In the remote reaches of the Waiʻanae Mountain Range, a photographer finds moments of tranquility.
For Mākaha-based photographer Josiah Patterson, heading mauka, or toward the mountain, is an exercise in calm and repose. While many associate O‘ahu’s West Side with long stretches of sundrenched coast against a brilliant blue sea, Patterson focuses on the often overlooked: a valley’s gentle slopes, the stillness found in the upper forests, the seam of a ridgeline against a swath of sky.
Here, in the nearly four-million-year old Waiʻanae Mountain Range, the senses become attuned to the cool uplands and their quiet treasures. Patterson notes the joy of discovering an interesting rock and the interstitial light distilled through a forest canopy. He describes psithurism—the sound of wind moving through the trees—and the faint, loamy sweetness that lingers after a rain.
As he ascends in elevation, so, too, do his mountain meditations: “Going up into the mountains gives me a sense of place and a feeling of being a part of something bigger,” Patterson shares. “All of our problems seem so insignificant up there.”
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