Sean Gallagher Photography Blog | 韶华的摄影博客

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way that it treats its animals” – Mohandas Gandhi
In March of 2008, I was travelling down China’s greatest river, the Yangtze. Passing through the city of Wuhan, I happened upon the city’s zoo one day and was shocked by the conditions [...]

Last Sunday saw the 4th in our series of Hutong Photography Workshops. We had nearly a full class with nine students attending; Jim, Pip, Ross, Andrea, Daphne, Eva, Rita, Alexia and Fredrik.

The day started at 10 a.m. with everyone finding their way to the Far East International Youth Hostel with no problems. We got into [...]

This week’s ‘Photo of the Week’ was a shot taken as part of the ‘One Night in Beijing’ shoot for the Immersion Guides to Beijing in 2007. Exactly one year before the beginning of the Olympic Games in Beijing, photographers all across the capital were commissioned to head out onto the streets to capture images [...]

With today’s post, I wanted to give readers an insight into the day-today shooting of a pro-photographer. I’ll be talking about something that is a key skill for working photographers, especially those who work on-assignment usually to tight or restrictive deadlines. When you are working as a photographer, it is of paramount importance that when [...]

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“Desertification is one of the most serious threats facing humanity”
- Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General. World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought. 2006.
“The dryness affects our lives a lot. We call it the ‘black disaster’, which means there is no grass. On the grassland, we are afraid of this [...]

On Saturday night, the skies lit up with fireworks above most Chinese cities, signifying the start of China’s most special holiday of the year: Chinese New Year.
For the next week Chinese families will spent most of the time eating, drinking, visiting family members, catching up with old friends and heading to many of the temple [...]

If you’re new here and you have stumbled upon my blog, you may wonder, so what is discussed here? What are some of the main topics? What are the majority of the posts about? Well, using a very handy tool at Wordle I have generated a word cloud of the 100 most frequently used words, [...]

Recently, I was approached by Greenpeace China do write a short article for their website about my work on desertification in China for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. This has been a great chance to reach out to Greenpeace’s audience and inform them about the work that I have been doing on this subject. [...]

This week’s ‘Photo of the Week’ is one that I have dug out of my archive from possibly the most photographed city of all time…Venice, Italy.
I made the obligatory photographers/travellers pilgrimage to this city for a short weekend break and was overcome, mostly by the hordes of visitors there at the same time as me. [...]

We were delighted to find out last week that Chelin Miller, who is a former student from one of out hutong workshops, was featured in Beijing City Weekend and interviewed about her experiences taking on of our classes. You can read a snippet of the interview here online and read it reproduced below. Well done [...]

February welcomes a very unique time of the Chinese calendar; Chinese New Year! To mark the most important holiday of the year, we are running a special workshop to coincide with the celebrations here in the nation’s capital. We continue in the vein of trying to introduce our workshop participants to less-visited and authentic locations, [...]

This week I posted a new gallery on my main portfolio site titled “A Modern Life”, which I’d like to invite you to view in the China gallery.
It’s a small set of photos which I did for a magazine earlier last year, which I have only just got around to featuring now. The feature is [...]

I am happy to announce the addition of the Sean Gallagher Photography Store to this site! In the store you will find a selection of prints for sale, both framed and unframed. Whether buying for yourself, or as a gift for a friend or family member, the wide range of images offers a broad selection [...]

I haven’t done one of these posts for a while, so thought it was about time I shared another page from my notebook. If you haven’t seen the previous posts on this, you can head here and here to see them. The concept is simple. When I was beginning in photography I compiled a notebook [...]

Over at the Pulitzer Gateway, I am now taking questions from students in the US about the effects of desertification in China and how I reported on the subject last year. As part of the Pulitzer Center’s efforts to break down the barriers between reporters and their readers, they have provided a great venue for [...]

The temperature plummeted in Beijing this month but that didn’t stop us from heading out into the chilly hutongs for another “Hutong Photography” Workshop this weekend. Luckily for myself, guide Jessica Zheng and our students Bonnie, Scott, Tina and Kirsten the thermometer crept up over the weekend, hovering around 1-2C making it a perfect winter [...]

