Jan Evro Becket (1949-2024) was born and raised in Hawai‘i, where he taught English and photography at Kamehameha Schools for 28 years. Jan had recently relocated to Tigard, Oregon, where he passed away in May of this year. His contemplative large format black-and-white photographs were made over a period of 35 years; he transitioned from film to digital as photography was undergoing decisive transformations. His subjects included the city of Paris; sacred stones of Ireland, Scotland, and Britain; and most importantly for him, the ceremonial sites of Hawai‘i. His documentation of ancient sites of O‘ahu and Hawai‘i island went hand in hand with engaging in the communities in which he worked regarding their care and guardianship of the places, the intrinsic beauty of each site, and ongoing significance of these wahi pana to the lāhui today. His intention and focus was to work with the caretakers and communities to strengthen the protection and preservation of these irreplaceable treasures. He conveyed a sense of awareness that the way we spend our time, as caretakers of the things we value most, is a serious business that takes up the whole of our existence.
He has exhibited in Hawai‘i, Paris, the San Francisco Bay Area, Santa Fe, and Astoria. Six of his images of Mākua Valley were selected to appear in the 2009 exhibit Photoquai: Deuxième Biennale des Images du Monde at the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris. His work is included in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Kamehameha Schools and Hawai‘i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts. In 1997 his work was selected to appear in Collective Visions, a 30-year retrospective exhibit at the Honolulu Academy of Arts featuring the collection of the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts.
His publications include photographs in He Alo He Alo: Hawaiian Voices on Sovereignty (Honolulu: American Friends Service Committee, 1993) and photographs in Sacred Sites, Sacred Rites (New York: American Indian Community House, 1998). He was a co-editor and co-photographer for Pana O‘ahu: Sacred Stones, Sacred Land (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1999), which won three Ka Palapala Po‘okela awards in 2000 for best photography, best photographic book, and the Samuel Kamakau award for best book of the year. He contributed an image and a chapter to Wao Akua: Sacred Source of Life (Honolulu: State of Hawai‘i DLNR, 2003).