Bruna Stude Photography

Fashion PhotographerBRUNA STUDE | PHOTOGRAPHY

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GALLERY 02

GALLERY 03

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BIOGRAPHY

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Indeed, a fine balance of spirit with matter can only concur when the artist has so thoroughly submerged himself in the study of the unity of nature as to truly become once more a part of nature a part of the very earth, thus to view the inner surfaces and the life elements.

- Isamu Noguchi (1927)

GALLERY 01

Water No.6
Water No.16
Water No.8
Water No.11
Water No.2
Water No.12
Water No.12
Water No.8
Water No.5
Water No.4

recent work EMPTY OCEANS, verso

Water No.6
Water No.16
Water No.8
Water No.11
Water No.2
Water No.12
Water No.12
Water No.8
Water No.5
Water No.4

GALLERY 02

Cityscape [ Man-made ] 2
Cityscape [ Man-made ] 2
Cityscape [ Man-made ] 3
Seascape
Seascapes [ Man-made ] 2
Seascape [ Man-made ]
Water
Seascape [Man-made] No.1
Seascape [ Man-made ] No. 3
Seascape [Man-made]

recent work EMPTY OCEANS

Cityscape [ Man-made ] 2
Cityscape [ Man-made ] 2
Cityscape [ Man-made ] 3
Seascape
Seascapes [ Man-made ] 2
Seascape [ Man-made ]
Water
Seascape [Man-made] No.1
Seascape [ Man-made ] No. 3
Seascape [Man-made]

GALLERY 03

Pearl Diver
Dive
Dive No. 2
Two Feet Under
Beneath The Surface #2
Beneath The Surface
Beneath The Surface #4
Predator. Prey
Pas De Deux
Identity
Uninterrupted
Overlooked
Circles
Gossip
Madracis
Current

1987 - 2007 BENEATH THE SURFACE

Pearl Diver
Dive
Dive No. 2
Two Feet Under
Beneath The Surface #2
Beneath The Surface
Beneath The Surface #4
Predator. Prey
Pas De Deux
Identity
Uninterrupted
Overlooked
Circles
Gossip
Madracis
Current

PRINTS

PLATINUM + PALLADIUM PROCESS

Platinum / palladium prints are photographic prints made by a monochrome printing process that provides the greatest tonal range of any printing method using chemical development.Unlike the silver print process, platinum lies on the paper surface, while silver lies in a gelatin or albumen emulsion that coats the paper. As a result, since no gelatin emulsion is used, the final platinum image is absolutely matte with a deposit of platinum (and/or palladium, its sister element which is also used in most platinum photographs) absorbed slightly into the paper.By varying the amount of platinum vs palladium and the addition of oxidizing chemicals such as hydrogen peroxide and potassium dichromate or potassium chlorate, the contrast and "color" of the final image can be modified. Because of the non-uniformity of the coating and mixing phases of the process, no two prints are exactly the same, adding additional "cachet" to a platinum print.Due to the unavailability of pre-coated sensitized paper, all platinum/palladium printing is done on paper hand-coated by the printer. The light sensitive chemicals are mixed from powdered basic chemicals, or some commercially available solutions, then hand applied with a brush or a cylindrical "pusher".HISTORYIn 1873, thirty-four years after Louis Daguerre in Paris and William Henry Fox Talbot in London presented the discovery of photography to the world, the platinum process of printing photographs was patented.Since that time, platinum's use in photography has had an almost unbroken continuity to the present day—being interrupted only by the World Wars. At the outbreak of World War I, platinum abruptly could no longer be obtained. Russia had almost 90 percent of the world's supply; and what little platinum was available went into strategic needs of the war.When peace was won, and as the world returned to normal, platinum was prominently resurrected by Alfred Stieglitz, who printed mostly on platinum and palladium papers. Platinum was also preferred by his young protégés Paul Strand and Clarence White. Edward Weston used platinum and palladium papers throughout his early, greatest period; Edward S. Curtis, Irving Penn, Manuel Alvarez Bravo and most of the greats in the history of photography have all produced perfect, beautiful images in platinum.

