https://www.michelleraneejohnson.com/

Michelle Ranee Johnson Photography, Yosemite Village, CA (2026)

09/07/2026

“Humanism” is to be human, to think, to analyze, and to probe. To respond and to be stimulated by all living things - beasts, fowl, and fishes. To respond through touch, sight, smell, and sounds to all things in nature - both organic and inorganic-to colors, shapes, and textures - to not only look at a blade of grass but to really see a blade of grass. These things, to me, are what life and living are all about. I would call it “Humanism.” — Jacob Lawrence.

I’m using my photograph, “Waterfall Reflections,” the second photo in my International Photography Awards official selection of my series Earth Abstracts,” to talk about the incredible painter Jacob Lawrence. He was born in New Jersey on September 7, 1917, and passed away in Seattle, Washington, on June 9, 2000. He was best known for portraying African-American historical subjects and contemporary life. He called his style “dynamic cubism.” But not the cubism that originated in France, but rather the colors and shapes of Harlem. He also taught at the University of Washington for 16 years.

He first gained recognition at the age of 23 with his piece “The Migration Series,” a 60-panel work. This piece depicted the Great Migration from the rural southern United States to the urban northern United States. The Museum of Modern Art in NYC and the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, purchased the piece. You can find his other works in many places, including the Museum of Northwest Art, the Whitney Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Reynolda House Museum of American Art, and the British Museum. His painting “The Builders,” created in 1947, is in the White House.

Awards & Honors: 1945: Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship; 1970: Spingarn Medal from the NAACP; 1983: Elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters; 1990: US National Medal of Arts; 1995: Elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; 1998: The Washington Medal of Merit (highest award given in Washington). Eighteen universities have awarded him honorary degrees, including Harvard, Yale, & Amherst College.

Sources: https://americanart.si.edu/artist/jacob-lawrence-2828 & https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Lawrence.

Photo info ⬇️

09/06/2026

“True peace is not merely the absence of war, it is the presence of justice.” — Jane Addams.

Before we get into today’s topic, I want to say how honored I am that my series “Earth Abstracts” won an Official Selection at the 2026 International Photography Awards (International Photography Awards) in the Professional Fine Art - Abstract division. I will showcase each photo per day for the next ten days. The write-up on Earth Abstracts is: “The earth creates various patterns, shapes, and formations that can be transformed by sunlight. As light shifts throughout the day, the same place can look completely different as it plays on the water, rock, etc. This series invites you to observe and appreciate the hidden beauty in our planet’s textures and abstract forms.”

Now on to the next topic:

On September 6, 1860, in Illinois, an incredible woman was born, named Jane Addams. She was a sociologist, social worker, public administrator, and American settlement activist and reformer who advocated for world peace. She was the first woman to receive an honorary M.A. degree from Yale in 1910 and co-founded the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) in 1920. 1931, she was the first American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize and is considered the founder of social work. She was very vocal about women’s right to vote; since women were mainly responsible for cleaning up their communities and bettering their areas, they should be able to vote.

More info in comment ⬇️

09/05/2026

“Vultures are the most righteous of birds; they do not attack even the smallest living creature.” — Plutarch.

It is , and these magnificent guardians of the sky are incredible to watch as they soar overhead.

They are very misunderstood birds, and there are many misconceptions. They play such a prominent role in keeping ecosystems healthy. They prevent horrific diseases and even help reduce carbon emissions. Even with all the good they do for our planet, they face many threats (about 70% of vulture species are under threat). These threats include poisoning, electrocutions/collisions from/with power lines, and people killing them illegally.

“Let us praise the noble turkey vulture; No one envies him; he harms nobody; and he contemplates our little world from a most serene and noble height.” — Edward Abbey.

Source: https://vultureday.org/

Photos: A grouping of photos from this year of some Turkey Vultures; the first few were from July, the last was from August, both taken between Mariposa and Oakhurst, Sierra National Forest, CA. They truly are magnificent birds, and it was an honor to spend some time with them. Southern Sierra Miwok Ancestral Homeland. , NikonUSA, . I used Artrooms | Art mockup app for artists to showcase one of my photos on a wall in the last slide.

09/04/2026

“We create our future, by well improving present opportunities: however few and small they are.” — Lewis Howard Latimer.

