BING, BING, BONG, BONG, BING, BING, BING
Kenneth O’Halloran

Over 10 million people visit the Walk annually but this year the usual tourist traffic has been joined by the hordes of people feeling the need to publicly make known their anathema to the Republican Presidential candidate.

The book “Bing Bing, Bong Bong, Bing Bing Bing” shows just how Americans are happy to drop their inhibitions and show the nature of their true feelings once they arrive at the Trump Star. As O’Halloran captures with these impactful images, each day people would stop by simply to “give the finger” to the Trump Star; a number encouraging their young children to do so, while others pretended to defecate over it or spit at it. The Star has also been repeatedly vandalised. From time to time it was defaced with ink, shaving cream, and tomatoe Ketchup

The representation of the Republican nominee for president was looked on by most with a mixture of surprise and anger and disbelief.

Donald Trump was honoured by receiving the 2,327th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2007. It was for his role as the Producer in NBC’s The Apprentice.

In 2015, following Trump’s remarks about illegal immigrants in the United States, there was a small, but vocal, public outcry to remove his Star.

An online petition to get the Star removed has been signed by over 40,000 people. Echoing Trump’s controversial pledge to build a wall between the US and Mexico earlier this summer 6” tall grey concrete wall appeared around it complete with a “Keep Out” sign and topped with razor wire. ¹

Kenneth O Halloran is a photographer based in Dublin. He was born in the West of Ireland and is a graduate of the Institute of Art, Design and Technology in Dun Laoghaire, Dublin. He holds a Masters in Fine Art Photography from The University of Ulster, Belfast. O Halloran’s work has appeared in magazines such as The New York Times Magazine, The Sunday Times Magazine, Stern, Le Monde, TIME, GEO, The Financial Times Magazine and Cosmopolitan Magazine. His work has been recognized by World Press, American Photography, Alliance Francaise, and the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize. He is also a winner of the Terry O’Neill Photography award. ²