BIOGRAPHY

STATEMENT

I spent most of my life at sea, my earliest memories are of water. For over two decades I photographed marine life. I created intimate portraits of fish, sharks, and corals. Today, when I photograph in the ocean, I often find void and damage instead, footprints where we humans shouldn't have left any.That is why I photograph empty oceans. My photographs are not a documentation but an artistic choice to illuminate: looking up from only a few inches below the surface I see cities, I see only what man has created. By revealing the truth and the extraordinary, I try to create an awareness and inspire reverence.- Bruna Stude

BIO

Bruna Stude was born and raised in the port town of Split on the Dalmatian Coast in the 1960s, she was given her first 35 mm camera at age of ten.She graduated from the Law University in Split, Croatia. After working for several years as a newspaper and radio reporter, she left Croatia in 1987 to pursue a life at sea. Forsaking the comfort of her native environs and language, Bruna found that photography gave her a new identity as a participant in the life and rhythms of the sea. She also found in photography the techniques to express her own creative sense and impulses. As a freelance artist and stock photographer for Omni Photo Communications - New York, Bruna traveled the world as a crew onboard yachts over many years, which enabled her to pursue her love for water and explore the world beneath the surface. Over the years, she circumnavigated the globe several times, pausing sometimes for months in remote areas, accessible only by water. Those voyages enabled her to explore the ocean as a subject with much appreciation and understanding. In 2002, she found her home on the island of Kauai in Hawaii, where the songs of whales fill the ocean in winter.

EXHIBITIONS

Upcoming + Recent2012Biennial of Hawai‘i Artists X, Spalding House, Honolulu Academy of Arts at Makiki Heights, Honolulu Hawai`i Curator: Inger Tully, Honolulu, Hawai'i2011Artists of Hawai`i 2011, 59th Biennial Juried Exhibition, The Honolulu Academy of Arts, Honolulu, Hawai`i Juror: Michael Rooks, High Museum Modern and Contemporary Art Curator, Atlanta, Georgia.2010 Winter Kunstkammer - Part II , Contemporary painting, photography, sculpture and ceramics exhibited with works of art from the Hellenistic period through the 19th century of European, Oceanic and New World Culture. Walter Randel Gallery, Chelsea, New York, New York. Curator: Yoo-Jong Kim, New York, New York.Solo Exhibitions2008 Kaua`i Museum, Lihue, HI2007 TIMESPACE , Hanapepe, Kaua`i, HI2006 Sulkin/Secant Gallery, Bergamot Station Art Center, Santa Monica, CA Selected Group Exhibitions200920 Going On 21: Honoring the Past, Celebrating the Present, The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, Hawai`i Curators: TCM Curators Inger Tully and Jay Jensen, Honolulu, Hawai`i.DREAMSCAPES, LOOK Gallery, Los Angeles, California Curators: Jerri Levi and Brent Turner, Los Angeles, California.Artists of Hawai’i 2009, 58th Biennial Juried Exhibition, The Honolulu Academy of Arts, Honolulu, Hawai`i Juror: Laura Hoptman, Curator at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, New York.The Art Studio as a Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California. Curator: Tal Yizrael, Los Angeles, California.2008E C O / L O G I C, Arts at Marks Garage, Honolulu, Hawai`i Curator: Rich Richardson, Honolulu, Hawai`i17 National Juried Show, The Art Center of Northern New Jersey, New Milford, New Jersey Juror: Stacey Goergen, Curatorial Department, Whitney Museum, New York, New YorkContemporary Landscapes , Millard Sheets Art Canter, Pomona, California . Curator: Tal Yizrael, Los Angeles, CaliforniaNegative Space, The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, Colorado Juror: Brooks Jensen, Founder and co-editor of the publication LensWork Magazine2007Art Kauai 2007, Kauai Society of Artists Annual Juried Exhibition, Lihue, Hawai`i Juror: Gregg Hertzlieb, Brauer Museum of Art, Valparaiso University Curator, Valparaiso, IndianaArtists of Hawaii 2007, 57th Biennial Exhibition, Honolulu Academy of Arts, Honolulu, Hawai`i Juror: Russel Ferguson, Chair of the Department of Art at the University of California in Los Angeles, and former Chief Curator at the UCLA, Los Angeles, California.2006The Art Of Photography Show, Lyceum Gallery, S.Diego, California Juror: Arthur Ollman, the Director of the Museum of Photographic arts, San Diego, CaliforniaMatchbox Plus II Miniature Art Show 2006 , Cedar Street Galleries, Honolulu, Hawai`i2004".... of Women" , Sulkin/Secant Gallery, Santa Monica, CaliforniaKindred Spirits, Sulkin/Secant Gallery, Santa Monica, CaliforniaImagine In The Furnace Lotus Blooms, One Big Truth Gallery, Santa Monica, California2002Rice Dreams, One Big Truth Gallery, Santa Monica, California

COLLECTIONS

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, HIThe Honolulu Academy of Arts, Honolulu, HI

