Current Exhibitions

The current exhibitions in the gallery include 50 Years of Space Photography and Life Form–a collection I am calling Other Worldly.

Visiting the Gallery

My galleries and studio are generally open 10am–4pm as I’m spending more time at the studio. Write to inquire or call 650 355-7507 to schedule an appointment. Masks required.

The Pacifica Center for the Arts is participating in the Silicon Valley Open Studios which will bring forth many visitors on May 6–7. The studio will definitely be open all that weekend.

Subscribe to my Blog

As I’ve mentioned in my last few newsletters, I’ve renewed more frequent postings on my blog derived from my newsletters and Facebook posts. I’m gradually moving other blog forums no longer supported to this one central place. You can view or subscribe at: https://sjohnsonphoto.wordpress.com 

Virtual Classes

My virtual classes program, launched in 2020, has allowed me to reach students around the world. I remain committed to offering great courses whether in person or virtually. See what satisfying experiences students have had on my workshops by exploring Workshop Testimonials. 

THE VIEW FROM HERE
by Stephen Johnson

Notions of Homeland

A memorial service in January brought me back to my homeland in February. I deeply explored my native land in the 1993 book The Great Central Valley: California’s Heartland. That work began in 1982 with my friend Robert Dawson’s and my Great Central Valley Project. At this point, those explorations seem long ago. Each time I go back to the valley, my sense of the place grows still. Even now, as I’ve said goodbye to my mother, father, nephew, and brother, the nature of my emotional relationship to home evolves.

I know much of the San Joaquin landscape. I know many stories. I’ve visited the old homes, and am now about to say goodbye to the closest to what was a homestead. My feelings about the homes are different, without the people they are mostly just construction, locked in long ago memories. It becomes a kind of “this is where it happened” thought process. Everything seems smaller. The trees I planted do matter. My memories of the people and voices matter.

The land is a different matter. I feel uniquely connected to the land. It is more of a constant, and in many ways it was always about my heart relating to the contours of the Earth itself.

There are also the country roads. First as a teenager on my 10-speed bicycle, then wandering the foothills in my old cars. I was searching for something. It might have been a comprehension. Sometimes it was about young romance. It was about seeking, trying to find a place to belong.

It was also those flowering orchards, long straight road lines stretching into the distance, the curved ones over the hills, the oaks, the orange lichen on the headstone slate, a simultaneous sense of space and containment that the valley breeds.

Remembering to a friend…the drive we took up above Hornitos (probably Bear Valley Road) when the grasses were still brown and it gently snowed on us. We were in my old blue Chevy Nova, you wore a dark blue sweatshirt. Snowflakes landed on that sweatshirt. There was an amazing quiet. I think we took it in with reverence and deep appreciation in real time.

We lost David Crosby in January. He was an outstanding and passionate singer/songwriter. Crosby’s death left me sad, with many memories of performances I had seen, the last was solo at the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley, California. I intended to dig out a few photographs I had made over the years. Ironically, it was while looking for old family pictures that I stumbled into some from the Bridge School Benefit Concert in 2005. I like this one very much, as he seemed inside his head and the song. He was onstage with some of his great friends, they were making great music and I felt so lucky to be there.

I think it was at this show, as my good friend Jim Rubino and I were walking out from the backstage toward the exit, Crosby and a boy I believed to be his son were walking toward a bus on the pathway below. I couldn’t help but shout out to him how great he sounded. He called back, “No, it was Nash.” I called back saying it was him, how beautiful his voice was. He said thanks and then said to his son something like, “that nice man said I sang real good.” I was very touched by the interaction.

A few words about music and my photography from November 2005

Wildlife refuges have an interesting history, particularly in California’s Central Valley. They are seen as wetlands preserved from the Valley’s vast historic wetlands of which just 5% still remain. And they are that, wetlands, providing seasonal habitat for migrating birds and other wildlife.

“On March 14, 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt established Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge, along Florida’s Atlantic coast, as the first unit of what would become the National Wildlife Refuge System.” As its website states “Congress passed the National Reclamation Act in 1902, the measure set in motion the dramatic transformation of arid sections of the American West to ‘reclaim’ land for productive agricultural use.” The diversion of water from wetlands to agriculture, then wastewater to refuge, was set in motion.

Irrigated agriculture in the Central Valley created not only a huge need for water to feed the crops, but also a need for a place for farm wastewater to go. Animal waste runoff from rain also became a real problem. Dumping the runoff in rivers had to be limited as downstream users were impacted. Eventually channeling this wastewater to the refuges seemed like a win/win. With pesticides and fertilizer application growing to astronomic levels, together with animal waster runoff, this wastewater can become quite toxic. In the early 1980s, an environmental disaster occurred at Kesterson Wildlife Refuge in western Merced County with deformities and birth defects dramatically impacting the birds from selenium in the wastewater sent there. Efforts continue to find alternative wastewater treatment, maintain water in the refuges, and repair damage. All of this has been made more difficult with the drought of recent years.

Despite their complex history, the wetlands habitats have proved vitally important for migratory birds, and they come by the thousands.

A list of the bird species found at the Merced Wildlife Refuge can be found here.

Check out my 50 years of Space Photography Exhibition joining with my Life Form Exhibition as Other Worldly for a mind-blowing journey from the living world close-up to the depths of space. Space and awesome life! A dive into cosmic extremes. Email to book an appointment.

Life Form Exhibition

Life Form opened in the Main Gallery at Stephen Johnson Photography in July 2018. I’ve had many visitors come by the gallery since the opening. Many have then joined workshops and certainly helped build community. Come see the show by appointment.

Seeking Good Venues for Life Form

I’m seeking good venues to show the Life Form Series. The series is now available for museum and gallery exhibition.

As part of my ongoing commitment to photographic education, there is one student scholarship spot in many of my classes. Please pass the word along.

For discounted time studying with me, keep in mind my 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. I want to remind you of my Virtual Online Consulting Program. This service allows all of you out there around the globe to consult online live on technical, aesthetic and workflow issues.

My Essays and Tutorials from the past couple of years can now be found on my Newsletter Archive.

I 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. I invite you to join me on a workshop, rent lab space, or just say hello and let me know what you are up to photographically and what you might like to see me offer. I value your input.

Workshop Testimonials

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 when you can come by the gallery.

Additionally, I rescued a few Beseler Enlargers, a 23c and 4x5, hoping to find good homes for them. Free to anyone who will use them.

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

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

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

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.

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