8″x10″ albumen prints, contact printed from 8″x10″ negatives, 2011

This body of work was done in collaboration with fellow artist and photographer Brandon Ng, in which we photographed using a 8×10 camera and contact printed each image using the albumen process of hand-applied photography.  Albumen printing was the most popular form of photographic printing from the 1860s to 1890s, coinciding with several decades of extreme change in the Hawaiian islands.

The holoku is a high-collar, long sleeved dress which was introduced to the Hawaiian people in the 1820s by missionaries, but has since been appropriated into the Hawaiian culture. By photographing the holoku in landscapes of historical and cultural significance, we sought to reveal cultural kaona, or hidden meanings, found within the garment.