Wayne Levin
Opening Night Keynote

Fifty-eight years in Hawai‘i’s waters, a look beneath the surface.

SEPTEMBER 24, 2026
6:00 PM · CAPITOL MODERN, HONOLULU

The Mirror Beneath the Surface

Wayne Levin has called Hawaiʻi home since 1968. He trained as a photographer on land while earning his BFA at the San Francisco Art Institute and his MFA at Pratt, all before turning his camera toward the water in 1983, when he began photographing below the surface, looking up.

His first attempts were in color, and the ocean came back murky and blue. The moment he switched to black and white, the water opened up. Stripped of color, his subjects from sharks, to whales, to schooling fish, and even freedivers, and swimmers were all left with only light, form, and motion to describe them. Nearly every frame he’s shot since has stayed monochrome by choice.

FIVE DECADES – A Life Beneath the Surface
1968
Arrives in Hawai‘i —
Moves from Southern California to the islands that will define his life’s work.
1979 – 1982
Trains as a photographer —
Earns his BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, then his MFA from Pratt Institute in New York.
1983
Goes underwater —
Returns to Hawaiʻi to teach at UH Mānoa and begins photographing surfers from beneath the surface — the project that pushes him from
color into black and white for good.
1984
National recognition, and Kalaupapa —
Awarded a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, and begins three years documenting the Kalaupapa settlement on Molokaʻi.
1997
Through a Liquid Mirror —
Publishes his first book of underwater photography, naming the world beneath the surface as its own reflection of ours.
2010
Akule —
Publishes his study of schooling fish in Kealakekua Bay which produced some of the most recognized images of his career.
2024
A Life in Photography —
A career-spanning retrospective opens in Honolulu, later traveling to Hawaiʻi Island.
2026
PhotoCON Hawai‘i —
Takes the stage as Opening Night Keynote at Capitol Modern.