Stephen Johnson Photography News
February 2025
Sun Rays. San Mateo Coast, CA. 2025.
Welcome to the February 2025 Edition of the Stephen Johnson Photography Newsletter
Hello to my subscribers and guests. Thanks for visiting my February 2025 newsletter.
This month's View From Here column features new and archive photographs, and an exploration of recent travels.
My guest photographer series continues with Jeff Schewe’s Black and White in Antarctica exhibition opening February 16, 1 to 6pm and continuing to March 31. Marion Patterson’s Intimate Landscapes exhibition continues to February 14 .
The Gallery will be open Saturdays in February (except for 2/15 for show hanging) from 11am to 4pm and by appointment. Call to confirm 650 355-7507.
My next class is the Flora and Form class April 24-26, followed by the two-day Golden Gate Park class April 28-29.
This summer I am teaching a black and white class for the Los Angles Center for Photography July 19-20.
— Steve
As these newsletters can cover many subjects, let me know of topics you would like to see addressed.
Upcoming Events & Workshops
Scholarships
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.
Tutorials
Our new tip-based video on demand program is now online.
Rather than engaging an expensive video pay per view provider, I am initiating a program offering video links to various lectures and classes by simply requesting a tip instead erecting a paywall. I’ll see how this works and will put more online if it is successful. There are now years of lectures that have been recorded.
The first lecture is my January 15, 2025 lecture on New Habits, New Options.
Real World Digital Photography: New Options, New Habits video
Archive Video
This is a new feature to the Newsletter offering video clips from past interviews, talks and classes.
This one is an interview excerpt with photographer Stephen Johnson by author Cathy Lu for her January 2001 MacAddict magazine story.
Stephen Johnson with author Cathy Lu for MacAddict magazine. 2000.
FEATURED PRINT February 2025
Dune Abstract 20250130-171 . Death Valley. 2025
Dune. Death Valley. 2025.
Every visit to the Mesquite Flat Dunes in Death Valley fills me with wonder. As I was walking out into the rolling fields of sand this year, I found myself wondering if I would see anything new after 40 years of coming here. It was such a naive thought. The quiet predawn light soon took me to another place, one of tranquility and peace. A gentle sensuality became clear in the soft light. As the sun rose, as always, the lines became sharp, the design abstract, and all questions of what new I might see evaporated. I must be “in the world” where the natural seeing is continuously renewed. There are many ways of being in the world, but this experience reminded me of why I keep coming back.
I’m offering a 14-inch-wide print of this photograph for $195. Larger prints can be ordered. This print at this price is offered through February 28. I'll be taking orders until then, and shipping them out by March 15, 2024. The image reverts to its normal price after that, $800 for an 11x14, $1500 for a 16x20 print.
ARCHIVE PHOTOGRAPH February 2025
Human Marks. Lakeside Estates Aerial, Avondale, AZ (west Phoenix). 2015
Lakeside Estates Aerial, Avondale. AZ 2015.
Flying home after a few weeks out on a Canon speaking trip and southwest explore, I was struck by this strange geometry. It ran so counter to the landscape I had seen driving through Texas, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. I almost felt like I was an alien visiting another planet other than the one I had been wandering through.
Rainbowed Clouds, Contrail and Jet. 2025.
THE VIEW FROM HERE
by Stephen Johnson
Art in Times of Turmoil
The land, sea, and sky are my refuges. Much of the news of late is almost unbearable, another effort to kill attempts to deal with climate change, more efforts to dismantle social justice laws, attacks on the justice system, make such refuge necessary.
The best way I know to deal with this in my art is to keep working on natural world engagement, respect for life. It seems inadequate, even off track, but I have to keep my soul whole.
I will go to demonstrations, I will write letters, I will send what little money I can. But my art is my work and the earth is my subject, human marked and pristine.
It is harder and harder to believe that finding beauty and making my photographs matter at all right now. But it is the work that I do. There is also an ever expanding range of subjects that tweak my curiosity, and seem symbolically important.
Sun Dog. Pacifica, CA 2024.
Falcon 9 Launch seen from the San Mateo Coast. February 10, 2025.
Current Guest Photographer Exhibition
Jeff Schewe: Black and White in Antarctica
February 16 through March 31, 2025. Opening reception Sunday February 16, 1-6pm
Iceberg Detail
Jeff Schewe and I have been friends for the better part of 40 years. Jeff and I travelled together to teach photography workshops Antarctica in 2005, 2007 and 2009. But we’ve been friends since the early 1990s after crossing paths at photo trade show and sharing mutual friends, like the late Bruce Fraser. We come from different worlds, Jeff from advertising photography and me more from the landscape world. We share a bond that transcends personality, location and background.