I was asked recently by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting to answer some questions with regards to my reporting on the subject of desertification in China. This is part of their initiative titled ‘Meet the Journalist”, offering viewers a chance to get ‘behind the scenes’ and find out some of the motivations and working [...]

Last month I was interviewed by the BBC World Service’s Outlook programme for an article on my work on desertification for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. The interview ran over the new year and has proved to be a wonderful new way to spread the message about this issue (the BBC World Service gets [...]

First, Happy New Year everyone! I hope this blog entry finds you well after what I hope was an enjoyable and festive-filled Christmas and New Year. I apologise for my lack of posts over the past couple of weeks. Christmas for me (as it is for most) is a big family occasion and I decided [...]

Wishing all readers a happy Christmas and New Year!!!

Dear Friends of Weekend Workshops,
I hope this message finds you well in your preparations for Christmas.
I am delighted to announce two new workshops in January, to welcome in the New Year.
The first is the next in line of our increasingly popular “Hutong Photography Workshops” which will be held on Sunday 17th January at the Far [...]

It’s a small milestone for the Sean Gallagher Photography Blog today (well, yesterday, technically)…we’ve hit 6 months blogging! I just wanted to take a moment to say thanks to everyone who has stopped by, read what I’ve had to say and commented on some of the pictures, videos and articles that I’ve posted.
The most popular [...]

“The UN proclamation of the annual International Migrants Day offers a rallying point for everyone across the world who is concerned with migrants. It is an opportunity to recognise the contributions made by millions of migrants to the well-being and economies of their countries.” – Compassion for Migrant Children
This Friday, 18th Dec, will see the [...]

A couple of online publications this week that I’d like to share with you this week.

The first one was on the New York Times’ Lens Blog which appeared on their site on Tuesday. James Estrin of the NYT wrote a very nice piece on me and my work on ‘China’s Growing Sands for the Pulitzer [...]

As many followers of my work and my blog will know, much of my work falls within the category of environmental photography. As talks begin in Copenhagen today, on the immediate future plans of our governments to tackling climate change, it seemed appropriate to write a special blog post on photographing climate issues in China. [...]

I haven’t announced this officially but I now have a YouTube channel! As I have started to produce more video work and multimedia over the past few months, I obviously want to get this work out to as many people as possible and YouTube seems to be the perfect venue as it is possible to [...]

I have been invited to speak at the British Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, on January 14th 2010, speaking about my work for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting on ‘China’s Growing Sands’. If you are in town on the date, please come along! This is a rescheduled event from last year, so hopefully this [...]

This time last year, I was in a sewer underneath the streets on the Mongolian capital of Ulaan Baatar taking this picture. I was there to do a story on the homeless communities of the Mongolian capital who live underneath the streets. At that point last year, the economic crisis was in full swing and [...]

Read this quote here today and I just had to post it here…
“What kind of typewriter did Hemingway use?” Jim Estrin, photographer at the New York Times for the last 20 years, asked his news photography class by way of an introduction this morning.
Nobody knew.
“That’s because it doesn’t matter,” said Estrin.
Have a look at the [...]

One of my biggest challenges working in China over the past few years has been making inroads into the Chinese press. Notorious for the control that is placed upon the industry by the state, it is hard for foreign reporters to contemplate working under such restrictions that see their work scrutinized so closely and possibly [...]

The ‘Sea of Death’ is the not-so affectionate name that has been given by the Chinese people to the Taklamakan desert, a desert of such epic proportions and intimidating size, that its name in the local Uygur language translates as ‘You can go in, but you will never come out’.
I visited the Taklamakan desert as [...]

As of this weekend, our WEEKEND WORKSHOPS programme now has a page on Facebook. To get updates on news, upcoming workshops, student photos etc. please become a ‘fan’ and get those updates sent straight to your news feed so that you know exactly what is happening and when. Click on the ‘Find us on Facebook’ link [...]

It is ALWAYS great to receive feedback from our students about how they think our workshops have gone. Over the past couple of weeks, we have gathered a few of their responses, which you can find below.

This weekend saw our WEEKEND WORKSHOPS continue with the second of our “Hutong Photography” classes. Braving the bitter cold in Beijing were Anne, Charlotte, Frank, Chelin, Jenny and Josh. The weather was against us, but a great day was had by all in the end, as we were determined to explore the hutongs against the [...]

