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Spirit
of Aloha | Features
| May/June 2007
David Watersun
The Vision
As a high school graduation present, my father loaned me his camera and sent me off to Europe. As I hitchhiked across a dozen countries, I realized that this magic optical box could be my lifelong passport to adventure. Today, I continue to explore the world with the vision inspired by photographic challenges.
Throughout my photography, there is a fascination with color, design and light, which illuminates the dramatic quality in my favorite images. In nature, I seek the harmonic grace that allows me to capture elements that are inspirational. In human environments, I try to illustrate the elegance and style that reflects the imagination of our creative artisans.
With the advent of digital photography, we can optimize images in ways that are only limited by the boundaries of our visual imagination. Photography has become an interpretive process that combines vision with technology in innovative ways. New concepts can be realized in the digital domain with the empowering freedom of computer creativity.
Ideally, we will balance our view of the world with a mutual respect for nature and humanity. If I can portray the mystery and majesty of our planet in my photographs, then I have offered an honorable contribution. It is a photographic responsibility that I welcome in reflecting our best light.
The Photographer
During the past two decades, David Watersun has photographed Hawai‘i’s diverse people, places and events from the land, air and water. Through location assignments and his studio, David Watersun Photography, based in Kula, Maui, he specializes in advertising, corporate and editorial photography. In 1986, Watersun was commissioned by Canon Photography to photograph the America’s Cup sailing competition in Australia. In 1990 (“when gas was still under a dollar a gallon”), he embarked on a seven-month, 30,000-mile journey across the United States to produce a pictorial book about Victorian architecture, titled The Victorian Express. In 1996, he created photography for Under a Maui Roof, an anthology produced by The American Institute of Architects, which featured Maui’s traditional and contemporary architecture. Of his architectural projects, Watersun writes, “It was a logistical challenge to photograph hundreds of locations without the distractions of power lines, telephone poles and road signs, before PhotoShop could remove such obstructions.”
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