Stephen Johnson Photography

There are still a few places in my Highway One Coastal Journey photo workshop on July 11-12. Join us for a heartfelt exploration of this wonderful San Mateo Coastline.

https://stephen-johnson-gtt1.squarespace.com/events/highway-one-coastal-journey

My June 2026 Newsletter is now live on my website.
This month's View From Here column explores my recent journey of renewal up to the Pacific Northwest trip via the northern California Coast. It ends with the loss of my dear friend Jeff Schewe.

Highway One Coastal Journey workshop coming up July 11-12, 2026. The coastline south of San Francisco in San Mateo County is one of the most beautiful stretches of land and sea anywhere. Join us for this exploration.

Read the newsletter:
https://bit.ly/4vxIOnL
Photo: Shasta Dam Spillway. 2026.

By now, many of you have heard that my dear friend Jeff Schewe has died. Although I will have more to say, and more pictures to post, it was hard to even get this far in expressing my grief and appreciation for having Jeff in my life.

Jeff was a deeply talented photographer with an eye for irony, design, balance and beauty in many forms. He had a sharp wit, and an occasional gruff demeanor that could sometimes mask the caring man inside. He liked the hard-ass biker persona he had perfected, and some of it was true, but he was so much more complex and tender than that. His sarcasm was well trod ground and he loved being a smart-ass. I loved him.

On Friday May 22 I had set up a visit with my friend Mac Holbert who was recovering from a health issue in Vancouver, WA. On my arrival Mac walked me to a garden area and we called Jeff who we knew was in the hospital with breathing difficulties. It was great to talk with Jeff, but he had the bad news that lung cancer had been found. A new treatment was planned and I started exploring airline tickets to Chicago. Mac and I were obviously very concerned, while I was also relieved Mac was doing so well. Jeff had told another close friend not to fly in yet, that he was going to fight this. It seemed we had some time. We did not, Jeff died the following Wednesday. A wave of devastation swept across the photo community we had all built over the last 30 years.

It’s impossible to sum up the way you know and love a friend in a few words. The emotional loss is very heavy and the friendship we shared precious.

Jeff was a man of self confidence and ego, that also had no problem taking classes and doing portfolio reviews with people far earlier in their career than he was. He was curious, wanted to learn, sought perspective on his work and had taken his commercial career and transformed it into a body of truly special fine-art work. To say he was an accomplished photographer would be an understatement, he was a very fine photographer, of great sensitivity and skill. He was also my friend of 30 years.

Together with Seth Resnick and John Paul Caponigro, Jeff and I taught three workshops together in Antarctica. Those experiences sharpened some of our differences, but also strengthened our bond in great adventure. In 1997 he rode his motorcycle out from Chicago to visit me in South Dakota as I was working on "With a New Eye," my national parks project. He made a portrait of me on that trip that he continued to refer as the only photograph he ever had in Life Magazine, that picture of me. We thought of that as ironic.

Over the last five years, I got to see Jeff most every week in the virtual Photo Chat community I started at the beginning of the pandemic. Jeff attended most all of my 200 or so Photo Chats since. That weekly interaction, became a kind of joint teaching, expressions of our different perspectives and workflows, ongoing view of his own evolving work, and deepened our connection and friendship.

Jeff accepted my invitation in 2025 to show his Black and White in Antarctica work as the last Guest Photographer show in my gallery at the Pacifica Center for the Arts. Working with him on that show, its opening and closing events, and the people that it gathered together made us closer still. I was proud and honored to show his work. We interviewed each other about our work and I will make those videos available again.

In 2006, when our mutual friend Bruce Fraser was in his last days also fighting cancer, on a phone call in front a big Pixel Mafia dinner in New York, Bruce extracted a promise from Jeff to quit smoking. He did. Perhaps we had Jeff in our lives for another twenty years because of the promise made and kept.

There are so many stories to share, but I am still too sad to detail them now. I will try to share more later.

