persist

portrait session w/ ana-Lauren at her home. orange, california.
© kevin t vu

its great to have friends that are patient and willing to give you the time of day to photograph them. ana-lauren and i had a great time during our portrait session. of course, it helps to bring some good music and a chilled bottle of white wine. i shot these on a 35mm and 6×6 film camera. normally, i would look at the 6×6 frame and think that i ruined the image by not properly advancing the film. but i realize that the uniqueness of ‘flaws’ is the reason why film is still so amazing! you never know for sure until the roll is processed. you just have to go with it and make it work for your visual style.

i shot some portraits for a non-profit last week with my film and digital camera. i had a small softbox to a profoto 7a pack. it was a very simple setup. i used the the softbox as a side light and let the left side of the face drop to black. i had my 35mm film camera hardsynced to the pack and shot most of the portraits on film. i used the digital more as a polaroid to check out my lighting. it was the first time i used the 35mm konica w/ a strobe pack so i wanted to make sure i had some stuff on the digital as well, just in case nothing comes out on film. luckily i did that because when i got the roll of film back from the lab, there was nothing on the negative. i shot two rolls and it looked like the lab just processed 2 rolls of unshot film. so its always smart to cover your bases, otherwise you can easily lose some clients.

if you’ve read my previous post, you would know that i had an opportunity to move to chicago for work. i’ve decided to keep pursuing my work here. i feel that i’m starting to build the foundations here in LA and it would be a shame to leave it now. The biggest markets in the US are LA and NYC and i’ve made some inroads to both. For now, i’ll keep investing my time and work in LA.

I’ll leave you w/ some quotes I’ve been chewing on:

If I were to encapsulate what anyone must do, it would be to have a vision of life and depict that vision.
-Joel Peter Witkin

Never apologize for your own sense of beauty. Nobody can tell you what you should love. Do what you do brazenly and unapologetically. You cannot build your sense of aesthetics on a consensus.

Never compare your journey with someone else’s. It’s a marathon with no finish line. Someone else may start out faster than you, may seem to progress more quickly than you, but every runner has his/her own pace. Your journey is your journey, not a competition. You will never ‘arrive.’ No one ever does.

Embrace frustration. It pushes you to learn and grow, broadens your horizons and lights a fire under you when your work has gone cold. Nothing is more dangerous to an artist than complacency.

– Cheryl Jacobs Nicolai

forksheds

people relaxing by a tree. laguna beach, ca.
© kevin t vu

its been a consistent month of work for me and i’ve started to realize that i’ve made some in-roads in the photo community of LA. its been a bit arduous and slow, but i’m getting there.

as this is happening, i’ve also been in talks w/ a photographer in chicago who needs a full-time assistant. this is where the dilemma comes in. do i pick up and go or do i keep scratching and clawing here in LA. both offer great opportunities, but i need to see what’s best for my work and personality.

i cant complain as both are great options either way.

i’ve been reading rodney smith’s blog recently. if you dont know him, then go to his website now! his work is whimsical and has a timeless quality to it. the way he uses graphical/textual elements in his new book is wonderfully fluid!

there has been one entry that has really stuck w/ me.

“To say a photographer has a vision is to say the photographer has something unique to say about the world.  Why do some photographers have something unique to say, when so many others just shoot pictures that are general and lacking vision?  Most people would say it has to do with talent.  Maybe.  But maybe not.  Maybe it has nothing to do with talent.  Maybe it has to do with the ability to express one’s feelings.  The person who presents a strong vision has figured out a way to express his or her feelings, while others are struggling to do that.  Talent, then becomes not so much artistic talent, though that may be a good part of it, but rather emotional talent.”

What i have come to realize is that I could never be a documentary photographer.  I am run on my emotions.  People who meet me and who know my imagery find it perplexing.  They see a happy person and wonder why I have such dark imagery.  But that’s because they don’t know all the aspects of my personality.  The reason I shoot the way I do is because I’m traveling on this path that I have for myself, and it has, at times, been a very isolated road.  My work deals with personal issues in context to what is happening around me.  Its my view of how I see what is going on around me.  Seems a bit selfish, but I just can’t help it.  Its how I see the world.

hope

aiden running around the house. orange, ca.
© kevin t vu

to be honest, a lot of my friends have gotten married over the years, and a lot of them i’ve missed. but fortunately, i was able to attend my good friend’s melissa’s wedding this past weekend at the long beach aquarium.

frankly, i’m not a big fan of going to weddings. but i thoroughly enjoyed myself at this one. and that was due to melissa’s and mark’s genuineness of love (not to say that other weddings dont have that). but there was a love that permeated the room. a love that their families and friends could share with them.

and i was fortunate enough to take part in the festivities. celebrations like these help me to be optimistic about the world.

creative outlets

lauren being patient and letting me photograph her. santa cruz, california.
© kevin t vu

i’ve been fairly consistent w/ work this month and it hasn’t given me the opportunity to shoot any of my work. so i decided to do a quick trip up to coast to visit lauren and her family for a creative weekend. i had a great time that really helped me to explore my creativity. we created meals that told stories, painted, drew, photographed and i was able to just let go of all the pressures that i’ve felt for the past year. i had an amazing time and am absolutely refreshed!

i wanted to add a little more about creative inspiration. as photographers, i think that we shouldn’t put all of our focus on the practice of photography. i think that one needs different creative outlets in order to approach and understand the world and one’s place within it. for me, i get so intwined into reading industry magazines and blogs, i’m consistently on the computer for ours. and its unfortunate because the world around me is such an inspiration. and i’m learning to be creative in different ways, not just through photography. these other approaches, be it cooking, sports, reading, drawing or painting, helps me to interpret my place within this world and in turn helps me with my approach towards my photographic vision. look at the masters; picasso, leonardo, michaelangelo, bernini, etc. they all had different pursuits that helped them in their art .

vision and solitude

wild parrots, a gathering of artists and musicians performing their craft.
© kevin t vu

sorry for not updating in a while. i dont have much excuse because i do have the time. its more of a lack of inspiration due to how little i’ve been shooting recently.

i was able to photograph a wonderful event that gathered some amazing artists together. the above pictures are a sample from that night. there was such great creative energy in the forum and i was so glad to grab as much as i could.

work has been good, but inconsistent. it comes and it goes. you just have to ride with it. i am trying to figure out myself for the short term. would like to start another project so i’ve been playing w/ the idea of a roadtrip through baja. the whales come during the winter months so it would be fun to catch that while i work on my editorial portrait portfolio.

working w/ frank and art has been a tremendous learning experience. they are on different ends of the spectrum in their visual styles, but i love how they both use and search out natural light. we did an album shoot the other day at a beautiful beverly hills home and come 730pm, frank and an entourage of stylists, make-up artists, producers and assistants were busy running through the hills of LA searching for shafts of light before the sunset.  it was great to see that side of the shoot, especially since not a week ago we did a different shoot that used 32 profoto 7a packs.

well, i’ll leave you w/ some quotes i’ve read recently:

here’s the dilemma and the strength of photography.  its the easiest medium in which to be competent.  but, its the hardest medium in which to have personal vision that is readily identifiable.

– chuck close

we take pictures because of the kind of people we are.  we’re individuals.  and that’s why i take pictures the way i do.  i don’t say it’s the best way or the only way.  it’s just simply my way.

– arnold newman