P.O.V. (2016)
8″x10″ silver gelatin prints from 35mm negatives
When visiting a tourist destination, we find ourselves with the compulsion to photograph the space, to compose a visual statement that says I WAS HERE! But when encountering a place seen by hundreds, sometimes thousands of people in a day, one may wonder how their experience or image may differ from everyone else’s. What will each person remember about these locations? From what point of view does each person absorb these places and experiences?
Two Hawaiʻi artists, Ualani Davis and Ashley Katamoto, contemplated these questions as they traveled together for 20 days in Europe, visiting the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, and France. Shooting primarily on 35mm black and white film, they photographed with the intention of discovering the historical, social, and cultural environment of each location, recording their encounters with people and their relationship with one another.
Examining the results of their 3-4 dozen rolls of film, Davis and Katamoto created a series of diptychs, one photograph from Davis and one from Katamoto, using time and place to unite their images. Pairing up photographs taken on the same day – some taken in the same location – to reflect on how one’s individual point of view changes how we see and interact with the world.
Davis and Katamoto exhibited their diptychs in a two-part series from August-December 2016 at Kaimuki Public Library in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi.
Ualani Davis 