Jeff is an excellant photographer and I featured one of my favorites of his digital creations in my 2006 book Stephen Johnson on Digital Photography. Jeff came out and joined me at the Badlands of South Dakota for one of my digital national parks project trips in 1997. In fact he took the portrait of me Life Magazine used in their profile of me later that year. In more recent years Jeff has concentrated on the photographs he makes for the sheer pleasure of making them. We were together on three Antarctica workshops and have been friends for so long its hard to remember when we were not. Many shared experiences have created a special bond and respect.
Jeff and I differ on many issues about image veracity and photographic truth, but his images are very special and it is my pleasure to feature some of Jeff’s Antarctica work in my gallery.
Global Hands. Jeff Schewe. 1996.
I was proud to feature this image by Jeff in my 2006 book Stephen Johnson on Digital Photography.
Jeff’s Artist’s Statement
Black and White in Antarctica: Photographs From the Bottom of the Earth
I’ve had the good fortune to have been able to travel to Antarctica three times. Each trip was a trip of a lifetime, and the sheer quantity of photographs I captured (36,029 to be precise) during those trips has made it hard to get a handle on. I’ve got a lot of photographs that were obviously successful, but it really wasn’t until the Covid Pandemic lockdown that I directed my attention towards images I’ve already shot vs planning and traveling to new locations to shoot.
The thing about Antarctica is the light, which is ever changing, and the textures that light produces. There were some photographs who’s light and shapes and texture were vastly more pronounced in B&W than in color. As I started selection editing with B&W in mind, I found many more photographs that literally begged to have the color removed and the light and shadows and textures enhanced. Creating B&W images in the darkroom is how I fell in love with photography in the beginning. While the technology of printing has evolved, there’s still something particularly special about a well-crafted B&W print regardless of whether the print was made in a darkroom or from a computer.
It’s my hope that by exposing viewers to the beauty of the Antarctic landscape that more attention can be drawn to the plight of our planet’s environment. Beyond the beauty of the Antarctic landscape, the vast ice-covered continent is a major component of the Earth’s global climate system. Antarctica contributes to slowing global heating, driving important ocean currents and drawing down millions of tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Over my three trips I encountered substantial change in the glaciers and reduction in the amount of sea ice. Global warming and melting ice sheets are a threat to the wildlife and is very pronounced in Western Antarctica where ice retreat and ice shelf collapses are causing serious impacts to all species of wildlife endemic to Antarctica. Saving the environment isn’t simply to protect the land and animals, it’s critical to the preservation of humanity.
--Jeff Schewe, January, 2025
Iceberg Tableau in the Graveyard
Large Tabular Iceberg
The Gullet Channel
from Jeff’s bio: Jeff Schewe is a renowned, award-winning photographer with over 40 years of experience in both commercial and fine art photography. Transitioning from a background in painting, Schewe has made significant contributions to the field through his expertise in digital imaging and fine art printing.
He has been recognized as an Epson Stylus Pro, an Apple Master of the Medium, and an inductee into the Photoshop Hall of Fame in 2006. He has written two seminal books on digital imaging and printing; The Digital Negative and The Digital Print, published by Peachpit Press.
Although retired from active commercial work, Schewe continues to share his artistic vision through writing, workshops, and exhibitions, with recent acclaim for his "Black and White in Antarctica" series which was featured as a series in Communication Arts Photography Annual, selected as a Critical Mass Finalist and featured in the Rfotofolio Selections.
Jeff Schewe
Marion Patterson’s Intimate Landscapes exhibition continues on extended display to February 14.
Kelp, Weston Beach, Point Lobos. 1993. Marion Patterson.
Installation at Stephen Johnson. 2024.
Back in Death Valley
Ubehebe Crater. Death Valley. 2025.
Every time I head to Death Valley I get a sense that it is a journey to the sacred. The primitive geology, the expanse, life hugging every opportunity, the wild form, and the unexpected scale all impress.
Science fiction has been filmed here, from the Twilight Zone to Star Wars. Western movies and TV shows have been filmed here. Death Valley can seem like another planet, certainly a rare place this precious earth.
It is an iconic place.
Dunes. Death Valley. 2025.