*This week’s ‘Photo of the Week’ is an image from my story on the Bethel Training Center for Blind Orphans, currently being featured on the Photophilanthropy website. Below is the extract which supports the story. To see more images from this story, please click on the Photophilanthropy link.”
“I can see, and that is why I [...]

It’s Friday night here in Beijing and rather than being out and about, I have just returned from another busy day since my return from the US last week. It always seems that being away from home for any period of time leads to a serious build up of work that needs to be caught [...]

One of the highlights of my trip to the States this month was a behind-the-scenes look on Capitol Hill in Washinton DC. Guided by fellow photographer and friend Brendan Hoffman, who is an accredited photographer on ‘the hill’, I was given a glimpse of life behind the scenes of the American Senate.

Brendan spends many of [...]

*UPDATE* For lots more photos from this great exhibition, please head here at brightyoungthings.com
This will be a very quick post, but wanted to show you the print of mine in the David Alan Harvey Presents… exhibition over at PhotoWeek DC at the moment. As you can see, the prints have been almost ’strung-up’, hanging side by [...]

If you are in the Washington DC area this week, then you should make a beeline for the wealth of photography events they on this week as part of FOTOWEEKDC. I am slightly miffed as I spent the best part of last week in DC and had to leave just before all the events kicked [...]

It has been a whirlwind couple of weeks for me as I near the end of a 2-week trip to the US, which has involved talks at Universities, NGOs, an Emmy party, lots of meetings and pounding the streets of New York with my portfolio in hand.
So, when I checked my email the other day, [...]

What a busy few days it has been since I arrived in the US 5 days ago. I spent the first few days at Kent State University, where I gave a total of eight (yes 8!) presentations for my work for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, mainly to students enrolled in the school’s various [...]

Lots of things seem to happening at the moment and I am struggling to find time to write individual blog entries, so forgive me for including three subjects in one entry today.

First, I shall be heading the US on Saturday to speak at a number of events for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting who [...]

A friend of mine reminded me this weekend that it was the Hindu festival of Diwali this week. In case you don’t know, Divali (or the Festival of Light as it is also called) is a celebration held over 5 days by Hindu communities throughout the world. Lights are lit, fireworks are set off and families come [...]

NOVEMBER WORKSHOP – “Hutong Photography”
Dates: Sunday 15th November 2009 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Course Leaders: Photographer Sean Gallagher & Guide/Interpreter Jessica Zheng
Location: The Far East International Youth Hostel, Beijing
Participants: Minimum 5 people, Maximum 10 people (Registration is on a first-come first-serve basis)
Student Level: Beginner/Intermediate – All ages welcome!
Cost: 499 Chinese Renminbi per person*
As a result [...]

In case you missed it earlier this week, the Digital Journalist published a dispatch of mine in their October 2009 edition. The dispatch is titled “Inside North Korea” and recounts some of the experience that I had when I was shooting in North Korea. You can read the dispatch on their website here, or just scroll down [...]

This week’s ‘Photo of the Week’ takes us to Hong Kong. I first visited Hong Kong in November of 2008 and was completely taken by this unique and exciting city. 155 years of British colonial rule have obviously left a lot of British influence and I immediately felt at home in what was a place [...]

Yesterday and today, or today and tomorrow, depending on your time zone sees the launch of the new burn.gallery.show. This is one of the newest ventures for Burn magazine to raise funds and increase exposure for this new and exciting online photography magazine. If you have been living under a little bit of a rock [...]

Tuesday saw the first of our new “Hutong Photography” Photo Workshops, held in the hutongs of Qianmen near Tiananmen Square. The workshop was a great success and we had five participants who spent the day exploring the hutongs and learning about the fundamentals of photography. Below is a selection of photos taken by Jessica Zheng, [...]

The above video is an episode of Foreign Exchange, a weekly American TV show dedicated to covering global current affairs, hosted by journalist Daljit Dhaliwal.
Last week’s episode was devoted entirely to the current global water crisis and featured heavily the work of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and its work on covering the issues [...]

