The Reedy Falls with its surrounding park and arching suspension bridge above is a very nice integration of city and river. Only a short bit upriver, the water is channeled over a dam making for constructed forms stretching from water to sky.
The tree-lined streets, with a restored downtown featuring cafe’s and music made for a very inviting stroll out from the river.
Downtown Greenville at Reedy Falls. Greenville, DC. 2019.
Canon EOS 5DS R.
Footbridge. Reedy River Falls. 2019.
Canon EOS 5DS R.
Fountain Reflections. Greenville, SC. 2019.
Canon EOS 5DS R.
On the Way Home
Flying has become an underlying hassle of travel. But it is still magic. I always try for a window seat opposite the sun. As I’ve said before, I wear a dark shirt to minimize reflections off my clothing. And then I am taken in, completely. Only fatigue can overcome my fascination.
On my flight home, only the Greenville to Dallas/Ft. Worth was during daylight. I was lucky to see cloud layering and near plane flybys that kept me riveted to the window. Varying cloud altitude layering had many of the formations moving at apparent different speeds demanded some video.
Sky Expanse with Contrails and Shadows. 2019.
Canon EOS 5DS R.
Recently at Stephen Johnson Photography
Come Visit the Exhibitions
Check out my new 50 years of Space Photography Exhibition now joined with my Life Form Exhibition as Other Worldly for a mind-blowing journey from the living world close-up to the depths of space.
Come see the show when you can. Space and Awesome Life! A dive into cosmic extremes.
The 50 Years of Space Photography Gallery with the five extra Apollo 11 prints.
In front of the Apollo 14 Panoramic, 3rd. Graders from Ocean Shore School in Pacifica visiting the Space Exhibit. 2019. Photo by Sheila Gamble.
Class Visits
We welcome schools to bring their classes by, kids and college students. The kid’s reactions have been inspiring to me, both for the space exhibition and Life Form.
Workshops Coming Up
The Highway One Coastal Journey class is coming right up, with Black and White Printing and Death Valley in Winter workshops in January. All are open for enrollment now. Enroll while there is time and space!.
Please consider joining us on one of our upcoming workshops. Enrollment is the key to continuing to offer these classes and keep the studio running. We hope to hear from you.
I’ve always been drawn to historical photographs and maps. I’ve been collecting 19th century books, engravings and now making scans of photos and maps. Printed on just the right paper and sheen, the reproductions are often vey special in their own right. So I’ve decided to make some of these prints available as I print them and discover more.
The first few are from the San Francisco Bay Area, local to my home in Pacifica, We’ll make them both available as 8x10 ($35-$45) and 11x14 ($75-$85) with larger sizes available for quote. The Gallery of current offerings where you can place orders can be found here.
Life Form Exhibition
Life Form opened in the Main Gallery at Stephen Johnson Photography in July 2018. The show has been extended through through 2019. We have had many visitors come by the gallery since the opening. Many have then joined workshops and certainly helped build community. Please come see the show. Pass the word.
Seeking Good Venues for Life Form
We are seeking good venues to show this work. The Life Form Series is now available for museum and gallery exhibition after August 2019.
Life Form Announcement. 2018
Don't forget to Check out our next workshops
Next Studio Workshop
Next Field Workshop
The Studio, Scholarships and Mentoring
As part of our ongoing commitment to photographic education, there is one student scholarship spot in many of our classes. Please pass the word along.
For discounted time studying with Steve, keep in mind our Mentoring Program.
With all of our busy schedules and limited budgets, destination workshops or classes become a challenge, but many of you still have questions you need answered, or feedback on some new work. We want to remind you of our Virtual Online Consulting Program. This service allows all of you out there around the globe to consult online live with Steve on technical, aesthetic and workflow issues using Skype and your webcam.
Our Essays and Tutorials from the past couple of years can now be found on our Newsletter Archive and some on Google Blogger.
We hope you can come by the gallery and see the original prints in the new Life Form Gallery and its new Life Form Portfolio, the Exquisite Earth exhibition with its accompanying very special Exquisite Earth Portfolio 1. We invite you to join us on a workshop, rent lab space, or just say hello and let us know what you are up to photographically and what you might like to see us offer. We value your input.