And Along the Way
I love road trips. The curiosities I run into along the way delight my curiosity.
Amargosa Hotel. Death Valley Junction. 2025.
Dumont Dunes ORV Park. Inyo County. 2025.
Baker, CA. 2025.
Here and There, Archives and New
Louvre Pyramid. Paris. 2003.
Eclipse and Rays. (probably internal reflection). October 23, 2014.
Clouds and Mountains over Greenland. 2003.
Clouds and Ice. Greenland. 2003.
At Stephen Johnson Photography
News from the Studio and Galleries
Guest Photographers Program Continues
Marion Patterson’s Intimate Landscapes show runs into January 2025. The Al Weber show has been postponed. These showings are part of my Guest Photographers Exhibition Series.
Jeff Schewe’s show opens Feb. 16 and runs through March 31.
More from the Archives
As I continue to build out Lightroom databases (although I Camera Raw for raw processing), I keep coming across photographs that I am intrigued by and have been kind of lost in volume of my work.
Sometimes that is a treasure trove, as in all of the work I have done over the years in Golden Gate Park. It was a real boost as I started Urban Eden: San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park in 2020. This Call Lilly is a good example of a photograph I enjoy resurrected from the archives.
Calla Lilly. Golden Gate Park. 2008.
Saturday Hours for February and March
The gallery will be open Saturday’s in February and March from 11am to 4pm.
Current Exhibitions
Life Form and With a New Eye selections are currently on view. Stephen Johnson Photography.
Recent Prints in the Gallery
There are always new prints available to see in the gallery, from the Hale Telescope, to the Golden Gate Park Project, to the evolving Animal Series and new selections in the discounted print bins. Selections from With a New Eye remain up.
Current Exhibitions
The current exhibitions in the gallery include my current Guest Exhibitors Gallery with Jeff Schewe’s show opening February 16. Continuing in the gallery are my Life Form exhibition and With a New Eye selections.
Visiting the Gallery
The Gallery is most Saturdays, 11am to 4pm. My galleries and studio are generally open by appointment, but I am often there 10am–5pm on weekdays. Write to inquire or call 650 355-7507 to schedule an appointment.
I hope you can come by the gallery and see the original prints in the Life Form Gallery and its Life Form Portfolio. 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.
Virtual Educational Experiences
Virtual Classes and Lectures, online live classes on various topics with limited space and Q&A sessions, are now a regular part of my workshop program. Critiques are now virtual.
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.
Virtual Mentoring
Set up time for me to help with your photographic work, remote or in-person. Mentoring Program.
Virtual Consulting
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.
Photo Chats
I’ve been doing weekly virtual Photo Chats with groups of photo friends to keep everyone encouraged to keep working, creating a forum to share and problem-solve. I’ve now built a webpage on the chats. Let me know if you would like to join us.
Most every Tuesday morning since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, I have been doing weekly virtual Photo Chats on Zoom with groups of photo friends. They are casual, virtual get-togethers, and have created a little community with regular sharing, guest presentations, demos, and photo feedback. Let me know if you would like to join us.
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, my Print Mentoring Program sets up a 2-hour time slot and the production of a finished print, all with the tutorial video of how we produced the print 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.
Shop for books, posters, notecards and videos stretching across my career. Check it out.
Recent Print On Demand Book Projects
Click on the book covers above to learn more and purchase.
I finished three new books in 2023. Water: A Photographic Portrait launched the winter, and the new Cliffside Peregrines and Fauna books were finished at the end of the year.
I sold out of the first run of the Fauna book and have reordered all three of the new books for the studio stock.
The links here go to my printer Magcloud, where you can order them directly.
Life Form Folio
The Life Form Folio
When I premiered the Life Form Exhibition, I wanted to have a collectible item and record of the show prior to the full book I plan to make. So, now available is the 36-page, 11x17-inch, wire-bound book, featuring five years of work from 2013 to 2018 exploring these magnificent lives.
Photographs from 2013–2018
36 pages
11x17-inch wire-bound book
$40
Pacifica: A Photographic Portrait of Land and Sea
Page 7
Page 27
A collection of photographs in and around Pacifica, California. Includes a trail map.
74 pages
11x17-inch, wire-bound book for full lay-flat opening and enjoyment
Pacifica Trail Map
32 years in Pacifica
drawn from 10 years of calendars
$50
Gift Certificates for Prints and Workshops!
Emailed or shipped with beautiful gift note card.
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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.