Steidl Verlag Waikiki

Waikiki, one of Honolulu’s most famous neighbourhoods, had already become a crowded tourist destination when Wessel photographed there in the late seventies and early eighties. This book contains Wessel’s edit of these pictures and is a record of American leisure at this time: of surf, sand and inexhaustible pleasure-seekers. Yet Wessel equally explores the contradictions of Waikiki – concrete hotels invading pristine beaches, culture encroaching on nature. Despite all the fun in the sun, Wessel’s subjects are often distanced and dissatisfied, suggesting an underlying unease. Born in New Jersey in 1942, Henry Wessel has been awarded two Guggenheim fellowships and three fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. His work is held in the permanent collections of major American, European and Asian museums. Wessel has exhibition extensively, including solo exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.