Giving Donald Trump the finger, Hollywood style

When Donald Trump received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, in 2007, he called his 10-month-old son, Barron, to the podium, saying: "He's strong, he's smart, he's tough, he's vicious, he's violent - all of the ingredients you need to be an entrepreneur."

The businessman and TV personality was presented with the award - the 2,327th star on or around Hollywood Boulevard - for his work on the US reality show ‘The Apprentice’.

About 24 celebrities get a star on the sidewalk every year, in a nomination process overseen by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. Anyone can submit a nomination; if a star is approved by the chamber’s selection committee, the person who did the nominating has to pay $30,000 to fund the plaque. The criteria for selection seem roughly to be: Who is the most popular personality now? Whose star will draw the most tourists?

As a photographer I have always been interested in personal projects. During my time in Los Angeles earlier this year I was searching for one that would sustain my interest over a few weeks. I found it when I noticed a crowd around a child who was jumping up and down on what turned out to be the star of the Republican candidate in the 2016 presidential election. Her family were egging her on.

It turned out that this happens several times a day. Parents arrive with their children, then photograph them holding a middle finger above Trump’s star. Some promise to buy their children sweets or ice cream in return.

It is akin to a pilgrimage: throngs of sightseers, many of them Latinos, visit this tiny shrine to express anger, annoyance and frustration.

In April and May I photographed dozens of these sightseers.

I have just published a book, Bing, Bing, Bong, Bong, Bing, Bing, Bing, documenting my study of the Americans who visited the Donald Trump star.

During the election campaign the star has been vandalised several times, including being spray-painted with a swastika. The day Trump was officially nominated as the Republican Party’s presidential candidate a tiny wall sprang up around his star.

I watched visitors make obscene hand gestures, jump up and down on the star, spit on it and pretend to defecate on it. From time to time it was defaced with ink, shaving cream and ketchup. On one occasion a woman threw a used sanitary towel on the star.

I always felt I was witnessing something historic, however small.

Kenneth O Halloran is a photographer based in Dublin. Bing, Bing, Bong, Bong, Bing, Bing, Bing is available from kennethohalloran.com