The images of some 1,000 families, 60 weddings and countless numbers of high school seniors will live in perpetuity because of a recent Kaua‘i Historical Society acquisition. A collection of negatives turned in to the Kaua‘i Historical Society Friday by
The images of some 1,000 families, 60 weddings and countless numbers of high school seniors will live in perpetuity because of a recent Kaua‘i Historical Society acquisition.
A collection of negatives turned in to the Kaua‘i Historical Society Friday by local photographer Carol Ann Davis will keep these Kaua‘i images alive.
Davis, who founded Portraits of Hawai‘i in 1987 with her son Norman Davis Legoullon, said a lot of other photographers simply throw away the negatives when they run out of storage space.
“But for the relatives of these thousand families, this is important,” Davis said. “So, we’re turning them over to the historical society for their collection. These are all part of Kaua‘i’s legacy.”
Davis said the collection spans from 1987 to 2006 and includes negatives as well as digital image CDs.
Additionally, Donica Ida, a daughter of another Kaua‘i photographer Gerald Ida, spent her summer interning at Portraits of Hawai‘i where she devoted her time into filing, creating a database, and finalizing the transfer process.
Family members can access these photos for generations to come by working with the historical society, Davis said.
They can also work with Portraits of Hawai‘i through the historical society.
Davis said with the technological advances being made in digital imaging, Portraits of Hawai‘i made the transition from film to digital in 2002.
Mary Requilman, director for the Kaua‘i Historical Society, was grateful to accept the collection from Davis.
However, in accepting the negatives, Requilman noted the Society is approaching its storage capacity in its current location at the historic County Building.
“We are running out of space,” Requilman said.
While grateful for the contribution of this part of Kaua‘i’s history, the society also needs to start addressing the fact there is only a limited amount of space to store things, Requilman said.
Over the years, there have been several contributions of media from Kaua‘i photographers and in one case, Requilman said they wrote a grant so prints could be made from a negative collection.
Storage is always a problem and Davis noted her husband kept complaining to her about their growing number of cartons and containers with negatives.
• Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@kauaipubco.com.
