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Richard Stevenson

While he was a student at Orinda High School in the Bay Area, Richard Stevenson did darkroom work for his father, a commercial photographer. He later abandoned photography for many years while working in home construction and teaching mountaineering skills. "I had a guide service on Mount Shasta," he says. "I taught cross-country skiing, ice climbing, and snow camping." When his father died of a heart attack shortly after moving to Eugene in the 70s, Stevenson moved north to be close to his mom. The undiagnosed congenital high blood pressure that had claimed his dad began to destroy his optic nerve just as he was getting serious about photography. "We were Christian Scientists," he explains. "I have 20 percent vision in my right eye and can see only peripherally in the left." Stevenson nonetheless continues to take pictures with an autofocus camera, especially on yearly visits with an old friend in southern Utah. His scenic photographs of the Four Corners area will be on display at the Winestyles shop in September and October and at Allan Brothers in November and December.

happening people

photograph and story by Paul Neevel

Eugene Weekly / 7 August 2008

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