James Knudsen: Used Towels (and Souvenir Shops)

James Knudsen: Used Towels (and Souvenir Shops) by Aline SmithsonMay 21, 2026

©James Knudsen, Pool Chairs, Waikiki, 2024

…even the pigeons seem tired

There is a particular complexity in photographing a place or culture that is not entirely your own, especially one layered with histories and contradictions that exist outside your personal experience. Hawai‘i offers those contradictions for many photographers. How does one photograph a mythologized paradise, tourist destination, land that holds difficult histories? Photographing Hawai‘i requires an awareness one’s position as observer, participant, and outsider.

James Knudsen, has been photographing Hawai‘i for almost two decades–the tourism, the created realities, the beauty of the islands, and those moments after the tourists retire for the evening and the city shuts down. He finds a strange beauty in the quiet, where the only light comes from florescent bulbs that cast an erie hue across things left behind, the residue after the spectacle of the day quiets.

Created as a zine, Used Towels (and Souvenir Shops)

©James Knudsen, Souvenir Booth, Waikiki, 2023

Used Towels (and Souvenir Shops)

My brother and his best friend—who’s also mine—visited Honolulu and stayed in Waikiki. When they come, I get to play tourist for a few days: bar hop, overeat, take Ubers, and see Hawai‘i through their eyes, as a bright, carefree playground. But at night, I always notice that the mood shifts, and a quiet sadness settles in.

I’m not anti-tourism, or a Waikiki hater. In fact, there’s nowhere on this planet I’d rather photograph. But I hope these images capture the peculiar melancholy I feel when I wander around with my camera as everything starts to wind down. When the waitstaff look drained from hearing the same stories, when wet sand is tracked across the pavement, when even the pigeons seem tired. When used towels cling to pool chairs and souvenir shops empty out, about to close for the night.

©James Knudsen, Hotel Driveway, Waikiki, 2019

James Knudsen has been photographing Hawai‘i for the past 18 years, focusing primarily on street photography and urban landscapes. He has several projects in the works, including on Waikiki, Chinatown, the Ala Wai Canal and public pools in Hawaii. His work has been in numerous shows, including Pacific New Media and The Contemporary Museum at First Hawaiian Center. He is one of the founding members of both the HNL Street Collective and Hawaii Zine and Print.