Photographer, filmmaker and author John Wehrheim (b. 1947) arrived on Kaua‘i in 1969 to write and photograph “Paradise Lost,” a three-part series for the Sierra Club, that focused on the rapid and unprecedented extinction of Hawai‘i’s unique flora and fauna, as well as Hawai‘i’s increasing water pollution, traffic congestion and urban-resort sprawl.
Two years later, in 1971, John moved into an A-frame shack behind Howard Taylor’s (1929–2020) family home at Makua, Ha‘ena, and began photographing Taylor Camp, a treehouse community across Maniniholo Bay founded by Taylor, an artist-oceanographer and the brother of actress Elizabeth Taylor.
In 1975, Wehrheim became Kaua‘i Community College’s photography instructor, the same year the Kaua‘i Historical Society engaged him to create the book “The Kaua‘i Album,” a visual masterpiece that contains photos of nearly 100 historic Kaua‘i structures, some dating to the early 1800s, few of which exist today.
It was then, also, that he began to seriously document Taylor Camp, seeing it as both a refugee community and what he’s described as the “ultimate surfer-hippie fantasy.”
“I try to select subjects that tell a story,” explained Wehrheim.
“The first question I ask is ‘Will this subject be more interesting, valuable, informative in a hundred years? Two hundred years?’”
His prints have been exhibited in Asia, Europe, and America, collected by Stanford University, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Hawai‘i State Foundation for Culture and the Arts.
They include “Taylor Camp” at LA Art — the nation’s largest art exhibition.
Excerpts and reviews of his work have been published in seven languages, and his books and films are in 136 libraries around the world.
The most recent project of his wide-ranging interests explores King David Kalakaua’s hydroelectric plant, built in 1888 after he met with inventor Thomas Edison in New York.
Wehrheim photographed the powerhouse ruins hidden deep within the Nu‘uanu, O‘ahu jungle and wrote an article about it for the November-December 2021 issue of “Hana Hou,” the Hawaiian Airlines magazine.
John Wehrheim and his wife, former Kaua‘i Mayor JoAnn Yukimura, have two children: Maile and Kanani.
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Hank Soboleski has been a resident of Kauai since the 1960s. Hank’s love of the island and its history has inspired him, in conjunction with The Garden Island Newspaper, to share the island’s history weekly. The collection of these articles can be found here: https://bit.ly/2IfbxL9 and here https://bit.ly/2STw9gi Hank can be reached at hssgms@gmail.com
The Kauai libraries and the Hawaii State Library System have John’s books and his two films on DVD – “The Edge of Paradise” and “Bhutan: Taking the Middle Road to Happiness”. Both are glimpses into remarkable cultures in transition ….
John Werheim got the bid to put an infrastructure for the Waipake subdivision when his wife Joanne Yukimura was Mayor of Kauai while my Hawaiian Ohana, Kanaka Maoli, of Waipake of 170+ years had to file complaints with the County, State and Feds for noncompliance of subdivision approval conditions, damage to Historical Sites, loi, spring, stream, opae, etc.. 30+ years of non enforcement including a sign agreement between the County and developer to clean and restore area.
“Paradise Lost”? You got that right. Ask Hawaiians, Na Kanaka Maoli, trying to save what little is left from a society and government that doesn’t give damn about us, our Aina, our Country…and they still say Aloha…
Aloha Randy–Very sorry to learn of your trouble at Waipake. I didn’t do any work on the Waipake subdivision and was not aware of these problems. JoAnn finished her term as Mayor’s in 1994. Aloha, john
John Wehrheim,
I wish there were more of your photographs in the article.
Thanks Helen–
I hope to have an exhibition of my historic photos of Kauai sometime after the Covid crisis passes and we can safely gather again.
Aloha, john