STATEMENT
BIO
EXHIBITIONS
COLLECTIONS

PRESS+ESSAYS

July 2011

NO RAINBOWS, NO PROBLEM

The Artists of Hawaii exhibit has works that do not necessarily go together wellBy David A.M. Goldberg / Special to the Star-Advertiser, JULY 3. 2011This year marks the 59th anniversary of the Artists of Hawaii, and it's the exhibition's best iteration of the 21st century.Juror Michael Rooks manages collections and exhibitions of post-1945 art for the High Museum in Atlanta, but he lived in Hawaii for six years, working as a curator at the Honolulu Academy of Arts and The Contemporary Museum. Using his insider-outsider status, Rooks has done a brilliant job of curating Hawaii's home-grown and indigenous talent without including a single work that panders to, exploits or distorts our image of ourselves.The first image is not a sunset, beach, flower or ethnographic moment; it is Ryan Lee's altered photographs of Hurricane Iniki bending palm trees. Remembering this historic disaster invites us to examine the role of art during the current storm of budget crises and environmental catastrophes.Beyond Lee, Rooks establishes Hawaii as a place that looks outward with a politicized eye: We see Osvaldo Brighenti's drawings of Russian anarchists, Rachelle Dang's large-scale portraits of Yemeni demonstrators, pieces from Marcia Morse's "Women in Black" series, Sanit Khewok's critiques-in-miniature and Steven Garon's stunning photograph of a blind Burmese boy printed on a page from a Braille textbook.THOUGH THE show invites consideration of collective expression, it is by no means harmonious, for Rooks has not selected for an artificial unity that is neither plausible nor necessary.Kapulani Landgraf's "Kahulumanu," a hypnotic alii-ready cape of photographed eyes ringed with handwritten Hawaiian lamentation chants, isn't meant to live happily ever after with painter Erika Luecke's dense and foreboding evocation of layered clouds ("Makuma"), Bruna Stude's equally dark yet richly layered underwater photographs or Aaron Padilla's "Union": a large, flowing, all-wood square extrusion that encloses a bundle of cable forms, all tied in a square knot.But could we not divine a connection between Landgraf's tribute to her deceased mother, Luecke's possible evocation of grief, Stude's ocean of what could be tears of mourning and Padilla's visual implications of data transmission?Elsewhere, Charles Bowen ("Homeless Homework"), Kloe Kang ("Invisible Cities: Hotel Makai 1") and Phil Uhl ("Urban Eye") present different, decidedly non-nostalgic views of urban Honolulu.Bowen's homeless girl, photographed on Ahui Street before her community was purged from the Kakaako area, does her homework among improvised homes; Kang's haunting pencil rendering of Chinatown hovers between magical realism and digitally augmented reality; and Uhl riffs on the visual-effects technique of set extension to link the skylines of Waikiki and Hong Kong to a sprawling meta-city under total digital surveillance.These examples demonstrate an investment of time and artistic intelligence that captures complex interplays of literal and figurative texture, color, force and rhythm that surround us every day.Bowen's postindustrial landscape transcends photojournalism to marry the beauty of our skies to the gaudy tropical fish printed on a blanket used to shelter those who sleep on sharp stones. This de facto surrealism joins Kang's ghosts of lion dances, amorphous abstractions of social relationships, and the all-seeing eye that links the Renaissance obsession with perspective to the police cameras that stare down Chinatown — which is the power and vision that Uhl renders at titanic proportions, one pixel at a time.The exhibition also features more abstract representations. One of Nu'a Bn's two mysterious, vaguely allegorical canvasses places the figure of a female hula dancer behind a semitranslucent gray-white fog. In the foreground, colorful expressionistic brush strokes duel with a grid that could be star map, street map or 2-D echo of Kaili Chun's towering iron cages.Meanwhile, Keith Tallet's "Flying Hawaiians" duet fuses the seductive aesthetics of the perfectly waxed surfboard with black tire tread patterns. Linking these repetitions to traditional Polynesian tattoos and gene sequences, Tallet has given us one of the exhibition's most successful evocations of and challenges to (post-) modern Hawaii.This hybridity that mixes media, subject matter and aesthetic conventions carries the viewer from high modernism to contemporary indigenous to the borders of "outsider art."Among these 118 works by 79 artists of sculpture, textile, painting, photography, drawing, digital and video, you will find pieces to love, shun and wonder "why in the world was that included?"But I guarantee that you will not be able to write off the show as business as usual. Rooks has done our artistic community a tremendous favor by raising the bar for all future jurors, reassuring us that the artistic interests of our two museums will survive their union and loosening the constraints of our self-imposed artistic clichés and stereotypes.