The inventor, author, Navy Landsman (a rank in the Navy), engineer, patent consultant, and draftsman Lewis Howard Latimer was born in Massachusetts on September 4, 1848, and died in NYC on December 11, 1928. You may know him for inventions such as an evaporative air conditioner and improved railroad car toilet systems. He wrote his first book on electric lighting after he joined the Edison Electric Light Company in 1884.

His parents (George & Rebecca Latimer) escaped from slavery in 1842, but George was recognized and arrested when they arrived in Boston. His case was famous when Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison represented him in court. He eventually purchased his freedom, allowing him to live with his family once again. Unfortunately, when Lewis was 10, the Dred Scott case ruled that enslaved people needed their owners’ consent to stay free, so George fled to protect his family.

Lewis joined the Navy at age 16 and served on the USS Massasoit. After an honorable discharge, he worked at a patent law firm, earning $3 per week. He learned how to draft there, and when his boss noticed his talent, he was promoted to head draftsman and received a $20 weekly raise. Did you know he worked for Alexander Graham Bell as a draftsman and drafted the drawings needed to obtain the permit for Bell’s telephone? He also worked for the US Electric Lighting Co. (a rival of Edison), and he invented a modification for lightbulbs that used carbon filaments, which reduced breakages.
He was also a writer, having authored Poems of Love and Life, Incandescent Electric Lighting, Various pieces for African-American journals, and several other works. He was a strong advocate for civil rights.

He married Mary in 1873 and had two daughters (Emma and Louise).

Awards and Honors: Inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame; MIT’s invention program is named after him; his house is landmarked; And many more.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Howard_Latimer & https://www.lewislatimerhouse.org/about.

Photo info in comment ⬇️

09/03/2026

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” ― Nelson Mandela.

On Sep 3, 1803, Prudence Crandall was born in Rhode Island & died in Kansas on Jan 28, 1890. She opened a private girls’ school in 1831. An African-American girl named Sarah Harris came to her school & she enrolled in Prudence’s school in 1832. The white parents tried to force Prudence to expel Sarah. Prudence refused to do so. Those parents withdrew their children from her school, so Prudence made it an African-American girls’ school.

The Liberator (an abolitionist newspaper) advertised her school & linked Prudence with African-American families looking for schools for their daughters. Unfortunately, there were many protests; girls would get hit with eggs, manure, or stones.

When Prudence wouldn’t stop the school, the Canterbury government passed its “Black Law” in 1833. This law made running a school teaching African-American students from a state other than Connecticut illegal. They repealed the horrible law in 1838. Prudence was arrested a few times but never fully convicted, as a higher court overturned the conviction. On September 9, 1834, a mob smashed her school’s windows & broke furniture. She eventually closed the school to protect her students.

She married Calvin Philleo (abolitionist) in 1835 & they moved to Illinois. She ran a school & participated in the suffrage movement. She moved to Kansas in 1874 after her husband passed away. The citizens of Canterbury became apologetic (Mark Twain pressured them), so in 1886, Prudence received a small pension from their government.

During the famous Brown v. Board of Education case, they drew upon the legal arguments from Prudence’s 1834 trial to help win that landmark case.

She has received numerous awards, including induction into the CT Women’s Hall of Fame. Walt Disney/NBC TV made a movie called “She Stood Alone” about her in 1991.

Sources: https://www.womenhistoryblog.com/2012/09/prudence-crandall.html and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prudence_Crandall.

Photo info in comment ⬇️

09/01/2026

It is !!! Swipe to see some cute critters!

“Wherever forests have not been mowed down, wherever the animal is recessed in their quiet protection, wherever the earth is not bereft of four-footed life - that to the white man is an ‘unbroken wilderness.’

But for us, there was no wilderness, nature was not dangerous but hospitable, not forbidding but friendly. Our faith sought the harmony of man with his surroundings; the other sought the dominance of surroundings.

For us, the world was full of beauty; for the other, it was a place to be endured until he went to another world.
But we were wise. We knew that man’s heart, away from nature, becomes hard.”
― Chief Luther Standing Bear.

