In line with the adage “do maximum good,” my gallery space is expanding its roster of exhibiting artists. I am inaugurating a Guest Photographer Exhibition Series starting in July 2024 for six week runs of photographers whose work I admire and want the public to see.

The program started with Larry Shapiro’s fine black and white panoramic prints of California Train Stations. The series continued with new work from photographer David Gardner will follow in the guest artists series with Into the Anthropocene, then with Ted Orland’s Old Favorites & New Discoveries. Opening on November 24 is Intimate Landscapes by Marion Patterson. November 24 to December 31 .

Gallery hours: Saturdays 11am to 4pm through October, 2024

Stephen Johnson Photography
1220-C Linda Mar Blvd., Pacifica, California
650-355-7507, info@sjphoto.com.

________________________________________

Schedule

2024

California Train Stations. Larry Shapiro. July 8 to August 15, 2024.

Into the Anthropocene. David Gardner. August 17 to September 28. Opening reception: Saturday, August 24 from 1-4 pm.

Old Favorites & New Discoveries. Ted Orland. October 1 - November 21, 2024. Opening October 6, 1-4pm.

Intimate Landscapes. Marion Patterson. November 23 - December 31. Opening Reception November 24.

2025

Al Weber. January 1, 2025 - February 15, 2025

Jeff Schewe. February 16, 2025 - March 31, 2025

Intimate Landscapes: Marion Patterson. November 24 to December 31 .

Marion Patterson's Opening Reception will be delayed to Dec. 7 noon to 4pm due to weather. Marion cannot join us for our planned reception tomorrow (Nov. 24) but we will be open for the first showing of her beautiful "Intimate Landscapes" exhibition 1pm to 4pm.

I’m not sure when Marion and I first met, but we agree it was a long time ago. We had been friends for years when she invited me to apply to teach with her at Foothill College for a full-time photography instructor position. Although after a year into my time there, I came to the conclusion I did not want the job, Marion and I have remained friends for decades. I’ve always admired the directness and sensitivity of her photographs. Marion’s photographs were among the first I thought of when I decided to start my Guest Photographer Series.

It is my pleasure to share some of Marions beautiful gelatin-silver prints on my gallery walls.

Marion Patterson

Marion L. Patterson received a B.A. degree with a major in philosophy and a minor in art from Stanford University in 1955 and an M.A. degree in interdisciplinary creative arts from California State University, San Francisco, in 1970. In addition to her degrees, she has studied under some of the country's greatest photographers, including Dorothea Lange, Minor White, Beaumont and Nancy Newhall and Ansel Adams. Patterson has been an active free-lance commercial photographer in both the United States and Mexico, as well as a widely exhibited fine art photographer. She has participated in numerous photographic expeditions, including treks to Nepal, Pakistan, Sikkim, Bhutan and Tibet.

From 1958 to 1961 Marion worked for Virginia and Ansel Adams in Yosemite and has remained closely associated with the Adams family since then. From 1961 to 1964 she was assistant to the photography editor of Sunset Magazine. While at Sunset, she prepared her first major exhibit, which was shown at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 1965. Living in Oaxaca, Mexico, for a year resulted in another one-woman exhibit, at the Oakland Museum in 1966. In 1968, Marion Patterson began teaching at Foothill and De Anza Colleges in California, later becoming chair of the Foothill photography program. She has taught workshops for the University of California Santa Cruz Extension among others.

Marion’s prints are approximately 11x14 and 8x10. They are vintage gelatin-silver prints, likely only one copy available, and are $500 each.

Marion has written me that she is no longer printing, so her current inventory is all that will be available from her. This exhibition represents a good sample of what she sill has. When they’re gone, they’re gone.

You can download the pdf to the right to see the inventory. As prints are sold red dots will be added to the images to indicate they are no longer available.

Ted Orland’s Old Favorites & New Discoveries at Stephen Johnson Photography

When you come right down to it I’m really just an old-fashioned landscape photographer, and this exhibit offers a small cross-section of both old favorites and new discoveries I’ve made during my wanderings. In almost every case they display scenes that I came upon unexpectedly, but which captured my interest because, conceptually speaking, they somehow seemed a bit off the center of the Bell curve. Spanning a half-century, these photos also document -- however unintentionally -- changes to the landscape wrought by global warming, and changes to photography itself occasioned by the rise of digital technology.

