Noʻu

ABOUT ME

Aloha. My name is jazmin Pekuna Hong, he kupa o kaneohe and heeia, wife to Steven Hong, an Ocean Safety rescue ski Operator for the City and County of Honolulu for over 20 years, a love and fluency for the ocean that has influenced the way we live and see and care for the world and raisE our kids. together We have 6 keiki and live in my hometown. Ive always loved art and as i grew up, even after being offered multiple scholarships to art schools, I didn't pursue it because I thought it would never sustain me or a family. I went to uh hilo after graduating high school on a cross country scholarship and came home after a year to help care for my grandma. I started working on a catamaran and I got my Captains license in 2007 and shortly after that I got pregnant with my hiapo and due to severe sea sickness due to pregnancy, I left the boating life with a heavy heart and returned to college through parenting my first 3 babies and finally got my BA in Hawaiian Language. while pregnant with my oldest i also lost my brother which changed my life forever and made me view life and memories in a very special way.

As I raised my kids I couldn't help but be reignited by art While being Immersed in leaRning With my keiki in Punana leo and also the Creativity that overwhelms you through Becoming a mother. During this tIme, I fell in love with block printing and its process. I started teaching lino print workshops in 2015 and its something that keeps me motivated and inspired and also able to bring printing to my community. 

I've loved photography since I was young. my dad followed us around always taking film of us and videoing us as well as investing in yearly studio sessions that hang on our walls. images i still stare at often. looking into our eyes and thinking about those years and how much memories swell within me at the sight of those images.

when digital cameras came out i begged for one. as a family of runners and surfers, i’d take my camera everywhere with me out on our adventures. in Highschool at St. Andrews priory with MR.Prado, i got to fall in love with film and processing my own prints. since then, I always looked at everything a little different. In 2016 my oldest daughter got cancer and we invested in a good camera to start capturing life in every moment we had. It made me appreciate the good moments, the not-so-good moments and the struggles. That was life.....beautiful in every up and down. And I wanted to remember it ALL.

soon after having my 5th baby, i tore my shoulders and couldn’t print, so i just really had my camera with me always and got to dive into it. Since then I have found so much joy and love in photographing people. It is my hope that my work InsPires people to make the most of every day and love deeper.

Some of my other passions are the ocean, farming, printing, sunrises and sunsets (all things sky and weather), surfing, good food, birthing, creating, dancing and the journey of motherhood, natural healing, my lahui, community and really just living for every day while perpetuating my culture and language.

You can find me on IG @pekunahong to see a little window into our life.

  -Ke aloha