By IJfke RidgleyBy IJfke Ridgley|January 21, 2025|Lifestyle, Art,
From PF Bentley’s Halawa Valley: The Lost World PHOTO COURTESY OF PF BENTLEY
Moloka‘i-based photographer PF Bentley (pfpix.com) has been working on an ongoing project called Halawa Valley: The Lost World. This region of The Friendly Isle was home to one of the first settlements of Polynesian people and one of the longest continuous occupations in Hawai‘i going back 1,300 years, though after Western contact its population dwindled drastically. Today, the valley is largely remote and mysterious, cut off from modern conveniences like electricity and cell service, and is what drew Bentley to the area. The award-winning photojournalist and documentary filmmaker grew up in Waikīkī in the 1960s—“a different, calmer time in Hawai‘i,” he says—and went on to work for over two decades at TIME Magazine as a photographer and special correspondent and won several awards for his political coverage. When he returned home to the islands, he wanted to live in the one place he knew would not succumb to commercialization and tourism. “The people of Moloka‘i value lifestyle over the economic advancements of tourism,” he explains. “It will never drop its Hawaiian principles and way of life in the face of money. I feel my photography is a history of Moloka‘i at this time, in this era, to be part of the archives of the future generations.”