TED ORLAND is an independent photographer, teacher & writer. He served as Ansel Adams Assistant in the 1970’s and taught at Adams’ Annual Yosemite Workshop for fifteen years. He later created and taught the first digital photography courses for several colleges and workshop programs. He is also author of the book “Man & Yosemite” and co-author (with David Bayles) of the classic artist’s survival guide, “Art & Fear”. Ted’s photography is represented by The Ansel Adams Gallery.

Prints will be available at $100 each. A few signed copies of Art and Fear along with the Compendium of Photographic Truths poster will be available at the Opening Reception.

In 2016, those who determine such things officially agreed the Earth had entered a new Epoch in its evolutionary age. Termed the Anthropocene, it is defined by significant human-induced changes to land, oceans, and air. This new era is the foundation for my work, which explores repercussions from our rapidly expanding world need for Agriculture, Energy, Mining and Water - how it impacts our planet and ultimately us.

Traveling through the West for decades, I’ve increasingly witnessed landscapes altered by human activity. Tailing piles from mines have grown immense, water projects drain habitats, and wind and solar farms spread across formerly pristine spaces. Initially, I focused on capturing the beauty of the natural landscape. However, as I traveled and photographed over the years, my images often included human alterations, commanding attention in unsettling ways. These elements began to reveal a deeper connection between humans and nature, though I struggled to define it.

A road trip in 2016 through the Palouse region of southeast Washington, brought clarity. Terraformed and overlaid by commerce for more than 100 years, it’s topography is embellished by pattern and design across its surface - all byproducts of efficient farming required by constraints of the rolling terrain. It seemed a dance - or perhaps a struggle - between human imposed order and natural growth cycles. What was revealed I found compelling – strangely alien but completely human.

“Everything you touch you change. Everything you change changes you.” These words written by Octavia Butler resonated deeply. By allowing human intervention to speak over the landscape itself in my pictures, I envisioned a new landscape, more of its Age, that expresses dilemmas faced when considering exploitation or preservation. This realization connected the conflicts I felt photographing the altered yet still beautiful Palouse.

I began searching out landscapes impacted by human hands throughout the West during my four months on the road each year. I concentrate on the four areas causing documented impacts on the environment mentioned above. Gaining access to some sites was sometimes challenging, but often easier than expected - several sites welcomed me in and showed me around.

- David Gardner

California Train Stations. Larry Shapiro. July 8 to August 15, 2024

I have always found downtown San Jose an interesting place to photograph. One day wandering downtown with my Noblex panoramic film camera, I found myself at the Diridon Train Station. Walking inside, I realized I had found a subject for my panoramas and set about to make some serious photographs. My photographic technique of using a swing lens panoramic camera seemed like a good fit with the station’s pace and architecture.

After I developed, scanned, and printed the Diridon Train Station pictures, I knew I needed more. Through Internet research I found a list of passenger stations in California, and set about the work of building a photographic project. Over the next six months I photographed 18 stations: Barstow, Corcoran, San Jose, Emeryville, Richmond, Fresno, Fullerton, Glendale, Hanford, Oakland, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Salinas, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Clara, Los Angeles, and Victorville. I still have at least eight more to photograph.

This project offered me the opportunity to talk to train station staff—many of whom were interested in, even enthusiastic about, my project. A station guard in San Diego wanted to make sure I photographed the original tile work. The staff at Union Station permitted me to use a tripod in the building and waived the $800 fee they charge for “professional” photography. (On the other hand, a staff member in Salinas threatened to call the police if I did not leave the waiting room immediately.) I’ve also had engaging conversations with many passengers waiting for trains. A passenger in the Corcoran waiting room told me that his father was a panoramic photographer of the Central Valley.

This exhibition is in a diptych format. The top image is the exterior of the station and the bottom image is the interior.

In 1869, the first transcontinental railroad linked California to the rest of the country. By 1900, the railroads had expanded up and down the state until almost everyone in California lived near a train station, but passenger automobiles quickly surpassed train travel. What remained were the train stations, classic works of modern architecture frequently of the Mission Revival style. Compared to airport terminals filled with bustling crowds, stations are not very busy places these days.

Visit Larry’s Website