Stephen Johnson Photography News
July 2025
Marlboro Man (from the Western Artifacts Series). Lone Pine, CA. 1983.
Welcome to the July 2025 Edition of the Stephen Johnson Photography Newsletter
Hello to my subscribers and guests. Thanks for visiting my July 2025 newsletter.
I am sad to report that my Studios and Galleries will be closing by the end of 2025. More comments in the essay below. There is still much going on these days, new shows coming regularly, supporting Pacifica’s ongoing protests against Trump with signs and encouragement, and huge changes coming with the studio.
This month's View From Here column explores the premiere of my new Western Artifacts exhibition, the loss of my photographer and software hero friend Bill Atkinson, and of course, the Studio closing,
The Western Artitfacts Opening is Saturday July 12, 2-5pm. Please join us.
The preview of my Urban Eden Golden Gate Park work remains up at least through August. Come see this first showing of my most recent project. The Gallery is open most Saturday’s 2-5pm, when I am here working, and by appointment. Call or email to set up a time to visit 650 355-7507.
My Highway One Coastal Workshop is July 26-27. Join us for the great coastal explore. Upcoming Studio classes are Image Editing Two Day Intensive Sept. 6-7, 2025 and the Masterful Fine Art Digital Photography Printing Class Sept. 27-30, 2025.
— 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.
FEATURED PRINT July 2025
Stick Elk. Boulder, Utah. 2020.
Straw Elk. Boulder, Utah. 2020.
I ran across these wonderful sculptures driving through Utah in 2020, on my way from Capitol Reef to Escalante. They were staged as a nature walk as though strolling through an interpretive display. I recently learned they were constructed and ritually burned as part of a ceremony some time after I wandered among them. They were the work of sculptor Joe Pachak of Bluff, Utah. From the moment I saw them. I knew these creatures were clearly going to be part of my Western Artifacts Series.
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 July 31. I'll be taking orders until then, and shipping them out by August 15, 2024. The image reverts to its normal price after that, $800 for an 11x14, $1500 for a 16x20 print.
NEW PHOTOGRAPH July 2025
Purisma Creek Redwoods. 2025.
Purisma Creek Redwoods. 2025
A stroll through one of my favorite parks along the coast led to a “green” creek.
Rocks and Surf. San Francisco. Check out the Highway One Coast Workshop. 2022.
THE VIEW FROM HERE
by Stephen Johnson
The End of an Era: My Studio/Galleries to Close
We go into most projects with faith and enthusiasm. That is certainly how we created my studio at the Pacifica Center for the Arts 21 years ago. However, when you create a space, it is only for a period of time. Most everything is temporary, the Earth itself is in constant flux.
Now, after 21 years in my gallery at the Pacifica Center for the Arts, my landlord, the City of Pacifica, has decided that they want my space for school programs that have become ever more expensive to run through the Pacifica School District.
As of now, it seems Stephen Johnson Photography Studios and Education Center will close at the end of 2025. After a 21 year run in this location, and 5 more before that at the Crespi Center near the beach, my commercial space will close.
So, like most every artist I know, I will now become an artist working out of my home studio, just as I did for all of my career up till 1999. After 26 years of separating home from work, they will soon rejoin back at the source, my precious home of 40 years. This will be a very difficult transition as I discuss below.
Given the Studio closing, please be aware that the studio classes, Image Editing (Sept. 6-7) and Fine Art Printing (Sept. 27-30) are the last in-person sessions I have on the calendar.
Background
In 2004, we built a very special place, putting an enormous amount of work into converting our nearly 4000 sq. ft. space from the old primary school into modern galleries, studios and an Education Center. With help from so many, I am very proud of what we built. Among those that helped so much to make this reconstruct possible, and move into this space were Mary Ford, Michelle Rashleger, Elizabeth Bredall, Susan Hall, Danny Kiely, David and Mary Gardner, Darin Steinberg, Carl Schwab, Jim Rubino, John Csongradi, Steve Barth, Linda Green, Ronnie Madison, Shelly Morrow, and many others.
When we opened this space in 2004 the photography world was dramatically evolving, making a unique opportunity for the studio to exist in this new digital world. As one of the early photo webpage sites, my online visitation was high, and the studio later rode on that wave of interest. It is now a different world, where photo sites exist by the thousands and cell phones dominate photography. It seems many are even losing interest in the idea of making prints, satisfied with their on-screen photo experience. My instincts run counter to this trend, I still think of the print as a scared physical manifestation of the photograph.
Gratitude and Pride
Developments at the studio this last year have included expansion of our exhibitions program to include a series of guest photographers, so far resulting in 4 new installations in my Guest Photographer Series, with more in the coming months. This spring I built the preview exhibition of my Urban Eden Golden Gate Park Project. My Western Artifacts series opens this Saturday July 12. Other exhibitions that might be coming for the remaining of the year include Under the Beam: Electron Microscope Series, a Concert Photos show and a Portraits exhibition.
