John H. Johnson
Aspen Grove Forest - Black & White Landscape Photograph
1978

About the Item

The beauty of nature's rhythm is captured in this black and white landscape photograph of a forest of Aspen trees by American photographer and film maker, John Henry Johnson (American, 20th Century). Edition number (11/50) at lower left on mat; and artist's signature "John H. Johnson" at lower right on mat. Artist's signature, title and date (1978) on verso. Presented in a silver metal frame. Image: 9"H x 11.13"W. Of his work, John H. Johnson writes: The first time I saw an image emerge in the developing tray I was hooked. Around this time I happened upon the work of Ansel Adams and was awed by the incredible quality, the feeling of light his prints contained. I was fortunate to know Ansel, to visit his home and darkroom. Ansel once mentioned to me that “Steiglitz told him light was the most important thing in a photograph and that it should be handled delicately.” Over time, I have known others who follow this “straight” tradition: Brett Weston, Paul Caponigro and in a more abstract vein Minor White and Aaron Siskind. I’m still in awe over what a direct photograph can be and my black & white artistic roots arise from this “straight” tradition of photography. For my finest work, I use the Zone System and previsualization. Most of my best black and white work is large format, archivally printed silver halide prints. Much of my recent work is digital and more experimental, though so far, little of it is as finely seen as my traditional photography work. I have an artistic dichotomy in my photographic work which has persisted through decades of photographing. First, I have a great interest in the purely visual elements in a subject, almost form for its own sake, regardless of content, usually flat and linear--abstracted images. A “formalistic” approach to pure forms which are there for all to see if one is sensitive enough. I often photograph the way something can look, as opposed to the way it does look or as Minor White once told me “Photograph things not only for what they are, but also for what else they are.” Beauty presented in a way which often cannot be readily recognized, for amazing things aren’t always recognizable for what they “really are” …. Second, I like images of recognizable subject matter which involve the viewer in the “severe beauty”, the visual richness of the scene, some of which are almost romantic. I use photography’s powers of revelation to present a “romantic” reality which existed before the camera, but also more, a super reality. Selected Group Exhibitions Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan The Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe, New Mexico Denver Art Museum University of South Carolina - The Digital Eye, Sumter, South Carolina Texas Tech University International Cultural Center Lubbock, Texas Washington Gallery of Photography Bethesda, Maryland Rocky Mountain Regional Juried Photography Exhibition Manitou Springs Louisville Art Association, Louisville Colorado State Fair Fine Arts Exhibitions Pueblo Blue Spruce Gallery Florence Photography Centennial Celebration - 100 Years at RIT Rochester, New York Otero Junior College La Junta Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center One Man Show - Sangre de Cristo Art Center Chester County Art Association West Chester, Pennsylvania Fine Arts League of Southeastern Colorado La Junta Boulder Art Center Boulder Gilpin County Arts Association Central City One Man Show - Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester, New York Scarab Club Detroit, Michigan Colorado Celebration of the Arts Denver Western Maryland College Westminster, Maryland Continental Divide Arts Association Fort Collins, CO Honors/Grants Pueblo Arts Council Excellence in the Arts Award National Endowment for the Humanities, Washington, D.C. Colorado Humanities Program, Denver Ford Foundation (through Cranbrook), Detroit Professional Photographers of America (through RIT), Oak Park, IL Education Master of Fine Arts Degree in Photography, Cranbrook Academy of Art. Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Photographic Illustration, Rochester Institute of Technology. Rochester, New York. Attended Colorado State University – Pueblo. Pueblo, Colorado. My love of all things photographic began at 11 with an old printing kit of my mother's. Once I saw an image wondrously appear in the developer I was hooked. This led me to lots of experimentation, three academic degrees, three films and thousands of photographs produced over forty years. The first decade I was interested in photography I subscribed to Modern Photography and Popular Photography and read them cover to cover then tried everything including all kinds of early experimental processes. I photographed with cameras of ever increasing complexity and size while I also started making lots of little regular 8 mm, Super 8 mm movies, and later 16 mm and finally 35 mm movies. See My Film History page to hear more about my work as a filmmaker. My formal training began at Colorado State