March 2011

BRUNA STUDE - EMPTY OCEANS

NEW55 FILMBOB CROWLEYTUESDAY, MARCH 22, 2011Sometimes by pure chance one comes across an unexpected or astonishing find: Such was the case at Galerie103 in Poipu, Kauai, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.Gallery owner Bruna Stude's own photographs are modestly displayed in the small corridor between her two larger Galerie103 spaces that contain current shows. Empty Oceans (link here-very much worth clicking on!) are Stude's more recent expressions of her ocean-going life since she left her native home of Croatia. A scuba and free diver, Bruna Stude would crew on ships every year, sail to relatively unknown and nontraditional places. "I just drop in the middle of the blue ocean, experiencing the feeling of being in a place people haven't been." For over a decade, Stude would dive on remote places and they would always see lots of ocean life, but then in the last several years, fewer large fish, like sharks, were seen. "Last year we didn't see any" she explained, "it became disturbing, the world changing at a fast pace that we are not aware of."It was around that time that Stude made what she thinks was an unconscious decision to photograph the empty ocean. Over one week, in Seven Seas a day of empty ocean was chronicled. "But it is beautiful" she said. "I've found a way to photograph how it feels to be in it, and after experiments with cameras and shutter speeds I've learned how to do it. I try to say how it feels."Visit more of Bruna Stude's work here. Seascape 20

February 2011

SURFACING ON KAUAI

Jon LetmanFLUX Hawaii, February 2011Raised in the Croatian port town of Split on the Dalmatian Coast in the 1960s, Bruna Stude’s earliest memories are of the Adriatic Sea. Her first ambitions, Stude recalls, involved water.“My goal, when I was little, was to dive underwater from one end of the harbor to the other. I never got to the other end, but I never stopped trying. I sometimes feel I’m still doing it.” As a child Stude was taught to appreciate all art forms. “My grandfather was an artist, my sister’s a classical ballerina and a lot of my family is in music.” When she was 10 Stude got her first camera and began photographing her dog, her family and anything else that caught her eye. In her late 20s, Stude left Split and became a crewmember on boats that took her around the world several times over.Exploring the world’s seas, Stude began taking underwater pictures, a subject that has become her hallmark. For Stude, living afloat for the better part of 17 years, mostly in pursuit of “someplace warm,” allowed her to photograph marine life in the Galapagos, Micronesia, the Caribbean and the Red Sea, to name a few. When Stude and her partner Carter Corey sailed to O‘ahu in 2000, she realized she’d found the islands she’d been dreaming of since her childhood — a place with endless summer. “I always wanted to live somewhere you could swim year-round.” In 2002 Stude dropped her proverbial anchor on Kaua‘i where she began exhibiting her photography in a Hanapp gallery, but when it closed, she and fellow artists found themselves without a venue. Fortuitously, a new retail space called Kukui‘ula Village was recruiting new tenants. For Stude, this was her chance to open her own gallery — Galerie 103. Amongst Kaua‘i’s small, but vibrant art community, Stude saw the potential to showcase accomplished artists from Hawai‘i and elsewhere. Works by William T. Wiley and H. C. Westermann were suddenly available to a growing body of collectors and viewers on Kaua‘i who valued a class of art beyond stock “island art” found in souvenir galleries. Since July 2009, Stude has been owner, curator and director for the 2,400 square foot space, which looks and feels more like a gallery one finds in Los Angeles or New York City than in a neighbor island resort retail complex. Galerie 103 is divided into two spaces – the main gallery where large works are exhibited and an adjacent smaller annex Stude calls Galerie+ which features smaller format works and sculptures, objects and art books representing the artists Galerie 103 has shown. Before opening the gallery Stude already knew most of the artists who have exhibited at Galerie 103 save for one — Tom Lieber, a north shore-based abstract painter whose paintings are found in collections on both coasts and in Europe, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Guggenheim in New York City, The Tate Gallery in London and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. When Stude finally met Lieber, she says he taught her many of the ins and outs of the business of running a gallery. For Lieber’s part, he praises what he calls Stude’s “keen sense of finding the best of anything and everything, from art to lighting to books” in order to create a “rewarding experience for discriminating viewers.” Besides working with top Hawai‘i artists like Doug Britt, Christopher Reiner and others, Gallerie 103 is, for Stude, a vehicle for challenging misconceptions about art in the islands. Hawai‘i offers so much more than simply a beautiful setting for artists to depict. Hawai‘i has become, Stude says, “a center of conceptual awareness and critical debate, especially for environmental issues.” One project in which Stude has combined her own talents as a photographer with a fellow Kaua‘i artist was in making the short film Love Sharks which captures the natural enthusiasm and affection children exhibit for the ocean’s most fearsome creature as inspired by Anahola artist Mac James’ “Ikaika” exhibition. Through the artists exhibiting at Galerie 103 and her own photographic studies of the ocean, Stude fosters a love of the arts, teaches the importance of marine environments and, perhaps just figuratively, gets a little bit closer to the other end of the harbor.

