From the Mana Road

From the Mana Road

A photographic project

mirmilantphotography Š 2010

From the small town of Waimea, on the northern side of the Big Island of Hawaii, runs a road which skirts the eastern slopes of the majestic mountain, Mauna Kea. e Mana Road follows almost 50 miles of some of the most interesting countryside on the island, ending very near the Saddle Road where Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, the two largest mountains in the Pacific, meet.

My intention here is not to chronicle the road itself but to convey my experience of a short expedition along it, observing the landscape seen from the road, while maintaining the perspective that the terrain before me has a purpose – to provide a livelihood to the people who live and work on that land.

mirmilantphotography © 2010

Antonio Chrysostomou

We followed the Mana Road for maybe 5 or 6 miles upslope from Waimea. I treated it like a scouting trip, a reconnaissance, to provide a visual prelude of what the complete journey along this road may be like.

mirmilantphotography Š 2010

Antonio Chrysostomou

With the year 2009 nearing its end, the clouds rolled along the open countryside, making the air thick with fog and the ground damp with moisture.

mirmilantphotography Š 2010

Antonio Chrysostomou

mirmilantphotography Š 2010

Antonio Chrysostomou

mirmilantphotography Š 2010

Antonio Chrysostomou

e Mana Road offers up evidence of its history. A glimpse into the past that acts to remind us that this is working land.

A pump house, long abandoned.

Only the wind now flows, through broken windows and gaping holes in the walls.

mirmilantphotography © 2010

Antonio Chrysostomou

Where machines once powerfully turned, they now stand idle.

mirmilantphotography Š 2010

Antonio Chrysostomou

People laboured and the land provided. A vitality of human endeavour that is perhaps fading from our modern consciousness.

mirmilantphotography Š 2010

Antonio Chrysostomou

mirmilantphotography Š 2010

Antonio Chrysostomou

mirmilantphotography Š 2010

Antonio Chrysostomou

mirmilantphotography Š 2010

Antonio Chrysostomou

mirmilantphotography Š 2010

Antonio Chrysostomou