Writer – Photographer – Educator
Each year, Hawaii Statehood Day falls on the third Friday in August. Hence, this year, Hawaii Statehood Day or Admission Day is August 20, 2021. Here are a few images from the Aloha State: Aerial photography of smoking volcano. Big Island of Hawaii. Photo by Alina Oswald. Award-winning image of juried contest. SoHo Photo NYC [...]
The story behind the image Today I'd like to share with you the story of an image I made last summer, during the Covid-19 quarantine. It's an image I called "Under the Covid-19 Dome" and one that was included in The Pandemic Archive Project. So, here it goes: I was out on the balcony, sipping [...]
Can you still recall how excited you were about the beginning of the year? Can you still recall your New Year's resolutions? Have you had a chance or strength or motivation to accomplish any of those resolutions? And how about that 2020 vision? Maybe "plagued" might be a more appropriate word to describe this year. [...]
A new photo book provides a snapshot of a new series of black-and-white photography that explores the role of gesture in communication and self-expression in a world pre- and post-Coronavirus pandemic As I might have mentioned in previous posts, ever since the beginning of this year I've been working, on and off, on a series [...]
How I made that shot and the story behind my "No Surrender" image Those of you reading this blog might recall some of my previous posts mentioning a new series of hand portraits and self-portraits, which is still very much a work in progress. Here's the story behind one of the images in this series--No [...]
Drawing parallels between AIDS and Covid-19 pandemics (or how HIV and AIDS has inspired creative work capturing Coronavirus and Covid-19) Several people, on different occasions, have asked me to talk about similarities and differences between the pandemic of the eighties (or the eighties' "plague," how Larry Kramer called it) and the current, Coronavirus pandemic. While [...]
Questions creatives might ask themselves in a time of Coronavirus pandemic Sometimes I think that this pandemic is a blessing in disguise, to some extent and in some strange way, that is. Coronavirus pandemic has really brought into focus many aspects of our lives and issues in our lives. As I might have mentioned in [...]
On the Renewed Significance and Symbolism of Photographing Hands--Hand Portraits and Gestures--in a Time of Covid-19 Months ago I started working on a new hand portrait series. At the time, I had more of an activism purpose in mind for this particular body of work. But then Covid-19 happened and it slightly started to reshape [...]
