See it their way

Artist Tom Haar doesn’t create images that are recognizable to the human eye; instead, the photographer likes "to create a sense of mystery."

Haar’s "Solar Scribblings — Trails of the Hawaiian Sun" series is part of Koa Art Gallery’s current exhibit "Viewpoint: Recent Photographs by Tom Haar, Mark Hamasaki and Paul Kodama."

The show features three photographers, each offering their distinct collections of work, all based on analog photography.

Kodama’s pieces are most traditional — an eerie and hauntingly beautiful misty forest, a wet dog, statues from a trip to Japan — images that viewers can recognize with the naked eye.

Hamasaki’s art is more abstract. They include poetry from Wayne Westlake’s "Down on the Sidewalk in Waikiki" collection, scattered among geckos, ferns, a light bulb or a picture of his son — evoking emotions that may differ from one viewer to the next.

And then there is Haar’s work, which makes one wonder: Is that a photo? How did he do that?

"Someone said they look like a heartbeat," Haar said. "That’s OK, too."

Haar’s creations do not resemble the electrical pulses of a heartbeat. Rather, they are photos of the sun’s reflection on a small water cascade prior to and after the winter solstice, when the noonday sun was almost perpendicular to the water.

"While driving to my dental appointment around noon one day, I saw some flashes of the sun reflecting off a water surface and decided to take some photographs," Haar said.

Haar found that using a faster shutter speed turned the flashes of light into an image resembling stars, while slower shutter speeds transformed the sun’s reflections on the flowing water into linear trails.

"When the wind is very strong it breaks up the water," he said. "Instead of (the water) running smoothly down, it ripples so it creates this up and down, very quick motion. I tried to register this motion on the film. I found that when the wind was strong it would break the water and make more ripples with the sun’s reflection."

Using slide film, he turned a color slide into a negative. Even though the same technique can be done on a computer, Haar believes in the old-fashioned way.

"Nowadays with digital cameras you can reverse it with the computer," Haar said. "You can take a regular color image and reverse it with Photoshop. You flip it and then it becomes black and white. I like the fact that I could make a print from the slide. The digital print, somehow, I think it gives a different effect."

Haar believes his training in graphic design plays a part in his photography.

"I wanted to show the lines as a graphic element," he said. "Like calligraphy. It was kind of a solar calligraphy. … I wanted to step away from reality. … I enjoy the sense of mystery when looking at something because then you try to (figure) out what’s your sense of connection when looking at it."

Unlike taking representational pictures, Haar didn’t know what his photos would look like.

"I was pleasantly surprised at the results," he said. "Each image (turned) out to be completely different from the next."

Haar said he’s in tune with happy accidents.

"I’m not trying to re-create the visual that I see through my eye. I like to surprise myself."