tsunami Archives - Marco Garcia Photography

Tsunami Fundraiser

Japan is in bad shape. Tens of thousands are homeless while more than 20,000 are now presumed dead or missing. The Japanese economy is struggling. Entire villages are gone. Its a tragedy beyond what words can describe. The effects will surely surely filter down to the West.

Hawaii, with its large Japanese and Japanese American population, is strongly sympathetic with the tsunami and nuclear tragedy and has done much to raise funds for those in need. Masaharu Morimoto of Iron Chef fame held a fundraiser last night at his restaurant, Morimoto Waikiki. A sellout crowd of 350 people attended and the event raised more than $100,000. Sushi, sake, and songs. A great event all around.

I participated in the live auction by donating two images from my 2010 geisha series. While working in Japan, I was granted rare permission to go “behind the scenes” with an apprentice geisha, or maiko, to document her transformation from normal Japanese teenage into a traditional Japanese entertainer. Access to geishas and maikos is very restricted to Japanese and foreigners find it even harder to meet or even see a true geisha/maiko in Japan. The access allowed me to photograph her applying her makeup, fixing her elaborate hairstyle, and donning a traditional kimono.

Little did I know that this access would help me raise more than $2000 at the auction for the two images auctioned off.

Kristin Jackson, of Jackson Ink, the PR firm which works with Morimotos, holds the the framed image which raised big money last night.

All the proceeds from the event were given to the American Red Cross Japan earthquake and Pacific tsunami relief fund. I feel very proud to have given so little yet made a difference last night. Many of us just sit around and facebook or twitter about how sad they feel but few do anything. We did something. We helped.

We made a difference.

gurgle gurgle splash splash (pre nuke meltdown)

About a week has past since I started this initial post about our tsunami in Hawaii. The earthquake and tsunami in Japan has now been surpassed by a nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima plant. We luckily have gotten a ticket for my father in law to get out of dodge this weekend. Whether he will escape is a matter of the airlines, the governments, and Godzilla.

Below is my first take on our HNL tsunami:

North East Japan is destroyed. Video and still coverage of the earthquake and tsunami damage is astounding. Rather its unbelievable. When we first saw the initial reports on NHK, we couldn’t believe it. It seemed as if Godzilla was just down the road smashing all in his wake. Some images even reminded me of Doolittle’s bombing raid on the once wood and papered Tokyo. It was, as I said, unbelievable.

Its hard to imagine this natural disaster destroying so much so quickly, yet, Banda Aceh was devastated within 20 minutes of their major earthquake.

Really…its unbelievable.

I’m tempted to get to Japan to take part in covering this disaster but I’ve got nothing to offer. I’m not a rescue worker. I could be. But I’m not. I can’t do it. I couldn’t do it in Indonesia and I know I can’t do it now.

The Japanese tsunami hit Hawaii with a wallop. A small one in scale, but a wallop. Houses on the Big Island were wiped out, the Four Seasons and the King Kam Hotel, along with many shops and the likes, were hit very hard Loads of property damage. Several boat harbors on Oahu were severely damaged and there was damage as well on Maui. Things turned out well but not that well. Yet…it wasn’t really a big deal…not like the destruction in Japan.

The waves were scheduled to hit around 3am and Hawaii anxiously awaited their arrival. 3am passes and no major waves. I (again) stationed myself at the Illikai Hotel and watch the harbor to see if anything takes place. About 3:30 I run down to the harbor and see loads of boats sitting in the sand. Water drained out of the harbor and many of the boats were sitting dry out of the water. That spooked me a bit but I ventured out to the beach catching loads of people sitting around, drinking beer, and getting out into the beach where the water had run out.

I shot these fools and wondered how foolish I am for being with them. “Who’s more foolish: the fool, or the fool who follows him? At one point, the water has drained way off the shore, exposing reef, rocks, and whatnot and it quickly floods back in splashing up against a seawall where the guys above were standing.
Once that took place, I knew it was time to boogie outta there. So after a few more hours of darkness, the sunrise made us aware of the damage that took place in Hawaii. But its nothing like the devastation of Japan: thousands of people were killed, entire villages and towns destroyed, and the Japan economic muscle comes to a halt. What happened in Hawaii pales to the destruction in Japan.

To write any more about Hawaii is really saying too much. We had a few docks destroyed and there was millions of dollars of damage. Homes were washed out but no lives were lost. We survived again.

A famous camera

I sadly have decided to part with my work horse Canon 1D Mark II as technology has moved quickly and need the larger, faster, and overall better Mark IV model. I placed the add on craigslist the other night and yet to have anyone with any real interest make an offer. I did get the ridiculously fictitious email from some kid in a third world internet cafe asking me if I’d sell my item (they got no clue what I’m selling) to them at a higher price and if I would ship it to their cousin who is attending Oxford. Uh huh…ok.

Funny enough, I spied myself on TV the other night during a news spot on a Japanese real estate developer here in Honolulu filmed about three years ago in Kahala. I was taking pictures with that trusty camera I’m hoping to sell.

The photos were shot for the Associated Press and they went around the nation. The New York Times ran the story on their metro section. That was a big story because this rich Japanese guy was going to let several homeless people of Hawaiian decent live in his multimillion dollar mansions in one of the riches parts of Honolulu. Needless to say he wasn’t too popular with the neighbors.

You can see the story here from the Times.

A bit of reminiscing about days past and time with that camera. It got me through a big portion of my growing career. How that camera got me through tough times and the easy days indeed. The camera has taken pictures of just about anything you can imagine. It has photographed Tiger Woods, Dwane “Dog” the Bounty Hunter, Felicity Huffman, actors on Lost, University of Hawaii football, Kobe Bryant and Michelle Wie. Its shot food, beaches, and girls. Its done everything.

One of the more pungent moments was the depression of Banda Aceh.

The shot above is of a group of Rescue workers organized in Mexico called TOPOS. I met and followed the group around Banda Aceh as they pulled bodies from the remains of that destroyed city. It poured like only a tropical city can at that decisive moment when they carried a body out of a decimated building. The camera rattled away. What a moment. What a time. It was really my loss of innocence at that point. More on the tsunami in the future.

As I researched through my photos for this blog I came across this photo of myself from 2005 while I stood in the mess of Banda Aceh’s destruction…my trusty camera at my side.

Why part with it? Well…its just a tool. Its really how you use it. Cliche, yes but absolutely true. I’ve gone through so many cameras in my relatively short professional career. Yet to depart with this one is like parting with the memories of said picture of me.
Eh…its just a camera.

You wanna buy it? Its a bit famous.

Here is the ad on craigslist.org

pdf of Star Bulletin

Just a quick post to show the actual page that ran on Sunday along with the original file I sent to AP. Nice use of space and text with the image. The page designers used the empty space well and anchored the rest of the paper on the bottom in the sand.

Did I preconceive this shot before hand thinking of a layout or page use? Not really but I did have an idea of what I wanted to illustrate. As I said in my last post, I wanted to convey the idea of Hawaii getting back to normal after the tsunami warning was rescinded. The use of the empty space, the whitewash pointing at the surfer, the board shape, the shape of the surfer, the color of the sand…it all works. I would have never guessed this image worked the way it did however; harking back on that subconsciousness of photography, it worked well.