The week of Nov 7th - 13th, the APEC came to Hawaii. I was hired for the week by Civil Beat to cover all things APEC. If you know me, you know that I know nothing about current events or follow politics or anything like that. I actually had no idea what APEC was till about the fourth day of shooting it, then I figured out it stood for All Presidents Eat Cheese, which makes sense, that's why everyone wants a slice of Government cheese. I had an awesome assignment for the week, pretty much shoot all the photos for the Civil Beat Live APEC blog. I didn't have full access to all the functions, like the President's dinner, etc., my "peanut butter and jellyfish" password only got me so far. I got some Press access to some areas and secret meetings, but other than that, I was just documenting what was going on in Waikiki while APEC was here. Pictures of a lot of security, actually a shit load of cops and security. Veterans day at Punchbowl. Protests and demonstrations. Convention Center and Sheraton meetings. Road blocks and traffic. Iolani Palace arrests. Occupy Honolulu. I also just spent a lot of time walking around looking for interesting images that stood out from the normal. Over the 7 days, here are 100 photos that I think give you a pretty good idea of what it was like to eat cheese with the Presidents.
The Convention Center... was actually really boring.
this is how I do work
Here's an idea of what the meetings looked like. This was the ballroom in the Sheraton, waiting for Hillary Clinton to show up, but she was tardy so I left.
Everyday I stopped in and said 'Hi' to the Occupy Honolulu camp. It was pretty cool to see the camp grow over the week. The only thing that I didn't like was, every time I went there someone would start a conversation with me about their cause and explain to me everything they believed in and all that. I don't know how to talk to people about stuff I don't care about. "I'm just here to take some pictures dude, you mind if I check out the interior design of your tent?"
During the week, the most exciting time for me was when a group of Hawaiian activist didn't want to leave Iolani Palace, so the Police and DLNR came and eventually arrested everyone. Iolani Palace was then locked down for the entire week so nobody could come in and see it.
Yes, security was crazy. But of course it was, the Presidents of the world were all here in one place. I went to go shoot the main communications center, where the heads of the Secret Service, FBI, HPD, fire, coast guard, etc. had a briefing with the media about what they were doing to keep everyone safe. I wasn't allowed to tell anyone where I was, or take any pictures of the exterior structure... I also wasn't allowed to wear a fake beard indoors.
Other than that, there was a huge infestation of police and security around the Waikiki area. I was actually very surprised and pleased to notice that HPD was extremely courteous, helpful and polite to everyone including tourists, locals, and protestors.
a full freeway closure, both directions, for all the Presidents' convoys headed out to Koolina
The Barrack-O-cade
I spent Veterans Day morning at Punchbowl.
The Protests. One of the big anticipations of APEC was that there was going to be a lot of protesting going on. I knew I was gonna be covering the protests, marches, and demonstrations. I was actually thinking it was gonna be crazy kind of stuff, with pepper spray and police in riot gear, etc. But through the week, there was nothing exciting (to photograph).
One of the big marches was to bring awareness to the murder of a local man by an APEC security agent. I also followed Chinese activist, Falun Dafa, through the week and their peaceful demonstratins. There were a few other protests in Waikiki the day of Presidents dinner at the Hale Koa hotel, everything remained non-violent, and in my opinion, unheard.
Other than pictures needed for the Civil Beat APEC blog, I did some street photography, walking around taking pictures of anything I though was interesting, empty streets, heavy traffic, barricades on the beach, nice sunset, guys with their shirts off, etc.
Aloha means hello and goodbye
