A Fashionable Neighborhood explores the social landscapes depicting the advent of the quickly constructed housing in Honolulu that resulted from the post-World War II population boom. These 26 low-rise walk-up apartments are a segment of the built environment during this “Modern” period emphasizing the years between 1947-1967.

Honolulu is a vibrant city where modernist architecture is predominant and iconic. The neighborhoods, however,  comprised of these modernist gems are waning. The photography of Julius Shulman and Berenice Abbott and the beauty and simplicity of this architecture inspired me to conceive of this project. I shot in black and white to create dramatic dark tones and deep contrasts instilling the mood reflecting this fading state of affairs. The black and white format reduced the subject to its geometrical essentials. Natural light created reflections of the horizontal and vertical lines and use of reinforced concrete and steel. Expression of the structural elements are exposed rather than hidden mirroring the neighborhoods themselves.

These images were taken during the lockdown of Covid-19. The work, influenced by the cultural impact that had on us, beyond being a record of the structures also transmits the tension palpable in these now drive-by neighborhoods, revealing a look under the hood of a watchful population wary of contaigon.