Students, Visitors, and Inspiration
I am very sad to give up the studio that has provided so much help for so many students, nourished their art and made so much work possible. There are so many resources the studio has offered, physical and spiritual. This place has been a physical manifestation of my art, vision and career. Although it was hard to believe, many have said that their life changed by visiting this gallery. It is certainly true that artistic pathways have been altered and inspired by spending time here. My love of the natural world became contagious here. I worked hard to make this a sanctuary and therapeutic place.
This impact of the change will be enormous for me. A whole mindset of going to my place of work will be altered. It almost feels like a retirement, when that is the last thing on my mind. The psychological impact of walking into my space, and being surrounded by galleries of my work, will be gone. The incentive to make prints will be greatly reduced.
I will be reentering the world most artists live in, working in our own home space. That is going to be the greatest challenge for me in the transition. I simply don’t have adequate space at home, to accommodate most of the equipment and framed / unframed photographs that I have currently housed in the 4000 sq. ft. Gallery and Studio space. If there is clarity in simplification, I could try to see this an opportunity.
Figuring all of this out is certainly a reminder of why I built the space and and supported it all of these years. It is also a reminder for me to thank so many of you who have directly contributed to making this place real, valuing the classes, buying artwork and books, and keeping the appreciation alive. I have been blessed with so much help just to keep this place running. Deep thanks to Fiona McDonald, Darin Steinberg, Carl Schawb, Eleanor Normile, Chis Sellers, Tim Smith, Paul Tornaquindici, and Alex Dziesinski. My friends Richard Lopez and Mary Prendiville, Ted Orland, and Jeff Schewe have been particularly supportive of the studio. My late friend Bruce Fraser was instrumental in building and keeping my faith about this space. A special thanks to my daughter Sara Johnson for all of the help these last few years.
There is not room at my home for most of the studio’s equipment and artwork. We will need to find new homes for office furniture, printers (many 44 inch printers), some computer equipment, poster inventories, and vintage digital photo equipment.
I certainly don’t have wall or storage space for all of the artwork I’ve created here in these last 20 years. So all these framed prints need to go somewhere. With a New Eye, Exquisite Earth, 50 Years of Space Photography, selections from The Great Central Valley Project, a 27 foot Stonehenge Panoramic, the Life Form Exhibition, and now Urban Eden and Western Artifacts, all need a place to be. Getting the Life Form exhibition on a tour is a real priority, as is doubling back and getting the national parks project published..
Stay Tuned. Keep an eye on this space more details.
Entryway August 2004
Entryway 2025
Classroom August 2004
Main Gallery 2025
The Western Artifacts Series
Dinosaurs. Banning, CA . 1987.
Opening Reception Saturday July 12 from 2-5pm.
I am very pleased to be presenting for the first time, a collection of my Western Artifacts series summer 2025. The series began in 1982 with the photograph of a Truck Stop Sign in Winnemucca, Nevada. I realized later that I had been noticing these strange and telling landmarks throughout my travels around the American West. Simultaneously both symbols and relics, I was intrigued by how the American West saw itself, drew people to its attractions, protested, left things behind and reached for the completely improbable. It seems almost every site I run across suggests another line of thought.
After finishing the Central Valley exhibit in 1986, I started to concentrate more on photographing these symbols and assembling past work. Over the years I have scanned the original negatives, making new prints and noting new work that seemed to relate.
On the Symbols in Western Artifacts
As I look through these photographs made over the last four decades of photography and travel, it seems to me there are themes of remoteness, and ruggedness to these structures that I photographed, and touches of mythology. They are often symbolic of humans in contact with a rough notion of the west, nature blending both cowboy and truck driver, paleontologist and anthropologist, and Graffiti artist and sculptor. They are often handmade and sometimes speak of protest, but also witness decay.
These photographs have become a study of ourselves and our symbols, even metaphor and anger in ways that uniquely bind them together. In some ways the subject matter is broad and others it is almost a microscope of our notions of the west, western, cowboy, rangeland, native American, Indian, somehow or another laced with dinosaurs, bison and advertizing.
For me, the Western Artifacts series continues to be a fascinating attempt at a self portrait of who we are in the west as we wander this expanse, trying to understand our place in it, and live it, in the back of our mind, with the symbols intact.
This remains an ongoing project and I would appreciate any information of such western wonders your may have come across.
Truck Stop. Winnemucca, NV. 1982.
On the loss of my friend Bill Atkinson
Me and Bill Atkinson. Pacifica, CA. 2025. Photo: Jeff Schewe.
Sioux, Bill , Annie, Laura. 1998.
As I've been thinking about Bill these last few days after his death on Thursday, I've been keenly aware of how expected this news was, and yet how shockingly final it is when you lose someone you've known for 30 years. That's particularly true of someone who was very kind to me, very generous and very supportive.
