Peter Johnson

Major at Williams: Political Science

Boston University: MBA & MS, Journalism

NEW in 2025

"The End of the World" describes vast PATAGONIA due to its remoteness and scale -- encompassing the southern halves of Chile and Argentina, nearly as large as Texas and California combined. From Philadelphia you must fly legs totaling almost 7,000 miles to finally behold: the largest icefield outside Greenland and Antarctica, about as many penguins as people, the world's southernmost city, and perhaps the grandest herds of wild horses. Cowboys are called gauchos. American outlaws Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid owned a ranch in Patagonia. The explorer ship, The Beagle, of famous evolutionist Charles Darwin nearly foundered in the Strait of Magellan’s legendary angry weather. Among many melting glaciers, an epic one is actually growing, a rarity. Amidst wide plains, soaring peaks stud the landscape, part of the longest mountain chain in the world, the Andes. The largest dinosaur skeleton ever was unearthed in 2012 in Patagonia -- the Titanosaur rose 40 feet tall! Native peoples of the region trace back some 13,000 years, with cave paintings nearly as old. About 3% of today’s 2 million people claim Welsh heritage, their forebears fled to preserve a language and culture. Yes, we spied pumas near our hotel!

Doing landscape photography feels like a metaphor for life. You must do your best in the circumstances presented, with the given weather and light, in a very finite frame. In April 2025 during their early autumn, I briefly toured a sprawling 700-square mile preserve in Chile among Patagonia's two dozen national parks. Call it a slice of cheese at a banquet. (By the way, a strong environmental ethic thrives in Patagonia, heartening.) I was lucky to capture some iconic glacier and mountain scenes. The ones here instead used different focal lengths and approaches for making images in this rich landscape. Fall colors of burgundy and gold appear on distant ridges in the icy last photo.

Website: www.authorscorner.org

Email: ecoessays@aol.com

One restaurant served pickled guanaco, an endangered native camelid

Photographs from 2023
Reflections: Finding solitude in nature...

...given the 8 billion beating human hearts roaming the only planet we know... is challenging. You might not guess that the world's population more than tripled in our lifetime.

With wilderness in mind, classmate Stan Fri and I returned to the Canadian Rockies in 2023 for another divine adventure. We embarked on a 72-mile rugged canoeing circuit. For day one we paddled reedy ponds while portaging 4 miles over muddy hills in downpours. Moan. Fortunately later on, between storms and forest fire smoke, the heavens often parted. Marvelous vistas beckoned. We spied eagles and moose, wilting glaciers and shooting stars. We swam briskly, if briefly. Sans boat engines, the serenity of sublime nature over days enveloped us. When not pitching our tent or making photos or drinking the pure lake, we hiked to waterfalls or read scripture (Stan) and John Muir (me). Or rested on sun-baked boulders. Ahh.

The glow from a journey in the wild lingers as a tonic for the spirit; beats getting that new car for comparison. Of course, we all crave beauty and nature in our lives. Studies show experiencing nature improves well-being, even walking a city park. Enthralling scenery tugs on us to value and preserve nature for its own sake and for future generations. (Every citizen needs environmental ethics which instills wonder and responsibility. Why as earthlings we don't require high school courses of such ethics along with the topics of human relationships, classical music appreciation, and especially civics now, baffles me. How much better off the world would be.) ...Some reflections on reflections (as all photography is) of lake reflections here, mostly. Anyhow, our aging bodies were glad we didn't wait another decade -- to bring back memories and glimpses of something privileged as well as endangered: solitude in pristine nature.

Pandemic Retreat Collages, 2020

It's still overwhelming to fathom: tragedy and sorrow from COVID struck tens of thousands of American families. Our clan navigated this crisis with options and luck. Since my parents succumbed years ago to lung disease, we decided I should quarantine vaccine-less 2020 at our new second home in Vermont – while my saintly wife, Adrienne, remained in Pennsylvania with our two girls.

For coping solo, I zoomed with the kids, cranked up Berlin Philharmonic Roku concerts on the big-screen, wrote seven career-based articles soon published, and composed nine themed collages. A photo journal of sorts, all were taken with my Android phone at our panoramic perch, Starry Ridge, on Lake Champlain, or nearby. Beauty in nature and music became my fortunate refuge, and I hope these blessings nourish you, too, wherever you live. Below are four excerpts from My Quarantine Gallery 2020.

While my career was in banking then public radio, photography has always been a passion, and I've been printing 30x40 canvas enlargements of late.

75creates