March 2009

20 GOING ON 21: Honoring the Past, Celebrating the Present, Looking to the Future

An Exhibition of Hawaii ArtistsMarch 19-June 21, 2009TCM had its origins in The Honolulu Advertiser Gallery (later Contemporary Arts Center of Hawai'i), which opened in October 1961 in the News Building. The gallery was the initiative of Thurston Twigg-Smith, then general manager of The Honolulu Advertiser, who recognized the need for a space dedicated to exhibitions of works by Hawai'i's contemporary artists. As the institution formalized, developed, and expanded over the years, The Honolulu Advertiser Gallery/Contemporary Arts Center became The Contemporary Museum, opening in a new home in the Cooke-Spalding estate in Makiki Heights in October 1988.20 Going on 21 is one of a number of special programs in 2009 celebrating TCM's 20th anniversary. TCM invited past TCM Biennial invited artists (52 from eight Biennials) to each nominate up to five contemporary Hawai'i artists who they feel are accomplished or emerging, to be considered for the exhibition (fellow Biennial artists were not eligible to be nominated).The nominees were invited to submit examples of their work to be juried by a pane ofthree individuals: Melissa Chiu, Gallery Director and Vice-President for Global Art Programs at the Asia Society in New York; Lawrence Rinder, Director of the University Art Museum, Berkeley, California; and Joseph Havel, artist and Director of the Glassell School of Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas.The jurors met and selected 20 artists to be included in the exhibition. Following the selection of the artists by the jury, TCM's Deputy Director of Exhibitions and Collections James Jensen and Exhibitions Curator Inger Tully visited the artists to select the works to be presented in the exhibition. In addition, they selected one additional or 21st artist to be included.The artists selected include Derek Bencomo, Andrew Binkley, Dana Forsberg, Karen Gally, Jaisy Hanlon, Keiko Hatano, Vince Hazen, Lynda Hess, Ryan Higa, Corinne Kamiya, Sanit Khewhok, Jeeun Kim, Mat Kubo, Stephan Lang, Hal Lum, Mark Maresca, Tom Sewell, Bruna Stude, Lynne Yamamoto, Charles Yuen, and Wayne Miyamoto.This exhibition is sponsored by a special hui of supporters organized by Timothy Y. C. Choy, Ph.D. The hui includes: LeBurta Atherton, The Bainum Foundation, Diane Chen KW and Jan Koch-Weser, Timothy Y. C. Choy, Kay and Tom Dunton, Elizabeth and Richard Grossman, Randolph G. Moore and Lynne Johnson, Carol and Malcom Koga, Jim and Lynn Lally, Violet Loo, Maria O'Reilly, Michael and Trish O'Neill, Judy Pyle and Wayne Pitluck, Joanna Sullivan, and Betty and Robert Ching Wo.The exhibition has also been supported in part by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and with in-kind support by Sony Hawaii and the Waikiki Parc Hotel.A catalogue will be published by TCM in conjunction with the exhibition and will be available for purchase in the TCM Museum Shop.

