HOME is an intimate celebration seeking to portray the essence of diverse individuals from varying backgrounds, ages, and subcultures.

Through a series of portraits and semi-candids, this collection unfolds in the private spaces these individuals call home.

Photographed on Maui and Oahu in 2022 and then in the continental U.S. in 2023, HOME delves into the rich array of spaces people discover, inhabit, and infuse with the vibrancy of life, often showcasing objects that embody personal identity.

Fueled by empathy, inclusion, and trust, HOME portrays a myriad of expressions of sanctuary, connection, and personal collections.

Sometimes home is a private refuge for relaxation. Sometimes home is a vibrant hub for family, friends, and pets.

Some people find and express their identity mirrored in a lifetime’s worth of curated treasures.

HOME also explores the concept of home as a temporary haven — a furnished rental room in a surfing town, a weekend getaway in a “tiny house” Airbnb, or a makeshift apartment nestled in a rainforest garden community.

The quest extends to unconventional shelters like a house whose front awning serves as an entrepreneurial hub during bustling big-wave-surf days, or a living space tucked within a huge, industrial prop-house for movie-making.

The images within HOME share joy found in the interplay of light, ritual, storytelling, and the anticipation of a key gesture or definitive moment.

Ultimately, HOME is about earning consent, sharing consciousness, and using the lens to explore the profound meaning that different individuals experience and express within the concept of home.

Contemporary Photography in Hawai‘i 2024: A Statewide Survey Exhibition Sponsored by Pacific New Media

Individual images:
https://pnmlab.com/contemporary-photography-in-hawaii-2024-individual-entries/

Pacific New Media (PNM) is sponsoring its fifteenth annual statewide survey exhibition, Contemporary Photography in Hawai‘i 2024, at the Downtown Art Center (DAC) in Honolulu from February 1-10, 2024—and online (pnmlab.com). The exhibition consists of over 100 works by 50 artists and was juried by a selection of PNM photography faculty, including Alison Beste, Peter Shaindlin, and David Ulrich.

The jurors worked independently of each other and chose work according to their own aesthetic criteria. Remarkably, there was much agreement about the pieces selected for the exhibition. Thoughtfulness, images that were striking and evocative, deep engagement, and work that was maturely developed were comments made by jurors on selected works. Notably, many of the selected works grew out of themes that the individual photographers have been working on for months or years.

The exhibition consists of two parts: individual image entries and entire portfolios. Sixty three individual images were selected for the exhibition and fourteen portfolios, of which all artists are submitting two works for inclusion in the DAC gallery exhibition. All portfolios can be viewed online in their entirety with an artist’s statement. Additionally, this year we formed a special category known as “Friends of Pacific New Media”—non-residents of Hawai‘i who are regular, active students of PNM classes and workshops and were invited to submit portfolios for the online portion of the exhibition only. And, of special mention, two artists were awarded the PNM Portfolio Awards, Alison Uyehara and Leslie Gleim, who are exhibiting their entire portfolio of images in the DAC galleries.

As usual, the jurors attempted to reflect back the strength and diversity of contemporary photography in Hawai‘i. We were pleased to find many themes that mirror both the sentiment of our times and the prevailing issues of the day: immigration, climate change, identity, displacement, and culture in its many forms, as well as images that explore the ocean, land, and environment of Hawai‘i. We found both praise of place and celebration of life’s many forms as well as critical commentary and the paradox of beauty amidst challenging conditions.

One underlying aspect of the images stood out: Jurors perceived what one articulated as a  “darkness of uncertainty” in many photographs. Rapidly changing global, local, and environmental conditions seemed present, either consciously or unconsciously, in the minds and hearts of the artists who submitted work for the exhibition.

I’ve also seen this coloration of darkness in work from my ongoing classes, both at PNM and elsewhere. In today’s world, society faces major challenges with the economy, inequality, housing crises, natural disasters, environmental degradation, the invasion of Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas conflict, and the continued struggle for human rights amidst oppressors grasping for tenuous authority or those campaigning to populate the halls of power. We cannot help but be profoundly affected and heartsick over these conditions, which leave their mark on our artistic endeavors.

This dialectic between the light of celebration and the darkness of uncertainty imbues many photographs in this show and, indeed, forms the content of much of today’s contemporary artwork. F. Scott Fitzgerald notes that the sign of intelligence is “the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time.” As I viewed the submissions for the exhibition, one notable response emerged—the strongest, most compelling works contained contradictions and paradox, one thing balanced against another often with opposing meaning. The sublime is often a mixture of beauty and terror, praise and critical commentary. The images that contained paradox lingered the longest in my response and many of these images are included in the exhibition.

