02-20-2012, 02:58 PM
Many of the photograph books on New Orleans focus on architecture, not surprisingly. Many of these photographs focus on parts of houses, like shutters. You can find entire books filled with nothing but photographs of shutters or doors.
You can also find a book with a photography of every single building in the French Quarter. Now, why would anyone do such a thing, especially in a place like Hawai'i with so much natural beauty? Because they are crazy. I would photograph every single house in Hawaiian Paradise Park....the good, the bad and the ugly. It would make for an interesting book.
Since that is far too ambitious for what you may have in mind and would waste your extraordinary talent at photographing nature, I might consider something more feasible like photographing what we are about to lose. How about the remaining Japanese markets? There is a Japanese market in South Kona that is very small. It has a very strong sense of place and is a little stinky to haole sensibilities. There is one gas pump. The couple that owns it is elderly and there are items in the store that have been there for at least 10 years. There is no question this store will not be there in another 10 years, if it isn't gone already. Ditto the Little Grass Shack on that side. The woman that runs it aged tremendously in the two years that separated our visits. Long may she reign over her odd and musty collection of Hawaiiana, the likes of which we will not see again.
I think that the way that people have settled in Hawai'i is interesting. Not necessarily pretty, but interesting.
I have my own photographic project. I have friends that will be coming over in what probably seems like a long time to them. Two years might seem like a long time, but that is only 24 moons (or so). And so I am photographing each full moon and labeling it by number. Then I send it to them. That way, they can be here and experience the countdown to their new life in a way that makes it seem more proximate in time.
I also find the faces of Hawai'i imminently photographable. There are more smiles here per square mile than perhaps any place short of Bhutan.
Nature is the obvious choice. The task of the artist is to point us in the direction of something a little less obvious.
And sometimes to point others in the direction of the artist!
You can also find a book with a photography of every single building in the French Quarter. Now, why would anyone do such a thing, especially in a place like Hawai'i with so much natural beauty? Because they are crazy. I would photograph every single house in Hawaiian Paradise Park....the good, the bad and the ugly. It would make for an interesting book.
Since that is far too ambitious for what you may have in mind and would waste your extraordinary talent at photographing nature, I might consider something more feasible like photographing what we are about to lose. How about the remaining Japanese markets? There is a Japanese market in South Kona that is very small. It has a very strong sense of place and is a little stinky to haole sensibilities. There is one gas pump. The couple that owns it is elderly and there are items in the store that have been there for at least 10 years. There is no question this store will not be there in another 10 years, if it isn't gone already. Ditto the Little Grass Shack on that side. The woman that runs it aged tremendously in the two years that separated our visits. Long may she reign over her odd and musty collection of Hawaiiana, the likes of which we will not see again.
I think that the way that people have settled in Hawai'i is interesting. Not necessarily pretty, but interesting.
I have my own photographic project. I have friends that will be coming over in what probably seems like a long time to them. Two years might seem like a long time, but that is only 24 moons (or so). And so I am photographing each full moon and labeling it by number. Then I send it to them. That way, they can be here and experience the countdown to their new life in a way that makes it seem more proximate in time.
I also find the faces of Hawai'i imminently photographable. There are more smiles here per square mile than perhaps any place short of Bhutan.
Nature is the obvious choice. The task of the artist is to point us in the direction of something a little less obvious.
And sometimes to point others in the direction of the artist!
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