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TheBuzz Erika Engle |
Local artist Kim Taylor Reece will be inducted this October in the hall of fame of his former college in California, a fitting celebration for his 25th year as a fine art photographer.
A camera-shy fine art
photographer marks
25 years of picturesHE'S celebrating 25 years as a fine art photographer, despite advice he received as a college art major.
Kim Taylor Reece, who had learned he was color-blind, was attending California State University at Long Beach where an instructor admonished him to change his major or wind up as a starving artist, he laughs.
Reece instead bemoans his weight gain, put on since he quit smoking after a heart attack.
He did change his major -- to advertising -- but no matter, he can chuckle and work out all the way to the bank.
As another consolation, he has been invited back to Long Beach City College this October for his induction into its hall of fame. He attended the college before transferring to Long Beach State.
In Hawaii, Reece was captivated by the ancient hula he saw demonstrated outside Iolani Palace in 1979 by the halau of kumu hula Frank Kawaikapuokalani Hewett.
Reece lunged into researching hula and it changed his life. He had to capture it, but didn't want people to know it was his work.
"I wanted people to think it came from Bishop Museum," he says, hence the sepia-toned, purposely grainy photography.
The Vietnam veteran was on the rise to a vice presidency in the in-house advertising agency of Hawaii Dental Service at the time. It was a position he kept for 10 years until his artwork became stable and lucrative enough for him to fulfill his quit-the-day-job fantasy.
He published his first poster, "Hula Kahiko," in 1985 and his business took off.
Evidence of the thriving Kim Taylor Reece Productions LLC can now be seen around the world during gallery shows, in private art collections, on the Web and in retail locations.
Hilo Hattie has recently launched aloha shirts, T-shirts and baseball caps based on Reece's images, adding to the Reece-wares it already carried in stores and at www.hilohattie.com.
"He is so well-known and is such an asset to our community, a treasure of Hawaii, that we were delighted at the opportunity," says Paul deVille, chief executive of Pomare Ltd., Hilo Hattie's parent company.
The timing of the garment launch wasn't so much aimed at the 25th anniversary, but "it is something we think makes sense long-term," says deVille.
"Hopefully what my images will do is bring the aloha shirt out of the Bahamas and back to Hawaii," Reece says, in a not-very-veiled reference to Tommy Bahama resort wear.
Reece is the one with the advertising and marketing education, but he credits his wife, Kanoe, for the explosive expansion of his business. "She's my business manager," he says sweetly. Kanoe, a former elementary school teacher, has the vision and organizational skills to explore areas he wouldn't and to follow up on them, he says. "It frees me up to be an artist."
The Reeces' partners in expansion produce and market books, note cards, candles, hula dancer sculptures and jewelry. They include the Islander Group Inc. via www.booklineshawaii.com, Hawaiian Resources Co. via mailorderhawaii.com, DBI-Hawaii Inc. at www.kenuiquilts.com and jewelry designer Steven Lee via hawaiitropicals.com/ainahawaii/coinjewhulka.html.
"Worldwide, his reputation is unbelievable," says Steve Holmberg, senior vice president of the Islander Group. "He has somehow touched the consumer with his art. He has a fabulous eye and has really done a beautiful job of representing the people of Hawaii."
The art has other dance companies seek him out. Reece recently photographed a dancer from the Royal Ballet in London.
Of the roughly 500 local subjects he's worked with, only one was not a real hula dancer; she was a model. "Dancers instantly knew she wasn't a dancer ... I never did that again," he says. Products featuring her image were pulled from the market.
One of his more prolific models is Natasha Oda, whose solo kahiko performance electrified a Merrie Monarch audience and helped propel her to the title of Miss Aloha Hula in 2001.
He never wanted to do anything that could be deemed culturally offensive and promises his dancer-models their images won't show up on tacky tourist-trap-type souvenirs.
Reece does his own darkroom work in environs he describes as "the Harry Potter dungeon." He has resisted switching to digital photography because until recently, he was not convinced the technology could produce long-lasting archival- and museum-quality art pieces.
He also doesn't consider himself a photographer. "I'm an artist ... I never took a photography class," he says. "I hate having my picture taken."
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin. Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210, Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached at: eengle@starbulletin.com
