Stephen Johnson Photography News

May 2025

Hello to my subscribers and guests. Thanks for visiting my May 2025 newsletter.

This month's View From Here column explores the creation of the new preview showing of my Golden Gate Park work, a new rough cut of a video interview with me and my friend Jeff Schewe, and working on political commentary using digital illustration to express ideas.

My new preview of my Urban Eden Golden Gate Park work will be up at least through May. Come see this first showing of my most recent project.

The Gallery is open when I am here working and by appointment. Call or email to set up a time to visit 650 355-7507.

This summer I am teaching a black and white class for the Los Angles Center for Photography July 19-20 and a Highway One Coastal Workshop July 26-27. 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.

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.

Conservatory. Golden Gate Park. San Francisco, CA. 2025.

A gathering of life at the Lowland Tropics Gallery of The Conservatory.

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 May 31. I'll be taking orders until then, and shipping them out by June 15, 2024. The image reverts to its normal price after that, $800 for an 11x14, $1500 for a 16x20 print.

Pistils and Petals. Shelldance Orchid Gardens. Pacifica, CA. 2025

On my recent Flora and Form workshop we visited one of the private nurseries on the property. This wonderful display was found by one of the students who allowed me to take a close look too.

Urban Eden: San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. A Preview

April 11 through June 1, 2025

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.

Golden Gate Park Project Research: Monarch the Grizzly

Photo research is always part of my photo projects on places, and the historical record of Golden Gate Park’s 150 years is voluminous. Some stories are simply interesting, some are compelling, and some are tragic. Certainly the capture and imprisoning of a California Grizzly was one of the saddest.

As the story goes, William Randolph Hearst offered money to capture a California Grizzly which was then brought to San Francisco for public display. As Hearst claimed his San Francisco Examiner newspaper to be the Monarch of the Dailies, the now imprisoned bear was named Monarch. He was captured in 1889 and brought to an amusement park called Woodward’s Gardens near the Mission in San Francisco. When the Gardens business failed in 1893, he was bought to a specially constructed bear pit in Golden Gate Park, and eventually in an ever stronger custom cage. In 1903 a female bear was captured in Idaho and brought in to keep him company. After some time two cubs were born, neither survived into adulthood. It is unclear to me as yet what happened to the female. Here are all four of the them in their cage between the California Academy of Sciences and the now Aids Memorial Grove. He lived in captivity until his induced death in 1911.

The Grizzly was stuffed after his death, was placed on exhibit in the California Academy of Sciences at Golden Gate Park, and has recently gone back on display after the museum’s massive reconstruction and restoration of his remains.

Proof Prints

I wanted to streamline and be budget conscious in making the additional proof prints I wanted to select from. I found a nice laser printer paper (Koala Semi-gloss photo paper) that wasn’t very expensive and smooth with a slight gloss. It gave me a freedom for fast cheap prints on my aging HP Color Laserjet 9500 which allowed me to print scores of quick proofs on whim.

Printing

For the exhibition itself, I settled on my long favorite semi-gloss paper, Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Pearl as a near equivalent to a traditional air-dried silver-gelatin paper. It’s heavy weight, slight gloss and glow of the natural white all cotton has long appealed to me. I’ve taught with this paper for years, and with their Museum Etching which I helped design. This entire show was printed on my Canon ImagePROGRAF-4000.

The room paper prints were flattened on my old De-Roller, bankrolling print flattener.

On the Wall

The show went up in matter of hours. Although the Poster Hangers add a lot of geometry to the presentation, I think they look ok, and have the unique quality of displaying the prints with no prep, and no distracting reflective acrylic or glass over the print. At the back of the gallery I decided to add a canvas print of the official park map signs in the park.

Standing Up

for Our Parks, the Constitution and the Rule of Law

A number of Pacifica and area residents have continued to gather to protest funding cuts and anti-constituional actions by the Trump Administration. Since Saturday March 1st, people have been gathering to protest funding cuts and layoffs at our National Parks on Highway One at Mori Point Road here in Pacifica. We have been welcomed by scores of honking support, 754 in an hour on a recent Saturday. We will try to grow the group and encourage people to come out every Saturday at noon until funds are restored. See Resistance Rangers for more and continuing information.

Our Hearts Need Parks

Ongoing Demonstration of Support for the Parks

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

As the Trump Administration starts to not only defund parks but also moves to sell off public lands and wave environmental protections, my outrage has grown and the visual of a Trump Tower rising next to Half Dome felt irresistible.

I am considering doing a show of these new protest posters and photographs over the years from protests dating back to the 1980s.

News from the Studio and Galleries

Urban Eden Preview

I am previewing the first gatherings of display prints from my work in Golden Gate Park April 11 through June 1.

Gallery Hours for May

The Gallery is open when I am here working and by appointment. Call or email to set up a time to visit 650 355-7507.

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 Golden Gate Park project preview. Continuing in the gallery are my Life Form exhibition and With a New Eye selections.

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.

Virtual Mentoring/Consulting

Existing Online Tutorials

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.

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. 

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.