August 2008

Art Recycled

Honolulu Advertiser, Sunday, August 10, 2008By Jaimey Hamilton "Eco/Logic," on display at The ARTS at Marks Garage, is an environmentally themed art exhibition coinciding with Hawaii Conservation Week. Its 31 artists address issues as global as peak oil and as local as the pollution on O'ahu's beaches, ultimately expressing the interconnectedness of our precarious ecological system.The exhibition as a whole, like any with a socio-political theme, begs the question of how you address important concerns in art, on the one hand, without being overly didactic, or, on the other, wandering off into romantic idealism. What is the responsibility of art to disseminate information, set examples and raise visibility? No one wants to feel like they are being force-fed righteous perspectives. Yet neither can we deny the importance of art that reminds and incites us to change our everyday behaviors. There are no easy answers; in this show, some artists use dark humor, some go with more matter-of-fact statements, while others express solemn lament.It was interesting to see that many artists, no matter what tone they were striving to achieve, were keen on constructing "warning signs" — art pieces in the form of gauges, instructions, or indicators that express our impact on the environment.One of the funniest pieces in the show, "Mobile Warming: Tipping Point," by Chris Reiner, achieves a great balance between information and poetry. This pseudo-scientific instrument (typical of Reiner's "obtainium" — a word he uses to describe the cultural detritus he collects for his art), is set up as a scale, outfitted with a pan for ice on one side and a weight on the other. As the ice melts, the weight drops closer and closer to a frying pan sitting on the table, which is also filling up with the melted water. The piece is whimsical, dripping leagues and leagues of verbal and visual humor, and at the same time reminding us that, according to some statistics, sea levels have risen six to eight feet in the past 100 years.Other warnings are sounded in a series of photographic vignettes by Hawkins Biggins. "Code Red," "Code Green" and "Code Blue" play off the Homeland Security threat level advising system.Bruna Stude uses photographs to convey the disturbing absence of key indicator species. Her black and white underwater images capture beautiful, but empty, oceans.The graphic simplicity and subtle irony of these two pieces are found in many others as well. Kirsten Rae Simonsen titled her drawing of a '70s-style car surrounded by a halo of fire "Peak Oil." She brings back pop artist Ed Rusha's deadpan humor to remind us that decades ago we already were ambivalent about how consumer car culture was affecting our world.Similarly, Susan Maddux's small watercolor, entitled "Domesticated," shows a gas can that has grown the legs of a calf. The image plays off the current hyperbolic debate about our dependence on domestic and foreign oil. We keep talking about where we get our oil, all the while ignoring the more insidious ramifications of taming natural resources that don't recognize our national borders.Of all the "warning signs" in the show, perhaps the most obvious and powerful is Gary Sweeney's "Civilization is an interlude between ice ages." This sentence is constructed of fragments of old signs, literally the debris of our urban jungle left to rust and reintegrate back into the earth. The obvious decay of the signs illustrates Sweeney's statement exactly. The text reminds me of an important leitmotif running throughout the show: that we humans need to think of ourselves as more integrated into an eco-logic.The works do not simply illustrate that we have been horrible stewards of our environment (though we have) or that we need to recycle more in order to help preserve the Earth (though we do). They indicate that we should be fully aware of the complex knots with which we are bound to the ecology of this blue planet — so much for that simple circle with three arrows.We are part of the problem and solution for sure. But even more fundamentally, we are quirky animals that have thrived in the earth's unique ecosystem, but have become arrogant enough to think that perhaps we are beyond its reach.In fact, the most alarming prospect attached to our eroding environment is not that we will destroy the Earth (the Earth might yet survive us), but that we are making ourselves another extinct species, a blip in the vast scale of geologic and cosmic time.The point is made visually in Vince Hazens' "Gecko Logic," a black and white abstraction composed of slide samples of gecko poop collected around his home. As in all of his work, Hazens' humor is spot on. In this case, it points to our mania for the most minute pieces of data that can sometimes leave us blind to the larger picture.In a similar vein, Corine Kamiya's delicate, empty, collapsing birdcages constructed of vellum symbolically allude to our objectification of nature. The translucent material recalls the history of using processed animal hide to write out our observations about the world. The cages inspired me to ask how durable these systems of observation are in the grand scale of things. Aren't we ensnared in the logic of the cage as much as the birds?Many artists in the show also made their discussion of environmental issues relevant to the context of cultural politics. Mike Takemoto's "Save the Dolphins, Harpoon a Jap II" constructs an enigmatic graphic language that sends mixed signals. He conflates two different slogans and images from two very different eras and contexts, one in the service of war and the other in the service of environmentalism. The confusion begs us to reconsider the nature of all propaganda.Another great piece that interweaves cultural politics and nature is Clinton Haness' video, "Ecolokahi." Displayed on an eviscerated TV, this video collage, a la Robert Rauschenberg, overlays traditional hula and chants with images of the urbanization of Honolulu. Erections of high-rises and ship construction compete with the narratives about ocean and earth told simply through the motions of hands and feet. With hints of melancholy, it is a reminder that eco-logic could be as simple as recovering practices of malama 'aina, or taking care of the land.While most of the pieces in the show concentrate on hot-button issues, interestingly, only a few really truly propose an "eco-logic" — a new, dynamic way of thinking of about how to live more sustainably. Most more readily point out the fallibility of our current logic in which, just to hit the point home, Greenland's business leaders can be excited about global warming because it has uncovered oil reserves that were once capped in ice.Mat Kubo's piece, on the other hand, is one of the few in the exhibition that engages in an ethics of deep ecology. "ActionFunUrbanSurvivalism" documents the three weeks Kubo spent living off of only what he could hunt, grow, glean or trade. His actions demonstrate how to exist outside of our money economy, while also proposing an update of indigenous Hawaiian community and environmental interdependence. Viewers can come away knowing how potentially viable it could be to live from the support of the land and from each other on this island.Of course, it would be different if we all had to do it at the same time, but Kubo's actions inspire the hope that we might start to give more value to the intangibles of environment and community, and less to the conveniences of prepared food and plastic bags.Jaimey Hamilton is an assistant professor of contemporary art and critical theory at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa.

