Local artist brings Hawaii’s past into color

HONOLULU (KHON2) — Have you ever ever thought of taking an actual peek into our historical past?

Time machines don’t exist (but), so books, songs and tales can take your creativeness there. Outdated work, relics, images and movies can provide a glimpse into what occurred, however normally, visuals don’t really feel as actual as what we are able to see with our personal two eyes.

An area artist is remaking a few of these connections, all by including some colour to Hawaii’s previous.

Earlier than Tony Barnhill began the Colorized Hawaii of the Previous Fb web page, he started by seeing what he might create of outdated black and white pictures of his grandparents and great-grandparents. Barnhill, who additionally does carvings, then moved on to recreating some outdated photos of his Tantalus neighborhood. From there, Hawaii’s previous began to pop.

“Once you see it for the primary time in colour, it’s like wow, that’s wonderful. I need to see each black and white picture in colour now. In order that’s my inspiration,” Barnhill mentioned.

A few of his recreations are gorgeous, take Koko Crater earlier than growth of the dredging of the marina. How about Waikiki with the Royal Hawaiian below building in 1925, or Diamondhead in 1939.

“Nothing however banana timber and no buildings wherever. I believe these are those which might be like wow, are you able to think about?” Barnhill puzzled.

Then there’s the human magnificence. He’s recreated legendary waterman Duke Kahanamoku with a younger Shirley Temple in 1939, and Queen Liliuokalani’s lovely portrait within the early Nineties.

Bishop Museum has helped Barnhill fill within the gaps.

“I do my greatest to paint them precisely. However in plenty of methods, they educate me the suitable colours as a result of the lei or flowers or feathers that don’t exist anymore,” Barnhill mentioned.

He places in tedious hours utilizing photoshop, and a part of the colorization entails synthetic intelligence.

“The extra knowns within the picture, the extra correct it may be. For instance, Diamondhead and the sky. If that’s in any one of many pictures, the whole lot else goes to be fairly effectively lined up,” Barnhill mentioned.

He’s engaged on a venture taking a movie from 1906 shot on King Road in downtown Honolulu, and bringing it to life with colour. It’s a part of a two-hour movie he’s creating with footage he bought from the Library of Congress.

“Once you see the pictures in black and white, it looks like a era faraway from right here from now from our neighborhood,” mentioned Barnhill. “It’s this place however we see it in black and white and I believe we don’t have the identical connection to it. Once we see it in colour it brings it alive.”