What is considered wilderness? https://wild.org/defining-wilderness/ says: “A wilderness area can have two dimensions: 1. A place that is mostly biologically intact; 2. A place that is legally protected so that it remains wild & free of industrial infrastructure, & open to traditional indigenous use, or low impact recreation.”
The “colonizers” view of “wilderness” that many people have, unfortunately, often erases Indigenous people, so this needs to be changed. Indigenous people have always taken care of our planet, such as through cultural burning (i.e., we wouldn’t be having the devastating wildfires we have today if colonizers had listened to indigenous people instead of making cultural burning illegal for many years). Before it became unlawful, the Indigenous people burned annually in CA, keeping the massive fires from becoming as huge a problem as we have now. Please read/watch https://www.npr.org/2020/08/24/899422710/to-manage-wildfire-california-looks-to-what-tribes-have-known-all-along (& my awesome friend Raymond John Gutteriez is in this article).

More info in comment ⬇️

08/31/2026

“Nothing should be overlooked in fighting for better education. Be persistent and ornery: this will be good for the lethargic educational establishment and will aid the whole cause of public education.” — Roy Wilkins.

Roy Ottoway Wilkins was born in Missouri on August 31, 1901, and passed away on September 8, 1981, in NYC. He was active in the United States’ Civil Rights Movement from the 1930s to the 1970s. He is most well known for serving as the Executive Secretary of the NAACP from 1955-63 and as its Executive Director from 1964-77.

His aunt and uncle raised him and his siblings when his mom passed away from TB when Roy was 4. His father fled when he was young due to refusing to step off the sidewalk for a white man. In 1929, he married Aminda “Minnie” Badeau. While attending college, he worked as a journalist for The Minnesota Daily and later became the editor for The Appeal and The Call after graduating. He confronted the Jim Crow laws, making him an active participant in the civil rights movement.

In the military, one can win the Roy Wilkins Renown Service Award, established in 1980, and members of the Armed Forces who embody equality and human rights activism will be recognized with the award. In 1992, the University of Minnesota’s Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs opened the Roy Wilkins Center for Human Relations and Social Justice.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Wilkins and https://www.britannica.com/biography/Roy-Wilkins.

Photo: “Alpine Panorama” - The amazing, cute village of Alpine, Montana, nestled beneath the amazing mountains surrounding it in the , , MT in September 2020. Apsáalooke, Nank’haanseine’nan, Eastern Shoshone, Shoshone-Bannock, & Tsis tsis’tas Ancestral Homeland. , NikonUSA, . I used Adobe Lightroom to create a from ~10 photos, and Artrooms | Art mockup app for artists to showcase my photograph on a wall.

08/30/2026

“When one remembers all the events in the 1930s which led to World War II, and to the victory which we were promised would bring peace and make the world a better place to live in, one can only wonder if it was all worth-while. We have only to look around us and see the same thing happening all over again. An old French saying can best express my sentiments.
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.” — Nancy Wake.

Before we get into the topic of today, I’m sure you have heard about the US Government wanting to sell a bit of land within Yosemite National Park. If we let them sell, even a tiny bit, they may decide to sell way more than that. This is OUR PUBLIC LANDS - not the governments. I would be okay with it if it was given back to the Ahwahnechee, as they are the originial peoples of Yosemite (Ahwahne). But not to a developer!

Now on to today’s topic: Nancy Grace Augusta Wake was born on August 30, 1912, in NZ, & passed at age 98 on August 7, 2011, in London. She was a journalist & nurse who, during WWII, joined the French Resistance & then the Special Operations Executive (SOE). After the war, she briefly worked for the Air Ministry as an intelligence officer. You can read about her life in her autobiography, The White Mouse.

She was born in NZ but raised in Australia. She moved to France after she married her husband, Henri Fiocca. When the war started, she worked for Pat O’Leary’s escape network as a courier, helping Allied airmen evade capture & get to neutral Spain. When the Germans learned what she was doing, she escaped to Spain & then the UK. Unfortunately, her husband was captured & executed.

Her code name with the SOE was “Hélène,” & she became part of a 3-person team that parachuted into the Allied-controlled portion of France on April 29-30, 1944. She participated in a battle in June 1944 & bicycled 500 km to send the report to London.

