A Photograph: Dusk Mono Lake 1979

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About the Photograph

Dusk Mono Lake. 1979. Kodak Vericolor 120 film with Mamiya RB67 camera.

Running back to the car for some needed camera equipment. Mono Lake, 1979.

I made this photograph just as I was transitioning from color transparency to color negative film. This photograph became a great example as to why I made the switch to color negatives, the delicate light-filled color and luminousity of this scene was easily preserved, making the image about what I saw. Transparencies made that day tended to be contrasty and melodramatic. I was finally able to get the color that I was seeing recorded on film. It was a significant breakthrough for me.

Stephen Johnson with the Dusk Mono Lake photograph on exhibition Hart Senate Office Building Rotunda. Washington DC. 1984.

The light was going up and down as the sun broke through a break in the stormy skies to the west between the Sierra and the cloud cover. One moment the sky was dark and melodramatic, the next the sky was alive with the light breaking through.

This photograph was featured in the At Mono Lake photographic exhibition and has been displayed in many efforts to preserve Mono Lake, including lobbying for the passage of the Mono Basin National Scenic Area bill in 1984.

It has become the iconic image for me of light-filled pastel color. and has deeply influenced my photographic vision.