July 2008

MOANA [curator's statement]

“Bruna chooses creatures who have no voice, who are often misunderstood and forgotten because they are merely beautiful but silent. Bruna speaks for the creatures who can’t, and by listening to her and seeing them as she sees them, I’m humbled by the capacity we humans have to think more meaningful thoughts, create a better existence for us to live and build a life, and respect this world and all who share it.”– L.J.C. Shimoda, artist and gallery director of The Kaua‘i Museum

April 2008

Underwater

HAWAIIAN STYLE MAGAZINE APRIL 2008 By Douglas King Marine currents drive life around the world. Whales migrate to the waters off the Hawaiian Islands following the rich sea broth that feeds them, just as all sea creatures are directed by the push and pull of the vast ocean. Photographer Bruna Stude has also felt the pull of the ocean. Born in Croatia on the shores of the Dalmation Coast, Stude worked as a newspaper and radio reporter until she left Croatia in 1987 to pursue the call of the sea. She became a freelance stock photographer for many years, traversing the world as her love for all thing acquatic grew as deep as the ocean itself. By 2002, the currents directed Stude to her Kaua‘i home. It is in Hawaii that she has perfected her craft as an underwater photographer, producing a copious amount of images each year. Stude’s camera of choice is the Nikonos 35mm with a 35mm Nikon F4 and F5, set inside a Sea & Sea Housing. For dry images of shells, she uses a digital Nikon D1x. She notes that she only uses Nikon equipment, as the older lenses are always compatible with her newer cameras. In this next year she hopes to modify the Sea & Sea Housing to allow her to use the Nikon D1X, and thus transition to a completely digital workspace. “I like to use natural light in most of my pictures,” she says, “and use the Sea & Sea strobes only in extreme underwater close-ups.” Recently her work was collected for publication in In-Sight, a trade paperback book, filled with the rich black and white images that are Stude’s trademark (for a complete review see the HSBookshelf in this issue).Stude summarizes her journey and the environment that she loves this way: “When I photograph in the ocean, I look to find and capture the magnificence of that which is common and universal to it. By illuminating the extraordinary, I try to create awareness and inspire reverence.” You can see more of Bruna Stude’s work at www.HawaiianStyleMagazine.com or visit www.brunastude.com.

September 2007

Contemporary Landscapes [show essay]

Millard Sheets Art Canter, Pomona, CaliforniaSeptember 7- 30 ,2007Photographic works by Joyce Campbell, Soo Kim, Frank Kunert, Han Nguyen, Bruna Stude, William A Long, Kimi Kolba, Nicole Belle, Noga Elhasid & Halit Mandelblit + installation by Shinichi OnoCurator : Tal YizraelThe term “Landscape” was introduced to English language and awareness with the Dutch landscape paintings of the sixteenth century. Therefore, since its very beginning “landscape” has expressed an experience of space that includes the artist’s gaze.It was not a main subject in visual art, however, until the seventeenth century. To that point it had been applied nearly exclusively as the background to figures, illustrations or events.Photography at its infancy was meant to copy reality as a form of reporting and recording. Often landscape photography, in other than its role as exhibiting fascinations with and appreciations of nature, was a form of proof of the existence of a place. This was especially true if it documented a remote location to which the average viewer had limited or no access.Photographs from remote locations are frequently testaments to the adventurism of thephotographer and add a “halo of heroism” to the action of taking the picture. In this way not only the final product, namely the photograph, is glorified but also the photographer’s courage. Just sharing the photographs of one’s journey provides an opportunity to tell unusual or exceptional stories. The works in this exhibition retain the element of fascination with the landscape, but this initial form of attraction is challenged and calls for a penetrating reading of each. The works playfully shift between mindscapes and landscapes.The photographers in this exhibition take the viewer on their journeys – journeys of metaphoric adventurous minds – while the very action of examining the photographs turns into an adventure unto itself.Artists panelSeptember 9 ,2007, 7:00pm September 19,2007, 8:30 pm Guided tours:Thursdays at 5:00pm