Awards: 1945: George Medal-UK; 1947: Medal of Freedom-USA; 1970: Knight & 1988 Officer: Légion d’honneur-France; 2004: Companion of the Order-Australia; 2006: Badge in Gold-NZ.

Did you know that after her second husband passed in 1997, she sold her medals to help fund herself?

Sources & photo info ⬇️

08/28/2026

“Sometimes it’s not how much light you use to get an effect, it’s how little you use and still make it work. There are a lot of rules to be broken in photography, and you’ve got to have courage.” — James Wong Howe.

Wong Tung Jim (黃宗霑; known as James Wong Howe (Houghto) and “Low-Key Howe” and “Jimmy”) was born August 28, 1899, in Tiashan, China, and passed away in Hollywood, CA, on July 12, 1976. He was a cinematographer who worked on >130 films. He was one of Hollywood’s most famous and sought-after cinematographers in the 1930s and 40s. He was the master of shadow and used deep-focus cinematography. His best-known work is almost always black and white.

He immigrated to the USA when he was five, but didn’t become a citizen after the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1943 took effect. He grew up in Washington and was even a professional boxer as a teenager. He didn’t get his start in film until he became an assistant to Cecil B. DeMille. He pioneered wide-angle lenses and low-key lighting.

Even though he had much career success, he faced much racial discrimination privately. For example, due to the USA’s anti-miscegenation laws, until 1948, the government did not recognize his marriage to Sanora Babb at the beginning of his marriage since she was a white woman and he was Asian.
Career-wise, he won 10 nominations for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography (twice for The Rose Tattoo (1955) and Hud (1963). In addition, the International Cinematographers’ Guild selected him to be one of the ten most influential cinematographers.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Wong_Howe and https://artsandculture.google.com/story/meet-the-cinematographer-who-changed-films-forever/DALS5WZQPEMDKg

Photo: “Have Courage” - Clouds were moving over Sioux Charley Lake, Absaroka Beartooth Wilderness Foundation . Apsáalooke, Nank’haanseine’nan, Eastern Shoshone, Shoshone-Bannock, & Tsis tsis’tas. August 2021. . Made in Adobe Lightroom . NikonUSA

08/27/2026

“Be not Defeated by the Rain.

Be not defeated by the rain. Nor let the wind prove your better.
Succumb not to the snows of winter. Nor be bested by the heat of summer.

Be strong in body. Unfettered by desire. Not enticed to anger. Cultivate a quiet joy.
Count yourself last in everything. Put others before you.
Watch well and listen closely. Hold the learned lessons dear.

A thatch-roof house, in a meadow, nestled in a pine grove’s shade.

A handful of rice, some miso, and a few vegetables to suffice for the day.

If, to the East, a child lies sick: Go forth, and nurse him to health.
If, to the West, an old lady stands exhausted: Go forth, and relieve her of burden.
If, to the South, a man lies dying: Go forth with words of courage to dispel his fear.
If, to the North, an argument or fight ensues: Go forth and beg them to stop such a waste of effort and of spirit.

In times of drought, shed tears of sympathy.
In summers cold, walk in concern and empathy.

Stand aloof of the unknowing masses:
Better dismissed as useless than flattered as a “Great Man.”

This is my goal, the person I strive to become.”
— Kenji Miyazawa (Translated by David Sulz).

Kenji Miyazawa (宮沢賢治 or 宮澤賢治) was born in Hanamaki, Japan, on August 27, 1896, & passed away at age 37 on September 21, 1933. He was a well-known novelist & a poet for children’s literature. He was also an agricultural science teacher, geologist, vegetarian, cellist, Buddhist, & utopian social activist. He also founded the Rasu Farmers Association, which helped the peasants in the Iwate Prefecture. In 1982, a museum dedicated to his life was opened in his hometown. Unfortunately, the public did not know about his work until after he passed. You may have seen some of his stories turned into anime, like Night on the Galactic Railroad.

Sources: https://www.kenji-world.net/english/download/works/Rain.html & https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenji_Miyazawa.

Photo: “Courtright Storm” - On the way to Cliff Lake (while still at Courtright) in May 2021, an awesome thunderstorm happened. Holkoma Mono Ancestral Homeland. , NikonUSA, . Adobe Lightroom.

Michelle Ranee Johnson Photography

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