Five years ago Oahu-based photographer Kristen Reyno was at an impasse. After working as a product photographer for Quiksilver in Los Angeles, she had returned home to Kailua in 2010 and burned out on shooting weddings and families. She started a leather goods company called Lola Pilar-her husband's name for his Filipina grandmother-and designed a logo featuring a Hawaiian quilt pattern. But while on her honeymoon in 2017, she had an epiphany. "I realized I wasn't good at [leatherwork] at all," she recalls. "What am I doing?" But the logo-that led to an aha moment. She decided to harvest flowers from her backyard and photograph them in arrangements alluding to Hawaiian quilts. Blending her studio photography skills with her love of styling and flowers, Reyno had found her niche.
Today she has created a wide range of striking floral "quilt" photographs. A masterful colorist, Reyno arranges flowers, leaves and fruit to create brilliant compositions of contrasting and complementary hues, thrown into relief with studio lighting. Pink plumeria blossoms pop amid Kelly green monstera leaves-no filter or retouching. "Some people don't realize it's photography," says Reyno, "or they think I photoshopped the plants."
With some flowers quickly wilting (like plumeria) and others lasting for days (like torch ginger), creating the photographs requires careful planning. Sometimes it can take Reyno all day to gather the materials-hibiscus from a North Shore farm, baby bananas from Waimanalo-and she has to arrange them quickly to get the shot. "If you look closely, you can see a lot of them are turning brown or wilting, but there's so much color going on that they still look really beautiful and photograph well," she says.
Reyno has parlayed her photos into accessories such as silk scarves made in Italy (like an Island-style Hermes) and diaphanous cotton pareos. She recently launched a line of tote bags and jaunty, wide-brimmed bucket hats with her floral patterns.
The artist is often inspired by the flowers themselves; other times the spark is more personal. Her "Oct. 22" collection is named for her son's 2022 due date. "I wanted it to be a memory of him and the year of being pregnant," says Reyno. Physically, it was one of the most challenging photo series she has made, she says. Artistically, it is the most meaningful.
