Photographed by Roger Steffens1/15Ric Masten, Poet Laureate of Big Sur, with his truck, Big Orange. Big Sur, California, 1978
Roger: “This was taken close to Carmel where Ric was raised. He was ordained by the Unitarian Church without having to got to seminary, and he married us.”
Mary: “When he married people, he had this big army blanket, and to virtually guarantee that you would never get divorced, he would have the couples crochet or embroider something in the blanket so if they ever wanted to come apart, they’d have to come to his house in Big Sur and undo what they did to the army blanket.”
Roger: “So Mary and I did a red, gold, and green YES.”
Mary: “We did it really small just in case we broke up.”
Photographed by Roger Steffens2/15Clare Francis in Point Lobos, CA. March 1974
Roger Steffens: “We went to Point Lobos in Big Sur just south of Carmel with Clare Francis, who is a British graphic designer. These sandstone cliffs, they’re the landscape Robert Louis Stevenson used to describe Treasure Island; and it looks like she’s leaping to her death, but she’s actually jumping to a ridge directly below. I always tell people ‘That’s Clare just minutes before…’ and then I wait for them to be appalled.”
Photographed by Roger Steffens3/15Double exposure, Corralitos, CA. August 1978
Roger: “I was trying to see photographically the way I was seeing when I tripped. That’s the key to understanding the motivation behind my double exposures. Tripping is a way of giving your brain a bath. Clearing out the cobwebs. Reigniting.”
Photographed by Roger Steffens4/15Mary Steffens in Mendocino, CA. June 1975.
Mary: “I remember Roger wanted to take my picture—most people, when they get their picture taken in scenery, they turn and face the camera and have a big smile like, Oh, here I am in such and such, and I remember saying to him that is so not real. Because what am I doing, I’m looking at this beautiful city in this beautiful place but with my back to it? So I made him take my picture with my back to him instead.”
Photographed by Roger Steffens5/15Running free along Bolinas Ridge. Marin County, CA. August 1976
Mary: “That is one of my all-time favorite pictures you’ve ever taken.”
Roger: “It was just before sunset as the fog was beginning to roll in. It’s just one of the most blessed places on earth. It takes you into another dimension.”
Mary: “That evokes such a sense of freedom to me. It’s carefree, it’s beautiful. They could be flying.”
Roger: “I was flying!”
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Photographed by Roger Steffens6/15The writer’s outlook. Palo Colorado Canyon, Big Sur, CA. August 1978
Roger: “I was asked by two friends including the man who wrote Point Blank to novelize two of their screenplays. So we lived in this glass-walled A-frame cabin with a view of the Pacific Ocean, without another light or house in sight. I wrote two novels in that house. I’d write in the morning and in the afternoon Mary and I would explore another part of Big Sur and really got to know it well; Mary took some great photos there too.”
Photographed by Roger Steffens7/15Rear view from Mary’s red Karmann Ghia. Mendocino, CA. June 1975
Mary: “I had a little Karmann Ghia and we buzzed around Mendocino in that and Roger completely fell in love with the car and he fell in love with the fact it was a convertible and he loved the shot with the rearview mirror.”
Photographed by Roger Steffens8/15Double exposure of singer-songwriter Harvey Shield. Corralitos, CA. July 1978
Roger: “That’s my best friend Harvey Shield, he’s a British rock ‘n’ roller; he wrote the Bay City Rollers’ song, ‘The Way I Feel Tonight,’ off their last number-one record. He has a doowop group, the Mighty Echoes, that just celebrated its 25th anniversary. He came to visit us in 1978 and I took that photo just above Santa Cruz.”
Photographed by Roger Steffens9/15Actress Lise Hilboldt picking flowers. Marin County, CA. August 1973
Roger: “Lise worked on a refugee project I started—the town of Racine, Wisconsin, sent me tons of food and clothing for that campaign which is why I kept extending my time in Vietnam; I was there 26 months. We became friends when I came back to the States and she became a successful actress, working with Claudette Colbert and Rex Harrison. We got back in touch recently because of Instagram. I’m totally techno ignorant; I don’t even have a cellphone. But Kate and Devon changed my life.”
Photographed by Roger Steffens10/15Double exposure of Mary Steffens. Big Sur, CA. August 1978
Roger: “This was shot just outside the porch where the picture of the typewriter was taken. The house is still there; it’s gone to the agent of our friend Ric Masten, the poet laureate of Big Sur, who married us.”
Photographed by Roger Steffens11/15Hiking coastal Big Sur, CA. May 1979
Mary: “I’ve always been very attracted to nature but I never really felt like I belonged, I always felt separate but with the acid experience I felt like I just plummeted right into the cells, the trees, the leaves, the flowers, the air… You could see the air.”
Photographed by Roger Steffens12/15Photojournalist Tim Page and friends show off their denim, Sonoma County Fair, CA. May 18th, 1974
Roger: “I think that’s Tim in the middle there, when we all went to see Taj Mahal play. Tim is a wonderful photographer who has had a great influence on me, he was the inspiration for the guy Dennis Hopper played in Apocalypse Now; he was trained by Larry Burrows, the great war photographer. I learned a lot from Tim; we were always shooting and criticizing each other’s pictures and having slideshows for each other.”
Photographed by Roger Steffens13/15The Albion Peoples Fair, Mendocino, CA. May 1975.
Roger: “This is the Albion Peoples Fair, where I met Mary.”
Kate: “Dad was wandering around and Mom was up on a hill filming the fair and she focused on this really crazy-looking guy wearing a psychedelic crocheted vest and went home and he was there, at her house. We still have that vest.”
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Photographed by Roger Steffens14/15Double exposure, Big Sur, CA. August 1978.
Roger: “I was trying to capture both points of view. Looking toward the sea and looking toward the land.”
Photographed by Roger Steffens15/15Cynthia Copple and Rae Greco. Boonville, CA. November 1970
Roger: “That’s in Boonville which is this strange town where they have their own language called Boontling; it’s on Route 128 which is one of the most breathtakingly beautiful roads in the country. We stopped in a gas station cum café on the way and I took that picture—my first wife Cynthia is on the left and Richard Boyle’s girlfriend Rae is on the right. I loved the lighting.”
