Kendal Hanna was one of the first people we photographed. We actually photographed him a few times. He is an intriguing subject. Above, he is in the doorway of his studio at Popop, where he lives and creates his abstract art.
In preparation for the first session I went with him to select a few of his paintings for a possible background. We looked through several and we pulled out the ones that we thought might work best for the photograph.
Kendal takes his art very seriously. He doesn’t just paint… he plans and contemplates. His strokes and splashes of paint are deliberate and controlled, as if he is mapping out a blueprint of his mental landscape.
It is the studious, serious look that comes across his face at these times that we wanted to capture.
Kendal speaks indistinctly. You have to want to hear him and you have to listen: if you do, you may find a simple profundity in his comments that will make you stop and think.
I asked Kendal what it means to be Bahamian – a pretty open-ended question I suppose. He didn’t answer right away. He thought about it. In fact, he thought about it for a long time. Finally, he said “it is a simple question and I believe every Bahamian knows how they feel as a Bahamian.” Then he talked at length about the island mentality and what it means to go beyond that, seeking “a deeper sense of person.” Afterwards he chuckled and said, “there is very little… very much to answer about that.”
I met Mr. Hanna at a workshop held at John Beadle's place. I cant remember if we worked on the same team or not (I actually think we did) for our group project but was impressed by Mr. Hanna's very sharp mind. Imagine when I saw him again almost 7 years later and he said "Moree, right?" That blew me away and caused me to ponder what else he had locked away in his mind just waiting to jump out on his canvas.