New Photo Book Peeks Under the Aloha Curtain

Anyone can take a pretty picture in Hawaii. Just point your camera at the sea, the palms, the impossibly green mountains, the bright orange lava and click away. But it takes a special eye to take a photo in Hawaii that’s packed with truth. To show equal parts perfection and disarray, the shine and the cracks. You know, the stuff true beauty is made from.

Photographer Olaf Heine’s new book titled simply, Hawai’i, does just that. Heine is from northern Germany and splits his time between Berlin and Los Angeles. He shoots lots of Hollywood celebs and rock stars and there’s a severity to his style. That’s all apparent in this masterful collection of monochrome images from all over Hawaii.

The book opens with a foreward by author William Finnegan titled “Discord in Paradise.” Finnegan makes a comparison of sharp rocks looming just below beautifully tranquil water and the imperfections of Hawaiian life and its colonial past and present, despite the place being a tropical paradise. It’s a sharp observation, though Finnegan maybe takes it a little too far. Yes, the images are black and white, and yes, there is a stark realism here, but it’s subtle.

Most importantly, this book feels like Hawaii. Quiet moments of checking the surf. Erratic, hardened lava flows. Resident families posing by their van. Powerful, wind-torn waves unloading on shallow reefs, with black silhouettes of surfers jockeying for a ride amidst the chaos. Racks of battered surfboards. Locals rinsing off after a session. Hawaiian sovereignty protests.

Heine’s experience as a celebrity portraitist shines through in the occasional photo of someone with model-quality gorgeousness lying in a truck, sitting on a longboard, or showering the sand from their chiseled abs. But that’s Hawaii too. You never know who’ll you see there, and there are plenty of beautiful bodies running around under the sun.

My favorite photo is probably one of the simplest, and surfiest of the book. A surfer is squatting on their haunches in trunks, a board across the top of their thighs, and they’re looking at waves, reading the lineup. The surfer could be preparing to paddle out, or maybe just got out and is taking a last look. Heine shoots the figure from the back, the surfer completely dark in silhouette, the ocean bright gray, the waves blurred. It’s a moment we’ve all experienced a zillion times and one that has a beauty we probably fail to appreciate every time we check the surf.

Pre-order now (and save about $30), publishing date is May 24.

View the 7 images of this gallery on the original article