February 2007

Through the lens of Bruna Stude

By Lesa GriffithHonolulu Advertiser, November 27. 2007 Stude, now a Kaua'i resident, is moving in new directions. No form of marine life, no matter how small, escapes her eye. Humans interacting with the ocean are part of Stude's photographic ouvre. An Indonesian fisherman's bare feet, dangling from a canoe, became an arresting image for Stude, who loves to dive with her camera. An operculum, used by a sea snail to close the mouth, becomes a figure study for the photographer. The Hawaiian 'opihi reminded Stude of similar — and similarly delectable — limpets back home on the Dalmatian Coast. Twenty years ago, Bruna Stude left her native Croatia for a life crewing on yachts. A law school graduate and a newspaper reporter, in a world where Croatian wasn't the first language, she turned to photography to express herself.Cruising around the seas to remote areas, she has photographed sharks off Burma and fishermen in Panama. Now the Kaua'i resident has collected some of her most striking images in the self-published book "In-Sight," which will be on bookshelves next month.Her work focuses on the ocean and the things in it. Growing up in the city of Split, on the Adriatic Sea, water has always been a part of Stude's life. She first went to Kaua'i to photograph whales, and she found a place to settle."The waters were filled with whale song. Kaua'i is like a cross between living on the ocean and on land," said Stude. Petite and trim as a gymnast, her makeup-free, angular face brings to mind a young Georgia O'Keeffe."In-Sight" includes images from her series on 'opihi. The limpet caught her eye because of its similarity to the Adriatic's prilipak, which people also eat."I took a closer look and discovered what a wonderful subject 'opihi could be," Stude said.The extreme closeup, black-and-white studies of 'opihi reveal a ridged surface as elegant and element-eroded as columns of the Parthenon.While in Indonesia five years ago, Stude met the owner of the One Big Truth Gallery in Santa Monica, Calif. He liked her work and showed it in the gallery."I was encouraged by it," Stude said.Then last year, her work was accepted for the juried "The Art of Photography Show" at the Lyceum Theatre Gallery in San Diego. "That was the moment I felt photography might be more than my pet project," she said. She also was included in this year's "Artists of Hawaii" show at the Honolulu Academy of Arts, and she has long contributed images to the stock-photo agency Omni Photo Communications.She originally put the photographs included in "In-Sight" together as a portfolio. People who saw it encouraged her to publish it as a book.Stude pointed to "Two Feet Under," a wavering shot from under water of Sale Alorkeil, an Indonesian fisherman, with his legs dangling over his canoe."It illustrates how my life was," she said. "I made images when I could. The owner (of the boat) loved diving. For something like 'Two Feet Under' — it's not just a snapshot."For Stude, it can take years of going to a place to get that exact moment when light, subject and water conditions are just right. In this case, the fisherman paddled his canoe away from the harbor on Komodo Island. And it's one of the few times, Stude said, that everything aligned and almost every frame was perfect."I waited so long," she said. "There are so many elements you have to take care of in the water."Now she'd like to turn her talents to surf photography. "But I have so much to learn," she said. "I have to improve my surfing first."

April 2006

BENEATH [show essay]

by Jeff Sulkin “Beneath”April 2006Art-making begins with choices; what the artist chooses to see, What the artist chooses to see and then to communicate to us. The diverse mediums and tools of art are secondary; whether a brush, a pen, a camera. First must come the will and commitment to see; to look beyond the obvious, to look through the surface, to look beneath.This commitment is shared by all important artists, including Wayne Hanson and Bruna Stude. It is a commonality between them, underlying the variety of their subject matter. One sees into the underbelly of the urban environment. One sees into the underwater ocean environment. Both of these artists look deeply.Both of these artists meet their subjects on their own terms, engage with them in their own surroundings, and gain their acceptance. Through this process a deeper perception becomes available.This perception goes beyond the apathy of everyday awareness, finding grace and dignity in its subjects. This art succeeds in eliminating the unfamiliarity and ignorance which makes these subjects into endangered spieces.In presenting what is under the veneer of the city and under the surface of the sea (both sometimes dark and sometimes glittering), these artworks are not documentation, but rather they represent an artistic choice to illuminate. The beauty which results from these artists’ skills is easy to see. The value of their commitment takes more effort to appreciate.So join Wayne Hanson and Bruna Stude, And look “Beneath”.Jeff SulkinSulkin / Secant GalleryApril, 2006

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2829 ALA KALANIKAUMAKA

Kaua`i, Hawai`i 96756

T 808 742 0103

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