Bill has received many accolades and recognition of his work at Apple, on MacPaint and Hypercard, and our on-screen menu structure and icons. But as I came to know him in 1995, he was switching his attention full time to his love of photography. Bill made many fine photographs over the years, but ultimately the photographs that meant the most to me were the photographs he made of polished stones and the beautiful abstraction and wonder they contained. Bill labored very hard to create the “Within the Stone” book and was so very proud of it.
Last year after I started to do my guest photographers program, I asked Bill if the “Within the Stone” work could be made into an exhibition for the gallery here. Frankly, he was just too occupied in his own efforts to heal, feel ok, and squeezing as many quality life experiences into whatever life he had remaining, to take the idea of an exhibit seriously He blessed my intention but declined to participate. Of course now I am torn as to whether or not to yet still do it as Bill has (with the help of a son-in-law) put the catalog of these images online so that they can be printed and enjoyed by anyone who cares to, and has the skills.
Bill had a gentle demeanor, and could be fierce with conviction. I saw both sides of that in him and developed a real love for the man over the years. He was very kind to me when he sought me out in the mid-1990s as people have been telling him to be in touch, and offered me access to his Iris Realist printer. Since I had no large format printer at the time as yet, it was an extremely generous offer and I made many trips down to Portola Valley to spend days working on Bill’s Iris printer with his companionship, often working on our own projects as we worked in the same space.
Bill was very supportive of my art over the years, with sharing his Iris printer and studio, writing letters of support, helping fund the Life Form Project framing, showing up for openings and to just say hi. I was grateful to have called him my friend.
We would visit each other on occasion. Bill came to many of my openings over the years. We even ran into each other at the premiere of the iPad in San Francisoco in 2010, then at a Bernie Sanders really in Palo Alto during the 2016 election. One day in 2022, he just came up during one of my open Saturdays, just to visit, and describe his spiritual journeys. I had the pleasure of meeting Bill’s new wife Cai that day, and could clearly see his love for her.
Although I admired what Bill had done at Apple, and was grateful for what he brought us, in the long run, it was my friendship with Bill that mattered most. I will miss him greatly.
June 6, 2025
Bill showing his brand new iPad to the line at the San Francisco Apple Store. 2010.
Life Form Opening. Viewpoint Gallery Sacramento 2018.
Bernie Sanders Rally. Palo Alto, CA. 2016
After running into each other at a Bernie Sanders Rally. Palo Alto, CA. 2016.
Current Featured Exhibition
Urban Eden: San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. A Preview
Through Summer 2025
Plum Tree. Blue Heron Lake. Golden Gate Park. 2020.
Urban Eden: San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park
As I build the exhibition from my Golden Gate Park Project, I am mounting a temporary preview on my Guest Wall to move the selection process forward. Join us for this peek into the larger project to come.
Urban Eden explores San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park combining Stephen Johnson’s new original photographs with his work made over the past 30 years.
San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park is 1017 acres of human transformed sand dunes and rocky hills made into an expansive urban park, offering refuge to one of the great cities of the world. Urban Eden is a photographic exploration of the beauty, diversity, and sheer power of will in planning and creating spaces. Set up a time to come by and see the preview.
Urban Eden: San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. A Preview at Stephen Johnson Photography. April 2025.
Urban Eden: San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. A Preview. Stephen Johnson Photography. April 2025.
Standing Up
for Our Parks, the Constitution and the Rule of Law
Gather on Saturdays at noon to lobby the passing cars on Highway One to be aware of parks funding cuts and the need to restore funds.
Come join us: Saturdays at Noon at Highway One and Mori Point Road, Pacifica, CA
Check out our events. For Protests in your area check out Indivisible on Mobilze.
The July 5th. Pro-Parks and Pro-Democracy Protest group photo. 2025.
Recently at Stephen Johnson Photography
News from the Studio and Galleries
The Swallows Return
In June, our local nesting Mud Swallows returned to my Gallery entryway to build yet another nest and hatch four hungry babies. They disappeared after the 4th of July. Their usual test flights hadn't started. I’m worried the constant explosions may have harmed them.
Western Artifacts Show now up.
A collection of the strange and telling artifacts I’ve encountered over the last 43 years.
Urban Eden Preview
I am previewing the first gatherings of display prints from my work in Golden Gate Park April 11 through summer 2025.
Gallery Hours for July
The Gallery is open most Saturdays 2-5pm. weekdays when I am here working, and by appointment. Call or email to set up a time to visit 650 355-7507.
Western Artifacts and Urban Eden preview exhibitions are currently on view. Stephen Johnson Photography.
Current Exhibitions
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.
Current Exhibitions
The current exhibitions in the gallery include my new Western Artifacts exhibition, and the Golden Gate Park project preview. Continuing in the main gallery is my Life Form exhibition.
Visiting the Gallery
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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From rocky shorelines to eroded cliffs, long beaches, redwood forests, and small towns, the coastline south of San Francisco in San Mateo County is complex and dramatic. We'll roam the coastal and mountain roads, stopping at state and county parks, and checking out the lunch options along the way. The workshop will be a dynamic combination of a traditional landscape photography workshop while diving deep into the digital age.