The Decisive Moment – PhotoPlace Gallery
I’m very excited to share that Aline Smithson, the founder of Lenscratch and a well respected photographer and teacher, selected my image, Hands, as part of The Decisive Moment gallery exhibit at PhotoPlace Gallery in Middlebury, Vermont from September 7 – September 27, 2023.
In her statement she said, in part:
“Not only have the artists selected for the exhibition done some hard looking, but as the juror, I am also doing the same. What makes one photograph stand out more than another? As a juror, I bring my own subjective way of seeing to the process, but most importantly I look for unique and elevated images that delight, excite, and make me want to see more; the work needs to reveal a quality of expression that is poetic, magical, humorous, meaningful, and/or creative. Most importantly, the work needs to be fully resolved and shows prowess. I appreciated those photographers who found humor in odd juxtapositions and beauty in light and shadow.”
Hands is part of my ongoing series Enchanting Propaganda that takes a critical look at retail culture.
The Curated Fridge – Summer 2023
I’m showing one of my images with the cool kids on a fridge this summer! You read that right…a photo show on a fridge… limited space and small prints make it a really fun and varied exhibition. My image, Diamond Head Sunbathers, was selected by Orestes Gonzalez, the resident curator at CultureLab LIC to be included with the work of many other talented photographers.
The Curated Fridge was started by Yorgos Efthymiadis as a way to celebrate fine art photography and connect photographers from around the world and I’m thrilled to participate!
To see my work and that of the other talented photographers selected visit The Curated Fridge website.
If you are in New York, you can see the fridge in person at CultureLab LIC (Plaxall Gallery) in Long Island City in August (dates TBD).
20th Julia Margaret Cameron Awards
Individual Images
The 20th annual Julia Margaret Cameron Award is open to both professional and amateur women photographers worldwide.
This year jurors, Elizabeth Avedon (Chair), Ann Jastrab, and Elizabeth Krist selected my image “Aloha Attire” as the single image winner in the Non Professional Culture & Daily Life category. Two other images from the ongoing HIdealized series were awarded honorable mention status in the same category.
Winner – Aloha Attire
Honorable Mention
Honorable Mention
Series
My series from the Enchanting Propaganda portfolio was also awarded honorable mention in the Non Professional Culture & Daily Life category.
To say that I am honored is an understatement! These jurors and this award are very highly regarded in the photography world and to have my work selected feels very validating and allows me to hope that maybe, just maybe, that work from Hawaii that isn’t all about sunsets and palm trees has a place in the broader photography world.
Mahalo nui loa (thank you very much) to the jurors and to all my photography friends and mentors whose unwavering support makes this creative journey worth all the lumps and bumps along the way. You know who you are!
Zines!
Earlier this year I began teaching myself how to make hand bound books – they are time consuming to create and often expensive to produce but I have created a number or samples and know that in time the right form and the right group of images will come together to become a beautiful book. I recently joined a group of local photographers who had committed to creating and selling zines of their work and it is a wonderful opportunity to get to work!
Hoʻokupu
The images for Hoʻokupu were printed at a local printer and I hand-stitched them together with a custom cover and added a deckled belly band with a hand stenciled title. There were a few bumps along the road to the final product but in the end it was a joy to create. The photographs are from drawn from Hoʻokupu portfolio which holds a special place in my heart. Ask me sometime and I’ll tell you why that is…
Specifications:
5 1/2 inches square
Monochrome
24 pages, hand bound with a belly band closure
15 images
Price $15
Only 10 copies of Ho’okupu will be available!
“When I visit certain places in Hawaiʻi it is almost as if I can “feel” the place through the energy of the land, the power of the ocean, and the vastness of the sky. It is not something I can see and it is not awe when presented with the beauty of nature – it is something more – it feels sacred.
At Makapuʻu you will often find offerings of gratitude, aloha and respect, known in Hawaiian as hoʻokupu, placed on and around the rocks. It is a beautifully nuanced landscape that draws me back again and again.
It is in the spirit of hoʻokupu that I share these images...”
Shane Sakata, Excerpt from Hoʻokupu
No Outlet
I began work on what has become No Outlet a few years ago when I hand stitched together a book dummy from images that I printed on cardstock on my home printer. It was pretty lo-fi and needed a lot editing but it was a start, a rough one, but a start nonetheless. I set it aside and recently pulled it out again and began to rework it into the zine you see below.
Specifications:
6 by 6 inches square
Full color
24 pages, perfect bound
18 images
Price $15
Only 10 copies of No Outlet will be available!
“Honolulu is in the midst of a building boom that, under the guise of progress, is constantly changing the face of the city and the way we live within it. When I look at the city I see beauty, optimism and maybe even a little bit of melancholy in the complex array of structures and scenes that make up the city.
How do we balance development with preservation to ensure the we do, in fact, have an outlet?”
How do we balance development with preservation to ensure the we do, in fact, have an outlet?”
Shane Sakata, No Outlet
Both zines will be for sale at the Downtown Art Center in Honolulu’s Chinatown as part of First Friday on June 2, 2023 from 5:30-8PM.
Documentary Photography In Hawaii 2023
I’m very flattered that four of my photographs (below) were selected by juror PF Bentley, a former TIME Magazine photojournalist, for inclusion in the inaugural Documentary Photography 2023 Juried Exhibition.
These images are new additions to my ongoing HIdealized series. I couldn’t be more thrilled with the recognition as long term photography projects like HIdealized ebb and flow and this is a bit of encouragement that comes at the perfect time and I’m grateful for it!
“My intent with this body of work is to show Hawai’i how it really presents itself versus the orchestrated ideal of Hawai’i. Photography has been instrumental in the creation of the image of Hawai’i and it is used in this series to explore and reveal not only the nostalgia and iconic stereotypes but also the people and landscapes that continue to be used to craft the idealized version of Hawai’i that is presented to tourists and the wider world.”
Excerpt from the HIdealized Artist Statement