Print Mentor Program
Many of my mentoring students have wanted help with their printing, often to make sure they can produce a specific print. Consequently, I am starting a Print Mentoring Program that sets up a 2 hour time slot and the production of a finished print, all with the tutorial video of how we did it together. Prints can be up to 16x20 and on either Hahnemühle Museum Etching or Photo Rag Pearl paper. Fee is $500. Email for more information and to set up times.
Free and For Sale
Free Stuff (a few items still left)
I have been printing out nice copies of the Constitution and Bill of Rights on rich cotton paper. You are welcome to a copy if you come by the gallery.
Additionally, I rescued a few Besleler Enlargers, a 23c and 4x5, hoping to find good homes for them. Make an offer.
Equipment for Sale
New Space Photography Products
Apollo 11 Collectors Portfolio
A suite of photographs from Apollo 11. 12 pigment inkjet prints on letter-sized paper selected, edited and printed by photographer Stephen Johnson, in a portfolio box. The set includes a Mission Summary book, original US Postal Stamp commemorating the Mission, the Mission patch and a schematic of the Lunar Module. $250
Apollo 11 Collectors Portfolio examples.
50 Years of Space Photography Exhibition Catalog
The Exhibtion catalog featuring photograhs from Planetary probes, the Hublle Space Telescope, Lunar explorations, the Apollo program and Space Shuttle/Space Station images. Includes an exploration of the imaging technologies emplyed by the spacecraft.
68 pages, 8.5x11 inches
Other Worldly Exhibition Catalog.
Apollo 11 Photography Book
A 96 page 8.5x11 inch collection of Apollo 11 photographs from launch to recovery including contact sheets for every surface Hasselblad photograph.
It’s the collection I wish I could have bought, so I made it.
-96 pages
-7 sections, Lunar Photo Equipment, Preparation, On the Way, Lunar Orbit, Tranquility Base, Heading Home, Relics
-Film Magazine proofs
Life Form Folio
The Life Form Folio
When we premiered the Life Form Exhibition, I wanted to have a collectible item and record of the show prior to the full book I plan. So, now available is the 36 page 11x17 wire bound book, 5 years of work from 2013 to 2018 exploring these magnificent lives.
Photographs from 2013-2018
36 pages
11x17 wire-bound book
$40
Exquisite Earth Exhibition Catalog
Page 41
page 13
The Exquisite Earth Exhibition Catalog
As I've been on a roll on fixing bodies of work into POD books, I decided before the Exquisite Earth show could come down for new upcoming show, I wanted to create a printed record. So, now available is the 56 page 11x17 wire bound book, 5 years of work from 2005 to 2010 traveling this wondrous planet.
Photographs from 2005-2010
56 pages
11x17 wire-bound book
$40
New Pacifica Book
Page 27
Page 7
A collection of photographs in and around Pacifica California. Include a trail map.
74 pages
11x17 wire-bound book
Pacifica Trail Map
32 years in Pacifica
10 years of calendars
$50
Pacifica Trail Map by Pease Maps special to the Pacifica Land Trust.
11" x 17" folded
$10 (free shipping) proceeds go the Pacifica Land Trust a non-profit 501c3.
Gift Certificates for Prints and Workshops!
Emailed or shipped with beautiful gift note card.
Life Form Note cards
5x7 inches (sold-out, on backorder)
$25
12 image Note card set with envelopes featuring photographs from Steve's new Life Form work.
Printed by Steve in his studio in very limited numbers on a color laser digital press
National Park Note cards
National Park Color Note Card Set
Stephen Johnson
12 cards/envelopes $20 set
From "With a New Eye" Beautiful 300 line screen offset reproductions with envelopes in clear box. A great gift.
NEWSLETTER ADMINISTRATION
We've sent you this newsletter because, at some point, you told us you were interested in hearing from us.
If you'd like to unsubscribe, change your email address, or give us comments about the newsletter, please send a note to lists@sjphoto.com.
After a few years of working intensely on my Urban Eden Golden Gate Park project, I am excited to offer a two-day photographic workshop in this complex and beautiful landscape. Now 150 years old, this park symbolizes parkland engineering and the earth itself taking its own course of life and fecundity. The park will be explored over two days with a blend of photographic opportunity, assistance, and my growing knowledge of its own back woods. This springtime weekday workshop will avoid some of the weekend crowds.