There is a deep unreality to a friend’s death. It is hard to believe that someone you love, have had decades of friendship and conversations with, someone you counted as a close friend, is simply gone. Of course, there is nothing simple about it. It is a complex set of shared values, trust, respect, affection, revelation, no longer with us. It is true, our memories, his photographs, Jeff’s many friends will continue to hold him in their minds and hearts, but knowing that the living Jeff is gone is so deeply heartbreaking that I feel more lost in this complex world and that the world is much emptier without him.

My heart opens and goes out to Jeff’s wife Becky, and to all of his friends whose lives were also enriched by this complex, good, and talented man. Jeff, I will always hold you in my heart.

Photo: Jeff Schewe with new friends. Port Lockroy, Antarctica. 2009.

More pictures and video on my June 2026 Newsletter: https://bit.ly/4x9jcPJ

Sending you all peace, love and beauty from Horsetail Fall on the mighty Columbia River.

Elvira, my amazing Mother in 1976 at 47.
Remembering her strength, compassion and kindness on Mother’s Day 2026. I am posting this again as this portrait of her will now be seen more widely. This email came on Friday: "Congratulations. We are pleased to inform you that your photograph has been selected as a finalist in the Portrait Awards 2026 by Dodho Magazine. Your work will be featured in our annual Portrait Book, which brings together the most outstanding images selected from this year’s competition. Only the top 100 photographs are included in this publication."

Dodho is an independent editorial platform dedicated to contemporary photography based in Barecelona, Catalonia, Spain.
https://www.dodho.com/product-category/Magazines/

This photograph was featured in my Portraits exhibition last fall of 2025.

https://stephen-johnson-gtt1.squarespace.com/portraitshow

The exhibition catalog is available at:
https://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/3178563

May Featured Print

Mussel Rock Panoramic Sunset. 2024

I frequently stand at the edge of the Mussel Rock cliffs in north Pacifica/Daly City. The wide ocean horizon stretches around me. The iPhone pano feature renders this curved field flat and makes for some spectacular sweeps of space.

This print at this price is offered through May 31. I'll be taking orders until then, and shipping them out by June 15, 2026. The image reverts to its normal price after that, $800 for an 11x14, $1500 for a 16x20 print.

https://bit.ly/4duHFXH

My May 2026 Newsletter is now live on my website.

This month's View From Here column explores photographs from simple walks near my home to my inclusion in a Santa Fe show and a recent lecture. I’ve also included downloadable printer profiles I’ve made over the years that might be useful to some of you.

Here at the Pacifica Center for the Arts we are participating in the Silicon Valley Open studios in this weekend, 11am to 5pm.

I have added a session of the Masterful Fine Art Digital Photography Printing Class May 16-19, 2026.

Read the newsletter:
https://bit.ly/4w9m1jm

Photo: Torch Lilly. Golden Gate Park. 2022.

“Botanicals” Santa Fe show opening May 1

A photograph of mine is featured in the Botanicals exhibition at the Dusk Gallery in Santa Fe, NM during May 2026.

https://duskphotogallery.com

Opening Reception May 1st. 5PM-7PM

Dusk Gallery
29 W San Francisco, Suite F
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Hours: Fridays 11am-4pm.

The end of the month are the last few days for my April Featured Print. Each month I select a photograph to offer at a very low price to make them available to more people.

Fungus. Yosemite Valley. 1978.

https://stephen-johnson-gtt1.squarespace.com/featured-print-april-2026

I’m offering an un-matted 11-inch-wide print of this photograph for $195. Larger prints can be ordered. This print at this price is offered through April 30. I'll be taking orders until then, and shipping them out by May 15, 2025. The image reverts to its normal price after that, $800 for an 11x14, $1500 for a 16x20 print.

We are again participating in Silicon Valley Open Studios (SVOS) next weekend May 2nd & 3rd. 2026 11-5pm

Come join us for this Art Center-wide celebration of creative expression. Many of the Studio artists will be present.

Pacifica Center for the Arts
1220c Linda Mar Blvd. Pacifica, CA
https://svos.org/artist/stephen-johnson/
https://svos.org