University-Pueblo when it was Southern Colorado State College, where I further experimented and studied Art and all the Humanities among other things for three years. Here I saw dedicated teachers and pondered if this was for me. I was a 3rd year transfer student to Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York. I had a great time with amazing instructors at the world's oldest and largest school of photography/film. At RIT I did an independent study at the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography. I received my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Photographic Illustration graduating at the top of my B.F.A. class with Highest Honors. At Cranbrook Academy of Art, a graduate art school, I continued my education and working and experimenting with photography and film. I have always tried to make it a point of meeting or corresponding with artists I admire so I corresponded with Minor, Ansel Adams, Paul Caponigro, Harry Callahan and others. Many of these individuals like Ansel, Minor White, Aaron Siskind, Oliver Gagliani invited me to their homes. It was also during this time that I took a number of workshops including a Friends of Photography workshop in Carmel, California at which time I met Paul Caponigro and Ansel Adams (both of whom I had corresponded with) along with Brett Weston who invited me to his studio and was encouraging. In Ansel’s home he showed me his work and his darkroom. He studied my portfolio at length and gave me words of encouragement. You could watch whales migrate from Ansel’s couch and his book shelf was definitely one of kind with all the first editions of his and his friends’ books! I remember his 8 x 10 horizontal enlarger which had lots of lights which individually could be switched on or off (allowing him to lighten or darken various areas of his enlargements without having to dodge or burn), and the giant impeccable prints on his walls near his baby grand . . . Perfect! Something he told me which I try to convey to my students is that you must "feel the light, remember the light which was there when you pre-visualized your image" at the time of exposure, that's when the strongest images result. Though I had done commercial photography of all sorts including: working for the State of Colorado as a photographer documenting the construction of the Eisenhower Tunnel under the Continental Divide, as a newspaper photographer and a TV cameraman, I decided that teaching and expressive work were for me and therefore a Master of Fine Arts degree was required. The Thatcher Foundation which had funded my studies at RIT encouraged me to continue on with graduate school and the best offer came from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Here I continued working more intently with the Zone System, first taught as a Graduate Teaching Assistant, completed more portfolios using my 4 x 5, made an experimental film or two and received my Master of Fine Arts degree in Photography. My wife Nadine and I returned to Colorado where I began teaching at a number of institutions of higher learning. In the decades since, I have made thousands of photographs, some films, lived in California for a few years, and have exhibited widely: Denver Art Museum, Museum of New Mexico, Washington Gallery of Photography, University of South Carolina, Texas Tech, Michigan's Scarab Club and RIT's Photography Centennial Celebration, among many others. My photographs and biography have been published in a number of books including, but not limited to: Visual Concepts for Photographers, Photographic Materials and Processes, View Camera Technique (which has an entire portfolio of mine), was a contributing editor for the 3rd edition of the Focal Encyclopaedia of Photography 3rd Edition, and am included in a number of Who's Whos (World, America, the West, of Emerging Leaders in America, and Entertainment) and one I'm particularly proud of because I was submitted on four different occasions by my students, Who's Who Among America's Teachers. I think Photography can reveal a pure beauty in the world we live in if one trains one’s eye to simply observe, I like to think of it as a "severe beauty" which I have tried to portray through my photography. While I think film can take us to times and places we could not otherwise experience. The film process is interesting because the filmmaker can create (with the help of many other artists) a totally self contained, unique world. Hope you enjoy my work. John Henry Johnson

Creator:

John H. Johnson

Creation Year:

1978

Dimensions:

Height: 14.13 in (35.9 cm)Width: 18.13 in (46.06 cm)Depth: 0.75 in (1.91 cm)

Medium:

Photographic Paper,Silver Gelatin

Movement & Style:

American Realist

Period:

1970-1979

Condition:

Mat board with artist's signature and edition number, and foam cor backing with artist's signature, title and date have undergone professional restoration. A few minor scratches to silver vintage metal frame.

Gallery Location:

Soquel, CA

Reference Number:

Seller: JT-S53671stDibs: LU5424444961

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