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True Grit |
| Enthusiastic and determined, Carole Kai keeps jumping over hurdles to keep the aloha flowing for dozens of Hawaii charities. |
Tools for Life |
| From state-of-the-art scooters to emergency response systems, Assistive Technology Resource Centers of Hawaii (ATRC) connects the elderly and people with disabilities with the latest devices to improve their lives. |
DEPARTMENT:
Photographing Aloha
by Candice Kraughto
Photography by Veronica Carmona
It all started with a birthday present. In 1974, Veronica Carmona received a Kodak Instamatic camera from her friend Jon de Mello, now chief executive officer of the Mountain Apple Company, Hawaii’s largest record company and music distributor. That little camera wound up being the gift of a new life for Carmona. She began taking it wherever she went; everything she saw—however small, however seemingly mundane—inspired a photograph.
Her passion for photography grew when de Mello taught her how to develop film in the darkroom at his Tantalus home. “I was fascinated that I could preserve and reproduce a special memory or a moment in a photo,” says Carmona.
She had moved to Hawaii with her sister Patricia four years earlier. Born and raised in Chile to an architect father and a mother who loved to paint and play the piano, the sisters had come to Oahu to visit an uncle who lived in Kahala. They planned a three-week vacation, but wound up staying for two months.
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“I fell in love with the beautiful beaches, the weather and the people, who were so friendly and nice,” says Carmona. “It reminded me of home. We loved the beauty of the hula, the flowers and the Hawaiian music.” They returned to Chile to take care of their personal affairs, obtain long-term visas and pack their bags. Six months later, they were back on Oahu.
After working odd jobs in Honolulu for a few years, Carmona and Patricia flew to Kauai at the invitation of a friend who owned a vacant cabin on Tunnels Beach near Haena Point on the remote north shore.
There they underwent what Carmona calls “a very spiritual experience, a major transformation.” For three months, they stayed in the cabin, which was nestled in the wilderness amid papaya, guava and avocado trees. “We had no electricity and no water,” Carmona says. “We experienced what it was like to have nothing; it was so different from where we came from—a wealthy family in Chile. We made a fire and cooked soup and tea. We had to walk half a mile to Haena Point to get fresh water. We learned to survive off the land.”
After they returned to Honolulu, Carmona worked as a hostess at Arthur’s Restaurant in Waikiki, where she and Patricia befriended sisters Robyn and Kathy Veary. The four women became inseparable, and Robyn and Kathy asked the Carmonas to live with them at the Kahala home of their mother, well-known songstress Emma Veary.
“Living with the Vearys for a year gave me a totally different look at life,” says Carmona. “I met Nana (the family’s matriarch, Hannah Lihilihipuamelekule Veary), and became a more spiritual person.” Nana, who died in 1993, studied metaphysics three times a week, seeking wisdom through the strong connection she had with her Hawaiian heritage and ancestors.
Carmona speaks about her with wonder and gratitude. “I remember her kindness, generosity, spirituality and love for people,” she says. “Nana changed my life. She taught me how the Hawaiians used to live in the old days. She showed me the meaning of life—to be kind, to be helpful and to believe that God is in nature.”
It was through Nana that Carmona met Jon de Mello. Then came that career-defining birthday present.
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After spending two years teaching herself the basics of photography, Carmona moved to California in 1976 to learn more. She lived in Santa Barbara with a friend who was enrolled at the prestigious Brooks Institute of Photography and took advanced classes there herself, paying her tuition and living expenses with money she earned working part-time at a nearby camera store.
Carmona returned to Honolulu in 1979 and opened a studio on Piikoi Street, keeping busy with fashion and portrait work. After doing that for two years, however, she realized she wanted to be outdoors, capturing the beauty of the islands. “For me, the most magical photographic moments are sunset and when a full moon is out,” says Carmona. “I am always in awe of the beauty of this world that God created for us to love and enjoy.”
It
takes patience, sensitivity, a meditative spirit, an artistic eye
and stamina to get a well-composed, once-in-a-lifetime shot. Carmona
swims four days a week, works out with weights three times a week
and eats a healthy diet. “All of that keeps me in good spirits,”
she says. She believes her peaceful, balanced lifestyle provides her
with the ability to see and photograph images that convey the “wonder
of who we are.”
Today, Carmona is regarded as one of Hawaii’s top photographers. Her work has been published in major local and national publications, including Sunset, Travel + Leisure, Hawaii, Spirit of Aloha and Honolulu magazines. Pick up a Hawaii book, calendar, postcard, keychain or deck of playing cards, and chances are they’ll display her stunning images, too. She recently launched a new business, Aloha Pillows, which features her images on pillows, sachets and framed photos printed on canvas.
Hawaii Kai is home for Carmona and her husband of 20 years, Stewart MacDonald, but she has traveled the world, shooting exotic locales such as India, Korea, Japan, France, Spain, Switzerland and South America. The Hawaiian islands, especially Oahu and Kauai, remain her favorite places to photograph.
Through
her photography, Carmona hopes to encourage people “to be more
aware of their surroundings and less focused on material things. I
would like them to stop, feel and appreciate all the beauty that is
around us.”
In her book Change We Must: My Spiritual Journey, Nana Veary notes, “Today, we call it the ‘aloha spirit,’ but to the Hawaiians of old it was inherent and natural. They have lived it…Alo means the bosom, the center of the universe. Ha is the breath of God. The word is imbued with a great deal of power. I do not use the word casually. Aloha is a feeling, a recognition of the divine. It is not just a word or greeting.”
Carmona strives to imbue the essence of aloha in everything she shoots. “I wanted to become a photographer so I could capture the aloha spirit and the magic and beauty of Hawaii,” she says. “Nana taught me to always ask God for guidance and divine intelligence. God opened opportunities for me as a photographer. I feel blessed and grateful for such a gift, and want to share it with everyone. Aloha is meant to be shared.”