Happy 4th of July!!!

Commercialism. London.
© Kevin T. Vu

Happy 4th of July everyone! So in celebration of our forefathers, I ended up having a hotdog at Swedish-owned IKEA. i also ended up having some sushi from tesco’s (FYI-I’m vietnamese, i was just craving sushi). No fireworks, bbq’s, or sunny weather this year. Anyhow, I went to the Edmonton IKEA and Tesco’s. It was crazy how big they are. It definitely reminded me of home. Kind of like our Target’s and Costco’s. i hear they have costco’s here somewhere, but i’m not sure where. While i’ve been walking around London, I decided to do some smaller stories simultaneously w/ my major project. I’m gonna try to capture ‘commercialism’ in the western world. i’m also gonna try to do another story on surveillance/cctv in london. London has some 5,000,000 cameras around watching u. hopefully, these stories will make me get up from my arse when i’m not working on the major project. talking about major project, i’ve been in contact with the guys i’ve been working w/ so i’m gonna try to meet them up soon. however, my sleeping pattern is out of wack because i dont have to wake up early. so i have to get that back on track.

Here u go Thomas…

Street photography on South Hampton Row.
© Kevin T. Vu

Here are three of the images that i turned in for my visual styles class. I turned in 2 more, but they have already been posted up on this blog. I think thomas’ trent parke’s images are much better. check them out…

http://www.digitalrailroad.net/ThomasBall/Production/PhotoGroupView.aspx?pbid=4&msa=1&pgid=9141517

they actually look like trent’s style. mine, however, dont necessarily fall into the same visual category. it was interesting to work in that way though. it makes you approach your photography differently.

Freeeeedooomm!!!!!

WooHoo!!!! i turned in all my work for the term! 30 min. of sleep last night and now i’m home. i just finished a huge sandwich and now i’m off to bed at 330 in the afternoon. i think i’m training to be a sumo wrestler.

John Patterson

John sitting in his council estate apartment.  Elephant and Castle, London.
© Kevin T. Vu

This is one of the portraits that i’ve done for my Elephant and Castle project. I’ve worked with four families and john was one of the people that was kind enough to have me in his home. i’m still in the process of finishing everything up which will be turned in on friday.

term ends

term two comes to an end. our last session was last thursday where anne and i ended up doing our presentation on lebanon. it was good to get it over with. some of us went to a press photographers seminar on friday and it wasn’t very informative. the only good part was tom stoddart’s talk and the free libations that we had afterwards. a bunch of us went out afterwards for jackie’s bday and it was a good way to end the term. paul extended our deadline so we dont have to turn everything in until this coming friday. i still have the short essays to do and a little more printing. it’s gonna be weird w/ everyone being gone. there’s a lot to be done this summer if only i get my sh_t together. hopefully, everyone comes back after this summer with great work. best of luck to everyone!