No ka Home o ka Hale Kahiko

relics from a vanishing landscape

STATEMENT

No Ka Home O Ka Hale Kahiko (Relics of a Vanishing Land) is a eulogy for vanishing Hawai'i, demonstrated by imagery taken along the Hamakua and Hilo coasts on the east side of Hawai'i Island. Much of the area is unchanged from what it has been for decades; in fact, it is more of the romanticized throwback that many tourists picture when they think of Hawai'i but rarely see during their megaresort vacations. Here there is still open space and wild growth. It is a place left behind by time. And that is what I portray with this imagery: a sense of place and a sense of loss.

These images were shot using a variety of iPhones with plastic Holga lenses jerry-rigged to them.

MATERIALS

Archival Pigment Print on Baryta Paper with Hand-Applied Cold Wax

ACCOLADES

Awards

  • Contemporary Photography in Hawaii 2020 Juror’s Award, Portfolio

  • A Smith Gallery’s The Imperfect Lens Director’s Award/Rainstorm Outside Akaka Falls/Sophia With Lavalava Cloth in Hilo

Press

  • Inside the Outside 3/2/21

  • Lenscratch, Aline Smithson, 10/10/20

Exhibitions

  • Contemporary Photography in Hawaii 2020, Pacific New Media (entire portfolio)

  • Kipaipai Fellows Exhbition, Kahilu Theater Gallery, Waimea, Island of Hawaii (entire portfolio)

  • The Imperfect Lens, A Smith Gallery, Johnson City, TX (Rainstorm Outside Akaka Falls/Sophia With Lavalava Cloth in Hilo)

Edition

All images from this series are available in a variable edition of 5 + 2AP

  • 26”w x32”h sheet (2+1AP), Unframed $1450

  • 11”h x 14"w sheet (2+1AP), Unframed: $975

  • Folio containing all images, please inquire

The work reveals moody expressions of place that speak the cultural and physical state of the land and its histories. In the 21st Century Hawai’i, development impacts the islands in profound ways, but for this project, Diana finds the spaces that have remained unchanged, places and plantations that are ghostly relics of other times, beautifully paired to extend the experience.

—Aline Smithson, Lenscratc

clicking on a thumbnail will bring the full image up in a lightbox