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.
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
aiden’s baptism
my sister angie carrying aiden out of church, w/ my brother-in-law hien following in tow. stanton, california.
© kevin t vu
the baptism was on sunday and i have to be honest, it has been a very long time since i was in church. and considering i was the godfather, i’d probably should’ve been to church more often. but i consider myself more spiritual than religious these days anyways.
as for work, july has been a slow month, but things have started to pick up in august. i think everyone took vacation in july. i’ve been working with frank mostly, we did a shoot for the LA Times Magazine on Monday. It was a quick and easy editorial shoot. And he has me on hold for a couple of more days this month.
I was able to go to his studio after the shoot on Monday. It has such a creative energy to it. In fact, his entire house was covered w/ walls of art that the family created. Diane, his wife, is such a beautiful and wonderful person. I had met her in Mexico with Frank. And they have two lovely boys with a lot of energy. i just love people that give you real hugs!
We were able to sit and discuss where I wanted to go with my work and vision. Frank gave me some great ideas and got me in touch with some of his contacts. He is definitely helping me start the right conversations with the right people, I hope I can just keep them going.
On another note, I’m heading to Santa Barbara early tomorrow morning to assist for Embry. It should be fun! Embry is such a great guy to work with. And I haven’t been to SB for a year so it’ll be great to revisit w/ some friends.
keep on keeping on
lauren in the garden.
© kevin t vu
living the life or trying to live the life of a photographer is not easy. one that many know, either through their own experiences or through their relationships. yet still, so many try to live it. why is that? in this economic state, is there still a romantic association w/ the job?
we were raised to have hopes and dreams and pursuing those goals is a heroic endeavor. but where do we draw the line and realize that we also have to survive physical existence. how do we balance between idealism and realism?
its a hard task to accomplish and some do it better than others. but those that can’t, what happens in the confines of the mental space can be excruciating.
so i make sure to keep moving. but sometimes i find myself idle and the doubts, confusion and hesitation creeps in.
that’s when i realize that i’m carrying a psychological sledgehammer, for those ‘just in case moments’ that i find myself in.
the ‘psychological sledgehammer’ is the community i am surrounded by. the people that help me to keep moving forward. the ones that get me excited about photography, about life. the ones that will help me in whichever way they can because they truly care about me. they recognize the times when i need to be called out on my self-loathing and the other times where i just need a friend. and of course, its a reciprocal relationship.
those are the people that you want to surround yourself with. (and that’s not just talking about photography, that’s about life in general.)
