A Pioneering Photographer

This semester has offered photography enthusiasts at CSU, Chico an embarrassment of riches: Nature & Spirit: The Landscape Photographs of Ansel Adams with guest lecturers including Adam’s son Michael Adams opened Oct. 2, then photograph exhibits from Peter Hogue and Jason Tannen, and now a retrospective and talk from pioneering Fine Arts photographer David Johnson.

Johnson was Ansel Adam’s first African American student at the California School of Fine Arts and was influenced by Adams and mentors Minor White and Ruth Bernhard. He established a studio on San Francisco’s Fillmore Street and documented the neighborhood and its jazz scene through the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. These photos are included in the book Harlem of the West. Johnson also took photographs of the Civil Rights movement for his Dignity series.

While Johnson is most known for chronicling the everyday lives of African Americans, he has also photographed dignitaries including Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph, baseball star Jackie Robinson, poet Langston Hughes, and musical icons Nat “King” Cole, Eartha Kitt, and T-Bone Walker.

David Johnson@80: A Retrospective (1947–2008) will be on display Dec. 2–17 in the Humanities Center Gallery (Trinity 100 and hallway). Johnson will be on campus for a reception and artist’s talk Dec. 4, 5–7 pm.