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Windward CC photography students emerge in PUKA exhibition

Three students exhibit alongside professor and mentor Kapulani Landgraf at First Hawaiian Center

PUKA features Windward CC photography students and professor Kapulani Landgraf.

‘Āpa‘apa‘a, by Richard Heirakuji

In the Time Before, In the Time After, by Shiloh Perkins

Kū Moe, by Lily Kamālamalama Kelly-Jervis

Waiohunu, by Kapulani Landgraf

Three Windward Community College photography students are taking their work beyond the classroom and into a public exhibition alongside their professor and mentor, Native Hawaiian artist and photographer Kapulani Landgraf.

Richard Heirakuji, Lily Kamālamalama Kelly-Jervis and Shiloh Perkins are featured with Landgraf in PUKA, a photography exhibition at the First Hawaiian Center in downtown Honolulu.

The opportunity grew out of the students’ work with Landgraf. After teaching the three in ART 207, she invited them to continue their development through ART 299, an independent study course.

“Richard, Lily and Shiloh really stood out to me in ART 207,” Landgraf said. “I invited them to continue because I saw that potential in each of them.”

While the possibility of exhibiting at the First Hawaiian Center was an incentive, Landgraf said it was never guaranteed. The students had to develop cohesive bodies of work that met the standard for public exhibition.

Beyond taking photographs

Heirakuji’s work explores his relationship with Kohala, the birthplace of his ancestors. He said Landgraf challenged the students to think beyond individual photographs through research, community connections and storytelling.

“We had to do research, connect with people, and think deeply about the story that we were trying to tell,” Heirakuji said.

Kelly-Jervis developed her technical skills in black-and-white film photography and darkroom printing while exploring her relationship to hala through her mo‘okū‘au and Keanahala, a community weaving program under Pu‘uhonua Society.

“Every critique and conversation with Kapu and my peers has taught me that artistic growth doesn’t happen in isolation,” Kelly-Jervis said.

Perkins’ Pa‘a is a portrait series rooted in her family’s ties to Wai‘anae Moku and offers a perspective of a place she says is too often defined externally by what it lacks.

“Her mentorship goes far beyond darkroom technique,” Perkins said. “She pushed us past our comfort zones to find true purpose in how we document our surroundings.”

A moment of emergence

Puka can mean to emerge, appear, come into sight or open—a reflection of the students beginning to develop and publicly share their own visual voices.

“PUKA marks a moment of opening,” Landgraf said. “It is an opportunity to share work publicly, to step into visibility, and to begin the lifelong journey of developing a visual voice.”

PUKA is on view through March 25, 2027, at the First Hawaiian Center, 999 Bishop Street in Honolulu. The exhibition is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.–4 p.m.