LORNE DIRENFELD

Maui-based pilot, photographer, and retired neurologist Lorne Direnfeld brings together a lifetime of aviation and visual storytelling to create striking aerial portraits of Hawaiʻi. His dual passions for science and art emerged early; while working his way through college and medical school, he wrote medical science programs and photographed for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, honing both technical precision and creative perspective.

Since making Maui home in 1982, Lorne spent more than three decades flying a four-seat, single-engine aircraft across the Hawaiian Islands to care for patients. From this extraordinary vantage point above the Pacific, he developed a profound appreciation for the islands’ scale, texture, and light — a perspective few are privileged to witness.

Compelled to document the beauty unfolding beneath his wings, Lorne began capturing dramatic coastlines, volcanic summits, expansive ocean horizons, and the dynamic intersections of maritime and aviation life. His aerial compositions reveal Hawaiʻi in sweeping, cinematic form — at once powerful, intimate, and immersive.

His images of Kahoʻolawe are preserved within the State of Hawaiʻi’s permanent archives, and his work is collected in homes and businesses.