Kenyatta Kelechi: Laulima

Hawaiʻi-based artist Kenyatta Kelechi (b. 1990) uses the 19th-century technique of wet plate collodion photography to examine concepts of Indigenous identity and connection to family and place. The black-and-white prints and glass and aluminum plates in Laulima document and celebrate Kānaka ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiian) cultural practitioners of today and their enduring respect and care for the ʻāina (land).

The highly technical collodion process relies on the correct balance of chemicals and results in hauntingly beautiful images that resemble vintage photographs. Kelechi recognizes a correlation between the wet-plate process—which is conducted on site and vulnerable to and affected by shifting weather conditions—with a close connection to the land that is a foundation of Indigenous culture. The artist grew up in Kailua on the island of Oʻahu and although he comes from a richly varied background (his mother is Hawaiian, Chinese, and white; while his father is African American, French, and Native American), as a youth he felt disconnected from his Hawaiian heritage. The laborious process necessary to create a glass ambrotype or an aluminum tintype allows the artist to spend time learning from his subjects and has become a way for him to actively participate in his community.

Used by outsiders to document Native peoples of Hawaiʻi during the early 1900s, Kelechi’s use of this traditional technique engages with a complex history. Acknowledging this past, the artist makes a point to learn as much as he can about his subjects and offers them greater agency in the creative process by inviting them to suggest location, clothing, pose, and composition. Laulima (literally “many hands”), illustrates the give and take between artist and subject and contrasts with the traditional idea of the photographer as observer/documentarian. Instead, Kelechi’s images express the desire to engage with and learn from community members while sharing equally with his subjects the authority of representation.

Support for this exhibition is provided by



Laila Twigg-Smith Art Fund of the Hawai'i Community Foundation
The Judith Pyle and Wayne Pitluck Fund for Contemporary Art

Top Image
Kenyatta Kelechi (Hawai‘i, b. 1990). Fukumitsu ‘Ohana, 2019. 
Ambrotype. ©Kenyatta Kelechi, 2024.