Stephen Johnson Photography News

July 2020

Upcoming Workshop:

Prelude: The virus spreading and shutdown continuing call on us all to be extremely careful and deeply empathetic. I’m trying to look at this challenging time as an investment in healing. My best wishes to you all.

Cabin and Flowers. Golden Gate Park. San Francisco. 2020.

Canon EOS 1Dx. EF24-105mm Lens

9.5x14 Pigment Inkjet Print $195 each

A seeming artifact of another time overwhelmed by flowers.

We're offering a 9.5x14 inch print of the photograph for $195, matted to 16x20 inch board. This print at this price is offered through July 31. We'll be taking orders until then, and shipping them out by August 15.

Sea, Sky and Fog Bank. Pacifica, CA. 2020.

Canon EOS 5DSr. EF24-105mm f/4L IS II USM lens

Remarkable layered clouds were visible from my deck, but down at the High School the whole sky opened up complete with a spectral breakout Sun Dog.

THE VIEW FROM HERE
by Stephen Johnson

The Shutdown Continues: Projects and the Long Haul

It’s seeming ever more clear that the virus will force a shutdown or isolation far longer than we hoped. That conclusion has real emotional consequences, and likely financial ones as well. As this newsletter focuses on photography, my thoughts here go immediately to questions of what can I accomplish with my art during this period.

Many people are plunging into long intended projects and are making great progress on them. I am doing some of that. But the new is always the most seductive, and discovering what I might have to say about a place is always of great curiosity. That has taken two distinct paths for me, with both directly linked to where I live.

The Cliffs

My long-ago adopted home town of Pacifica California is a seaside community with cliffs and beaches bordering the Pacifica Ocean. Those very cliffs have been a good destination for evening walks engaging in the real world, with my camera in tow. The constant flux of light, sea and sky have made for images far more varied than I would have imagined. The walks have also kept me moving, which is good in so many ways.

Golden Gate Park

Another local path is my continued exploration of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. I have had this focus fill many a “what to do” moment in my work and life the last few months. There is always work to do maintaining the house and studio. But a new (or re-birthed) project brings with it a whole additional set of motivations. And that is very good, particularly right now.

I discussed this new concentration on San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park in the June Newsletter. The park is only 10 miles away, about a 15 minute drive, it is almost too easy not to explore it again. For years the park has been a destination for me, to just wander, for scientific, musical and art events, and to show friends and visitors this unique 1017 acre human encouraged landscape.

Any body of work I have made in my career has been motivated by the visual seduction of the place. I’m drawn emotionally to the subject. The intellectual context of place, history, political pressures and safety from human development all factor in as I consider a “project.” With this work the pull of context is very strong.

In the case off Golden Gate Park, it exists, not just as a designation, but a place, only because of human activity. It depends on human activity to even survive. This park needs water way beyond what is naturally falling from the sky or bubbling up from the ground water below. This human transformed space can only survive with human care, watering, planting, clearing, and funding. Golden Gate Park is a temporary covering of natural dunes, rocky hills, a few lakes and some woodlands. Depending on climate change, it will eventually likely revert to a natural balance, whether through short term neglect or post-human time. Of course, all of the topsoil we have moved in may alter that course, but will do battle with ongoing sand blowing in from the sea.

Part of the focus of my work is that created and temporary nature of the place. More than most of my work, my photographs of Golden Gate Park really are a snapshot in time of a temporary place. Even that term, “temporary place” is one I’ve never used before. It is a fascinating perspective from which to see a landscape. The project is clearly in evolution.

State of Mind, Photographically

It’s easy to be ill at ease right now. It’s natural to ask hard questions about meaning and purpose. Faith is called upon to believe things will improve and we won’t dive further down an abyss. And faith comes in many forms. Sometimes just the warmth of the sun on my skin gives me faith. Watching the sun set last night, the nearly full moon and Jupiter with all four of its Galilean Satellites in line from the planet, were all encounters with wonder, which for me is a kind of faith. Pondering the limits of our world and the possibilities outward instill a kind of faith, that there is so much that we don’t know, so much that I don’t know. The faith arises there in the sense that there is so much yet to know.

The sun can be so strange and eerie sinking into the sea. It doesn’t take much to imagine that this is another world, another sea, another star. The imagination then flies. What other sorts of creatures might be out there, and what consciousness might they possess, what sort of gods or creation stories might they have conjured, what sort of meaning of life might sustain them? What stories of the warping of their sun through thick atmosphere might they hold as true?

My Cliff Journal. July 3, 2020

I don’t know exactly how photography fits into all of that. Perhaps it is a verification of wonder, and wonder is a kind of faith in the possible. Holding the light from a scene still feels miraculous. The light itself seems miraculous. Our starlight reaching out to Jupiter and its moons (484 million miles), then reflecting all the way back to my eyes seems miraculous (405 million miles). Light leaving the sun, striking the tree before me, reflecting back to my eyes and camera seems miraculous. Holding that light as electrical charges on a piece of silicon and then as pulses of encoded brightnesses seems miraculous.

Given all of that, why is faith sometimes hard to find? In this age of the virus and political betrayal, our very real human challenges can overwhelm wonder and faith. As we work hard to not get sick, and seek ways to make the world a better place, I suppose it is that wonder that helps give me faith. I need to keep my eye on that. Photography helps engage and sustain that wonder.

From the Archives

Thinking through memories I have of Golden Gate Park led me down a path of searching for festival and concert photographs from over the years. The idea made it into a prototype spread or two for a potential book. An initial three volume concept proof is on its way from MagCloud now.

Come Visit the Exhibitions (after the shutdown)

Check out my new 50 years of Space Photography Exhibition now joined with my Life Form Exhibition as Other Worldly for a mind-blowing journey from the living world close-up to the depths of space.

Although the gallery is currently closed for the corona virus shutdown, hopefully we can reopen before too long. Come see the shows when you can. Space and awesome life! A dive into cosmic extremes.

Class Visits

When school is back in session, we will continue to welcome teachers bringing their classes by, kids and college students. The kid’s reactions have been inspiring to me, both for the space exhibition and Life Form.

Workshops Coming Up

The next class we hope to hold is our Black and White Printing class which is going virtual with an in-person session after the virus. The popular Flora and Form Workshop and the next Mastering Fine Art Digital Editing and Printing class are both scheduled for September. All are open for enrollment now but subject to virus driven changes. We are exploring some virtual classes.

Please consider joining us on one of our upcoming workshops. Enrollment is the key to continuing to offer these classes and keep the studio running. We hope to hear from you.

I’ve always been drawn to historical photographs and maps. I’ve been collecting 19th century books, engravings and now making scans of photos and maps. Printed on just the right paper and sheen, the reproductions are often vey special in their own right. So I’ve decided to make some of these prints available as I print them and discover more.

The first few are from the San Francisco Bay Area, local to my home in Pacifica, We’ll make them both available as 8x10 ($35-$45) and 11x14 ($75-$85) with larger sizes available for quote. The Gallery of current offerings where you can place orders can be found here.

Don't forget to Check out our next workshops

Many of my mentoring students have wanted help with their printing, often to make sure they can produce a specific print. Consequently, I am starting a Print Mentoring Program that sets up a 2 hour time slot and the production of a finished print, all with the tutorial video of how we did it 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. 

New Space Photography Products

Exquisite Earth Exhibition Catalog

Emailed or shipped with beautiful gift note card.

National Park Note cards