I was trawling through my archive today, looking for images to accompany a presentation that I am giving as part of my workshop tomorrow. As I looked through my ‘older’ files, I stumbled upon many of my images that I took while I lived in Japan between 2003-2004. I had just finished University and I [...]

The above video is one that I produced for the Globe and Mail newspaper, along with the Asia Bureau Chief Mark Mackinnon and his assistant Yu Mei, a couple of weeks ago. The video centers on the preparations for the country’s 60th anniversary that passed on October 1st, focusing on the city of Hangzhou which lies to the west [...]

I got a surprise yesterday evening when I got a text from a colleague telling me that one of my photos had run on the front page of Canada’s national newspaper, the Globe and Mail. Regular readers of this blog will know that I have been contributing the visuals from China quite a lot to [...]

Today marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Here in Beijing, Tiananmen Square has become awash with parades, both military and civilian, as the populace celebrates Mao Zedong’s founding declaration, exactly 60 years ago here in China’s capital.
The build up to this event has been quite something. Beijing has [...]

SPECIAL 1-DAY OCTOBER HOLIDAY WORKSHOP – “Hutong Photography”
Dates: Tuesday 6th October 2009 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Course Leaders: Photographer Sean Gallagher & Guide/Interpreter Jessica Zheng
Location: The Far East International Youth Hostel, Beijing
Participants: Minimum 5 people, Maximum 10 people (Registration is on a first-come first-serve basis)
Student Level: Beginner/Intermediate – All ages welcome!
Cost: 499 Chinese Renminbi per [...]

This week’s ‘Photo of the Week’ was taken in 2006 as part of a story that I did on the destruction of the ‘hutongs’ of central Beijing. For those of you who aren’t aware, the hutongs are a maze-like series of homes and dwellings that used to dominate central Beijing. I say used to because [...]

This week’s ‘Photo of the Week’ comes from my wanderings on the streets of my Chinese hometown of Beijing. Last week I had a two-day assignment for my German agency Laif, who had arranged for me to shoot a story on Beijing’s infrastructure. Whilst meandering through Beijing’s CBD district, Guomao, the amazing light that afternoon [...]

I just noticed today that I haven’t had a new post up for 10 days! Wow. I have been quite busy of late, having just got back from a shoot in the Chinese city of Hangzhou where I teamed up again with the Globe & Mail’s Mark Mackinnon for a new story. More on that [...]

This is the third and final installment of mine and Mark MacKinnon’s short videos from our trip in North Korea.
This third video focuses on the Chinese city of Dandong, which lies on the North Korea/China border and offers a startling contrast between the two sides of the Yalu river. Whilst the city of Dandong thrives, fuelled by the economic boom in [...]

The above video is the second short-video by myself and the Globe & Mail’s Mark Mackinnon from our assignment in North Korea. The topic of this video is the Arirang Mass Games which are held in the May Day stadium in Pyongyang.
In case you don’t know, the Mass Games are a gymnastics, dance and song spectacular [...]

This week’s ‘Photo of the Week’ comes from North Korea. I wanted to post a photo from NK as last week’s POTW but I held off as I was waiting until the Globe & Mail, who commissioned the shoot, published the  images on their website.
Throughout my journey with the G&M’s Mark MacKinnon, we were whizzed across the [...]

As some of you may already know, last week I was on assignment in North Korea. Forgive me for not giving a hint of this exciting assignment beforehand, however myself and Mark MacKinnon from Canada’s Globe & Mail, for whom I was working, wanted to try and keep this as quiet as possible until (a) [...]

I’ve had some pretty unique experience so far working as a photographer but last month, I had a very new one. Normally my style is to be as unobtrusive as possible – skirting the edges of an event, carefully shadowing a person, doing my utmost not to affect the situation which I am photographing too [...]

First, I need to apologise for my lack of a ‘Photo of the Week’ last week. I know many of you stopped by expecting to see a new image. I was on assignment in a place that had no internet and was completely out of touch with the outside world for almost the whole week. [...]

I’m delighted to announce here on my blog the launch of my new photography workshops here in China. The first will be held from Friday 18th September to Sunday 20th September here in Beijing, offering students a chance to change the way they approach their photography through a tailored 3-day programme introducing them to photographing [...]

