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Ancient Hawaii

Ancient Hawaii

Colin Anderson
August 12, 2016
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ANCIENT Hawaii is a collection of 15 fine art images inspired by some of the most popular Legends of Hawaii. “ANCIENT” is a photographic interpretation of the “Essence of the Profound Ancestors of Hawaii” that was created to encourage education and inspire investigation and awareness of the history of Hawaii and to promote the perpetuation, preservation, and sustainability of Hawaii, the Hawaiian Culture and Indigenous People. Photographed in Hawaii, using local Hawaiian talent and resources.



Colin was doing a boat shoot in Hawaii and got talking to the owner Robert Andia. Robert had dreamed for many years about creating photographically the Hawaiian Legends. When Robert saw my work, he thought it would be a great project for me. I love Hawaii and the thought of working there and producing some amazing imagery really appealed to me. Because Ancients is inspired by the stories and legends of the Hawaiian gods we had to be respectful and make sure we were historically accurate. We had an advisory panel that made sure we stayed on track. We also drew on experts such as master lei makers who made the Hula skirt and head dresses, an ancient Hawaiian weapons expert that assisted us on the Ku shoot that supplied us with the authentic weapons and techniques. A Master Kapa maker who makes the cloth that Hawaiians use to wear.


Ancients was shot on a Canon 5DMK3, CaptureOne Pro, Photoshop, Ezio colour monitor, Wacom Cintiq, Zbrush, Maxon Cinema 4D on a Mac Pro.
The Planning for Ancients took Robert about a year to prepare, researching the legends, finding the right local talent, putting together an advisory panel, obtaining permission, scouting locations etc... shooting locations and studio took us about 5-6 weeks and then the photoshop work took me 6 months of 18 hour days 7 days a week. Every image had to be built. Because we are depicting Ancient times the landscapes would have been different so i had to take this into account. With the Pele image which is the most popular in the series, we flew to the big island and shot the volcanic landscape. Pele's dress I made in 3D but all the lava veins I had to paint by hand. I added in all the flames and sparks to give it the feeling of radiating heat. The model was amazing and moved so beautifully I only had to add the length to her hair. These images have hundreds and hundreds of layers, Ku we shot 700 unique poses, weapons and positions to get all the warriors we needed for this one image. Maui I had to build the water to make it look like a vortex that had walls. Not one of these images were easy.






The response was overwhelming. We launched at the Honolulu Museum of art in April 2015 and had over 1500 people attend.
I learnt so much by doing this project. It pushed me far beyond my comfort zone and learning in depth about the legends of Hawaii and the Gods and Goddesses that i found so fascinating.

Colin Anderson Website - http://www.andersonproductions.com.au
Colin Anderson on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/colin.anderson.productions
Ancient Hawaii website - http://www.hawaiiancient.com
Images can be purchased through Wy's Galleries North Shore Oahu - http://www.wysgalleries.com
and Bill Wyland Galleries - Lahaina Maui

Colin Anderson

Canadian born Colin Anderson, moved to Australia with his parents at the age of 14, later studying advertising and design at a Melbourne University.

He went on to work as a art director at an advertising/design agency before leaving to pursue a career as a photographer. While Colin remains based in Australia, he still has clients from all over the world who seek him out for his unique approach to the creation of imagery.

In 2004 Colin co founded Seattle based www.blendimages.com, the world's leading multicultural commercial stock agency.

Considered a generalist, Colin’s work is stylistic, conceptual and often narrative based. A vision, that has been shared with such diverse companies as Accor, AMP, Compaq, Canon, Dell, Discovery Channel, EMI, Esanda, Fuji,Harper Collins New York, Hayman Island Resort, Hotel Sofitel, IBM, Ingram Micro, Kodak, LG, Maxtor, Mecure Hotel, Merrill Lynch, National Geographic Channel, Newsweek, Panasonic, Penguin Books New York, Random House New York, Samsung, Sheraton, Telstra, Toshiba, Warner Bros, Universal and many more.

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