Blog Restarted and Growing: Subscribe

As I have mentioned in my last few Newsletters, I have renewed frequent postings on my Blog derived from my Newsletters and Facebooks posts. You can view or subscribe at: https://sjohnsonphoto.wordpress.com 

Virtual Classes

During the virus, I have naturally shifted most of my education programs to online experiences. This is frustrating and rewarding. The new virtual experiences are certainly stretching out my geographical reach. I am certainly excited by our new Virtual Classes Program.

My 2021 Workshop Schedule continues to evolve to accommodate the virus precautions and very limited ability to gather indoors. 

Some plans are now being made on the assumption that the vaccine is ever more available and will then become a prerequisite for the class.

I remain committed to offering great courses whether in person or virtually. See what a great experience students have had on my Workshops by exploring Workshop Testimonials. 

The itch to be on the road got scratched a little with a few days down in Middle California South around Pismo Beach with my good friend photographer Ed Stone. The Oceano Dunes, Nipomo and the Big Sur Coast were all of interest, and all led us down some interesting paths.

After picking up Ed near Monterey, we naturally took Highway One south through Big Sur rather than the inland Highway 101. The Big Sur coast is always full of complex views of land and sea. Our drive had some fog and cloud cover, sometimes obscuring what we could see, but bathing us in beautifully soft light.

At the south end of the Big Sur coast near Hearst Castle, we stumbled onto a very improbable small herd of Zebras. Naturally, we inquired via the net, and found they are descendants of Hearst’s Zoo, a few present of the remaining 126 animals. It was a very curious sight.

The Migrant Mother photograph of Florence Owens Thompson by Dorothea Lange from Nipomo, CA has been important to me for a very long time. It seemed important to know where it was made and acknowledge its importance. The photograph was made as part of Dorothea’s work for the US Government Farm Security Ademintration (FSA) with many other photographers, among them Walker Evans, Marion Post Walcott, and Russell Lee.

My first recollection of encountering this now 85 year old photograph was as a student in Jr. College as I was just exploring photography. This single image from Nipomo California opened up my mind to the power a photograph could contain, and in a completely different way than the landscape photography I was growing to love by Adams and Weston. I ordered a 16x20 print from the Library of Congress in 1978, which I have now used as a source to scan and restore the photograph to a pristine state and make some nice large prints.

It was a good adventure last week, roaming Nipomo, imagining the hard times Florence had experienced, and naturally, wanting to know more.

There seemed to be no local acknowledgement of this historic photograph, it’s influence, or where it was made. In that absence, we found it particularly strange to discover a Dorothea Lange school, far from the site we had come to believe the photograph was made, and Lange’s name now associated with a sports team, the Bobcats. 

In doing research for the possible location where the photograph was made, we came across an old newspaper interview with Cal State University Professor Paul Lester. The article described Dr. Lester’s research searching for the site. While heading for Nipomo, I sent off an email to him via my iPhone while we started searching.

From the information in the article, we found what seemed the likely site, which a reply from Dr. Lester confirmed in an email the next day. The location seemed accurate and we proceeded to go back to the site and photograph, both on the ground and from my drone.

Paul Lester was good enough to allow me to post the intro to his chapter on Photography from his book on Visual Communication to my website for your enjoyment.

Anyone wishing to have a print of the Migrant Mother photograph can download a high res file from the Library of Congress or order my restored version from me.

LOC Image Page for information and file download.

If you would like one of my prints:

8x10, 11x14 and 16x20 inch prints on Luster paper: $50, $75 & $100 respectively.

Dorothea Lange Migrant Mother. book from MOMA 2018.

The whole process of exploration, research and likely physical spot turned out to add a totally unexpected emotional content to the trip. After returning to the site for the drone photos, as we drove north toward home, a reality connect to the photograph was much more deeply in place. It felt right to have looked into it a bit, making the photograph even more real.

After the initial Migrant Mother exploration, we wandered on down to the now renamed Vandenberg Space Force Base, to Lompoc and its shut-down Valley Drive-in. We stumbled onto flower farms blazing with color near San Luis Obispo and a shop of wonders near the waterfront in Oceano.

The trip also gave me a chance to see my old friend Brian Lawler, early digital printing/prepress adopter, professor of Graphic Arts at Cal Poly. We shared some old stories, told some new ones, and created a new bond between Brian and my friend Ed Stone who worked in the printing industry for 30 years. We always say Ed was a “stripper” which gets a wide variety of reactions.

Among his many projects Brian described to us was digitizing old 10 inch Circuit Camera Panoramic negatives and the giant outdoor murals prints of them he recently made. The story enlarged to those old negatives being made from a local mountain top, later de-capped to make fill for 1938 Highway 101 construction. To re-photograph the scenes, Brian had to calculate the former camera viewpoint from the now gone mountain top which he simulated with a rented scissors lift raised to 60 feet on the now-flattened mountain. It was a great story. The adventures of my fellow photographers and friends have always been a blast and lets me see the world through their eyes.

I love to wander and discover.

I am proud to offer for sale a boxed set of original pigment prints from 2020 through May of 2021. A view of my photographic endeavors and fascinations just before and during the Covid-19 Pandemic. Twenty 14 inch prints in boxed set. Signed and sleeved. $4500.

Life Form Exhibition

Life Form opened in the Main Gallery at Stephen Johnson Photography in July 2018. The show has been extended into 2021. 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 after the virus. Pass the word.

Seeking Good Venues for Life Form

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

Next Virtual Workshop

Next Virtual Seminar

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 my neglected Blog.

We hope you can come by the gallery after the virus 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.

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. Make an offer.

Apollo 11 Collectors Portfolio

A suite of photographs from Apollo 11 including twelve 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

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

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

A collection of photographs in and around Pacifica California. Include a trail map.

• 74 pages

• 11x17 wire-bound book for full lay-flat opening and enjoyment

• 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.

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

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