Randy Johnson's photo exhibit debuts in Cooperstown

“I just came from Arizona where it was about 70 degrees, and I came in last night and it was snowing while I was having dinner. It’s not something someone from Arizona sees very often,” the 59-year-old Johnson joked after being introduced to the crowd. “I really enjoy coming back here to Cooperstown, not only in July, but obviously for this occasion.

“Having 14 Opening Days was a lot of fun. So today has a great deal of meaning to me, in a couple of ways, being here at Cooperstown for the opening of my exhibit, and then obviously with the memories that I have from my career that I had in baseball.”

During Johnson’s 22-year career, spent mostly with the Mariners and Diamondbacks, the dominant southpaw, with his fastball/slider arsenal, won 303 games and five Cy Young awards, including four in row from 1999 to 2002. A 10-time All-Star, he led his league in strikeouts nine times, his career total of 4,875 second all-time only to Nolan Ryan. In 2001, his 3-0 record helped an Arizona team, in only its fourth year of existence, to a World Series crown.

The 6-foor-10 hurler – the tallest member of the Baseball Hall of Fame – started 14 times on Opening Day, compiling a 7-2 record as part of his 303 career victories.

Johnson’s photography interest began when he studied photojournalism at the University of Southern California from 1983-85, but went next level following his retirement from big-league baseball in 2010.

“A lot of people think because now I’m retired, they’re getting wind of the photography now. They think I just started, but in high school I was into photography and then I studied photojournalism at USC and worked for the college newspaper there, The Daily Trojan and really got immersed into to taking photographs, developing film and seeing the process,” Johnson said. “If there was going to be an interview with somebody or a story on something, they would send me. There were probably five or six other staff photographers. I would take a picture and develop it and get an 8 by 10 of the image to the photo editor and they would run that, and I’d get my little photo credit on The Daily Trojan.”

The exhibit, Randy Johnson: Storytelling with Photographs, came from four visits to separate regions of the African continent featuring sections on Ethiopia and its people, Rwanda and its silverback gorilla population, the great herd migrations of Eastern Africa, and portraits of various animals photographed in the wild.

 “The love that I really get is traveling to Africa, not only seeing the animals but traveling to different villages and meeting the people,” Johnson said. “Sometimes you learn more by just putting the camera down and listening to what your translator is saying about the village and the people and the culture. Something that a photograph can’t get you. Over the time that I’ve been doing this, I understand that sometimes it’s a lot better to listen and maybe take a few less photographs and then you got some story to go along with the picture.”

Despite any acclaim Johnson has received for his artistic endeavors, a number of times throughout the evening he demurred when asked about this new success off the diamond.