Hawai’i, A Message in Stone

A new book project – And the time has finally come to give the petroglyphs of Hawaiʻi the love and attention they have always deserved.

“In the 1980s, as tectonic forces reshaped society, my friend Jörg Schmidt and I ventured to the lava fields of Hawai’i’s Big Island. For months,
we camped alone in one of Earth’s most otherworldly landscapes, photographing the petroglyphs (rock carvings) at sunrise and sunset, in the best of the light. Capturing their images on film felt like a kind of magic.
By midday, the black lava radiated an almost unbearable heat, forcing us to seek refuge, as Hawaiians had for centuries, in the island’s cool caves—where, to our astonishment, we discovered even more petroglyphs.
For more than 40 years, these images have followed me, their pleas to take form as a book preying increasingly on my mind.” Daniel Blau