The arts and photography can give voice to the people of Hawai‘i, either by affirming what is special and unique about these islands, or by actively exploring the challenges and protesting the difficult conditions that affect us all deeply.

We thank all the photographers who submitted and those working in Hawai‘i today for helping to create and maintain such a strong and diverse community of artists. We should all be proud.

—David Ulrich

“I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to jury the 14th annual Pacific New Media Contemporary Photography in Hawaiʿi exhibition. It was a pleasure to review the range of photographs and portfolios that were submitted this year. In 2022 as we begin to gather again, and families and communities reunite after a difficult period of isolation, these images provide a compelling array of perspectives into this unique moment in time.

As a contemporary curator, I look for works that capture and hold my attention, and where I feel the uniquely personal vision of the artist shows through. This year’s selection of prints and portfolios includes dynamic street photography, memorable cultural celebrations, evocative landscapes, bold abstractions, playful moments, and thoughtful portraits that express and celebrate a wide diversity of viewpoints and interests among Hawaiʿi photographers.

I wish to thank all of the artists who entered and to David Ulrich, co-director of Pacific New Media, for the invitation and for his thoughtful guidance throughout the process. I am very pleased to have been involved in the exhibition, and for this chance to further my awareness of this vibrant community of artists.”

For my series Surf Life Maui, I explore contemporary island culture formed around the ancient water sport through photo candids and portraits. The images were predominantly made at world-renowned North Shore beaches in my neighborhood, all during 2021 and 2022.

These days on Maui, I find contemporary ritual in the popular activity and lifestyle. Among a diverse tribe of surf-lovers, the sport spawns an easy camaraderie — for instance, the inclination to congregate, “talk story”, and celebrate at dusk in beach parking lots.

Maui parking lots and beaches attracted me during the pandemic when I felt isolated. It was always refreshing to go outdoors, be around other people, recognize neighbors, and relax into the patterns, sounds, smells, and seemingly-infinite horizon of water. Photography became a means of entry into the overall ambience and social scene. I met a surfer for pre-sunrise “dawn patrol.” I went camping with two surfers.

During the pandemic, the beaches were the only places on the island where it was legal to be in public without a mask.

I now understand the willingness of some lifestyle enthusiasts to forego creature comforts in devotion to the wild.

As a photographer in general, and in the making of this series, specifically, I value empathy, inclusion, connection, collaboration, and trust. I find joy in beautiful liminal light and in the dance of anticipating a key gesture. I am grateful in being invited into the intimacy between people and the land, sea, and sky of Maui.

“I was thrilled to partner with David Ulrich and Pacific New Media to jury the annual statewide survey exhibition, Contemporary Photography in Hawai’i, now in it’s thirteenth year. The photographic submissions reflected the many psychological, social, economic, and environmental struggles of the past year with poignancy, visual acuity, and in some cases, escapist whimsy.

From the deep, hidden textures of nature’s details, to the emotional impacts of social isolation and wild spaces, the submissions varied deeply and represented new ways of seeing through photographic traditions and evolving technology. All selected works were deeply compelling and successful in their abilities to capture the cultural and visual complexities of Hawai’i during this historic period of cultural upheaval and social longing. The online exhibition is not to be missed and all the works memorable in their own right.”

Hadley Gustafson
Artist Statement
Portfolio: Dissolve into Mana

2021.07.16

You are invited. This work is an invitation to explore the deep mysteries of nature, consciousness, and symbolism; to dissolve into primordial divine innocence, to immerse and saturate one’s core being in the mana, or energy/spirit of the wild.

Life is short, precious, and mysterious.

All made in Upcountry Maui in Spring and Summer of 2021, this work is exploration of sacred solitude and sanctuary amid world crisis. We probe with curiosity, going deeper into both one’s true self and into nature, perhaps coming into cathartic discovery (revelation) and resultant effervescence (transformation).

Other themes explored are the dynamics of life and death, shadow and light, motion and stillness, and microcosm and macrocosm.

Allow the images to evoke with dream-like suggestive abstraction. Blur your eyes a little. Step back. We find cohesion in the equivalences. There are equivalences in shape, light, directionality, and composition; however, the largest equivalence is the overall sensual mood throughout the images, calling for intimate connection and summoning the willingness to surrender, allowing the illusion of separation to dissolve into radiance.

I believe in the power of art and the ultimate responsibility of the artist to catalyze and deepen consciousness in community, and to advocate for human rights and social and environmental justice.