There is something about John Cruz's music that I've always loved. His song "Island Style" talks of Hawaii in terms of family, food, and friends with the obvious warmth and love of a local boy for his home. I'd seen images of John performing. He seemed different somehow, with long hair and a style that seemed almost as though he'd completely forgotten there was an audience.
Kyoko and I picked out "Island Style" as the soundtrack for our blog entry on the making of a shoot we had done with a wedding couple, fully dressed in wedding attire, tandem surfing. (View the blog entry here.) Kyoko called John's manager Leslie to ask if John might be interested in trading the use of his music for some photography, and that's how we ended up meeting an absolute gem of a man. John came to our house for a photo shoot, walked in, politely said hello, and walked right out again, straight to the beach, where he started fly fishing. He seemed to have forgotten all about the shoot. I sensed that he just needed to do that, to have some space. I liked that. It seemed honest.
Above: Tor gets down on the hale floor...see resulting image below.
I'd been working for over a week to complete a small hale in the naupaka bush fronting the beach at my house. My friend Daniel found some ironwood posts, and we used local or recycled woods where we could, lashing them together with manila hemp rope. We thatched the roof with palm fronds, on the morning of the shoot with John. I knew John was not a showboat, and asking him to pose for something contrived would be almost disrespectful. John turned out to have a wonderfully expressive face with great character, and all I had to do was to be ready with the camera. He played amazing music, with a warm, positive energy. It felt like a blessing for the new hale.