I’m very happy to announce that my work for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting on ‘China’s Growing Sands’ has been awarded 2nd place in the Editorial: Environmental Professional category at the International Photography Awards 2009. This is the first prize recognition I have had for this body of work and I am happy that [...]

“I would stare at the grains of light suspended in silent space, struggling to see in my own heart. What did I want? And what did others want from me? But I could never find the answers. Sometimes I would reach out and try to grasp the grains of light, but my fingers touched nothing.” [...]

I received a picture request this week from a client for images of golf in China. While I was searching through my archive, I stumbled upon this image that I took in 2006, just after I arrived in Beijing for my second time. The image was taken on Beijing’s main Wangfujing high street, which is [...]

Just a very quick post to let you know that I have introduced a new ‘Archive’ page to the blog, which will allow you see all my previous posts in one place, allowing you to browse directly to each. Just look to the top-right of the screen and the archives are just to the right of the ‘About’ tab. Happy browsing!

Please find below, a selection of images from my exhibition opening this morning in the city hall of the the city of Wulanhaote, in Inner Mongolia as part of the International Conference of Science and Technology on Desertification Control (ICSTDC). The above image is the leading shot in the exhibition.

The opening was a great success [...]

After a 19 hour train journey from Beijing, I have finally arrived in the north-eastern city of Wulanhaote in Inner Mongolia. I’m here for the next 4 days to attend the 2nd International Conference on Science & Technology for Desertification Control – a gathering of some 200 people all linked by one thing – their [...]

This week’s ‘Photo of the Week’ was taken in Inner Mongolia earlier this year, during my 6-week trip for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. I have chosen this photo this week because on Wednesday, I am heading back to Inner Mongolia to take part in the International Conference of Science & Technology on Desertification [...]

I have been invited to have an exhibition next week, which will showcase 48 images from my work on desertification in China over the past 2 years, at a Science and Technology Conference on Desertification Control in Inner Mongolia.
The details of the space I have available for the exhibition have been sent through to me [...]

I’m happy to announce that my exhibition, ‘China’s Growing Sands‘, which is on show at Cafe Zarah in central Beijing, has been extended by one month until the beginning of September. If you haven’t had a chance to swing by, you now have an extra month to drop-in to check out the show!
All of the prints [...]

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China’s Growing Sands appears in the August issue of The Beijinger this month. For the foreign community in Beijing, the magazine needs no introduction as it is a well-known steady source of news, events and happenings in and around the Beijing area.
I’ve put the layout into a handy piece of software which allows you to [...]

If the answer is yes, then please take a moment to visit the PhotoBlog Awards 2009 website here, where you can vote for this blog. Once through to the PhotoBlog Awards site just go to the ‘vote’ icon in the top-left corner next to the name of the blog, click and then register on the [...]

This week’s ‘Photo of the Week’ is a choice in response to a video I saw last week online which I quite enjoyed. The video was of an aquarium in Okinawa, Japan filmed for nearly 5 minutes accompanied by a music track. Whilst a relatively simple concept, the video reminded me of a recent trip I made to Beijing’s own aquarium [...]

Yesterday morning, I was invited to the China Radio International studios here in Beijing, to take part in a panel discussion about desertification. The discussion was a great success and I was really happy to be able to talk about this issue and my work for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting on the radio for the second [...]

You may recognise the image to the left as my selected ‘Photo of the Week’, which I posted on Monday. As regular visitors here will know, it was recently chosen for inclusion in the foto8 Summer show exhibition at HOST gallery in London.
Well, in addition to the above, it was also chosen by Daily Telegraph [...]

Please click here to listen to China Radio International Interview with photographer Sean Gallagher
The above audio file is an interview that aired with China Radio International today, on the subject of desertification and my work for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
This is the first time I have been interviewed on the radio in relation [...]

I’m pleased to announce that the above image has been selected for the foto8 Summer Show which is currently on show at HOST Gallery in London this week and will be there until the 5th of September.
“The Foto8 Summer Show saw over 2,300 individual image entries submitted by photographers from over 44 countries. The final [...]

In 2004, I was lucky enough to to be selected for the prestigious 1-year paid internship at Magnum photos in their London office. This was  an incredibly important year for me and for the development of my knowledge about photography. It is an experience that I shall have to blog more about, as I receive regular emails [...]

