Ráj hippies na Havaji zachytily fotky ze 70. let

Praha 16. října 2022

John Wehrheim captured hippie life at Taylor Camp on the Hawaiian island of Kauai in his photographs from the 1970s. An exhibition of his photographs is now on view in its European premiere at the gallery at the Stone Bell House in Prague. Taylor Camp, founded by the brother of actress Elizabeth Taylor, is considered one of the defining symbols of the hippie era.

Wehrheim first came to the camp, which gradually turned into a settlement, in 1971. „I was teaching photography at a newly established university nearby at the time. At the same time, I was working on an official commission for the local authorities – I was to photograph a narrative book on historic architecture in Hawaii. Through this work, I also got to see the site of Taylor Camp,“ Wehrheim says. „I was very impressed with the people and their buildings there, and I suggested that they could also be in the book,“ he says. The commissioning team refused, so the photographer decided to work the hippie theme into his own publication.

The settlement continued to function until 1997, when the authorities forcibly closed it and the buildings were burned down. The exhibition includes photographs documenting this demise.

„Odkaz fotografií Johna Wehrheima je dnes ještě aktuálnější, než když jsme začali pracovat na přípravě této výstavy. Heslo hippies Make Love, Not War, platí v současné situaci dvojnásob,“ řekla kurátorka Magdalena Juříková.

JAKA