Just wanted to let you know about a nice little review that has been written about my China’s Growing Sands exhibition which is still on show at Cafe Zarah in Central Beijing at the moment. It appears City Weekend’s Art Critic “Art Attack” caught the show and had some nice things to say about it. [...]

Forty years ago today, the world watched a truly unique event as Apollo 11 blasted off on its journey to the Moon, putting human beings on another world for the first time. Now, don’t let the above photo fool you. I must admit, I was not there, although it would of been possibly the best [...]

When I first started entertaining the idea of being a photographer, about 7 years ago, I had a million and one ideas in my head and nowhere to put them. I can’t remember who first suggested it to me, but someone gave me the idea to put them down in a notebook, to collect all [...]

Today marks one month since I posted my first blog post. I just checked my statistics and in the past 4 weeks I’ve posted 14 posts attracting 641 visits and 1709 page views. These are pretty modest numbers but not bad I think for the first month. Thanks to everyone who has stopped by here and started [...]

This week’s ‘Photo of the Week’ is about a subject that is never too far away from the lips of China’s residents…air pollution. The above photograph was taken in Shanghai, in early 2008, towards the end of a trip I undertook travelling the Yangtze river. Shanghai is one of China’s most spectacular cities, however this [...]

Last weekend, I held the opening of my first solo exhibition in mainland China of China’s Growing Sands, at Cafe Zarah in central Beijing. The evening was a wonderful success, attracting a great crowd of people interested in environmental issues, desertification and photography. Thankyou so much to all those who made it on the night. The exhibition runs until August 5th, [...]

*Update* – P.M. Wed 8th July 2009 – A friend has recommended a proxy-server which means I can temporarily circumvent the great firewall of China. Let’s hope this last until things return to normal. Spread the word on this site, which keeps the information flowing. See you on Twiiter and FB, for now!
*Update* – A.M. Wed 8th July 2009 – Twitter [...]

This week’s photo comes from a region of China that has shot straight into the headlines over the past 24 hours. The region is Xinjiang, China’s westernmost province . In Chinese, its name means “new land” or “new frontier” and it is one of the most exciting, beautiful and interesting provinces in the whole of [...]

As a reminder for those who are interested in viewing the first exhibited images from my ‘China’s Growing Sands‘ project, here are a couple of promo-pieces that have come out for the event tomorrow. Two of Beijing’s leading magazines, the Beijinger and Beijing City Weekend, approached me in the past couple of weeks to conduct [...]

As of today, Sean Gallagher Photography can now be found on Twitter. I’ll be posting shorter updates on Twitter, keeping you up-to-date with all my announcements and news from China in bite sized pieces. My handle for Twitter is @gallagher_photo

You may notice from the image above that I have created a backdrop for my Twitter [...]

I first came to China in the autumn of 2005. I had just finished a 1-year paid internship at Magnum Photos in London and upon the completion of the internship, Magnum gave me and my fellow interns a grant in order to help begin our work as photographers. The grant basically enabled us to afford [...]

If you have any interest in China, especially in environmental issues related to the middle kingdom, you MUST visit the website China Dialogue. Set up by leading UK journalist Isabel Hilton in 2006, the website has become one of the de-facto go-to websites for all issues covering the numerous challenges China is currently facing with the environment. What [...]

As mentioned in an earlier post, I have been asked to be a guest contributor on the Livebooks blog, RESOLVE. Over the coming weeks, I’ll be describing the processes and working practices that I employed whilst covering my Pulitzer-sponsored project on the subject of China’s Growing Sands. If you missed the first post on [...]

On Saturday July 4th at 6 p.m. at Cafe Zarah in Beijing, a selection of images from my Pulitzer-sponsored China’s Growing Sands project will go on display to the public. Located in the heart of Beijing, Cafe Zarah is a beautiful location for the first select showing of these images. Please take a moment to visit their website, to [...]

‘Photo of the week’ is to be a regular feature here on the Sean Gallagher Photography Blog. Every Monday, I shall post an image from my archive and write a little bit about it to explain my choice. The choice may be because it didn’t make the cut into my portfolio site, or maybe it will be [...]

The above multimedia piece, China’s Growing Sands, is the culmination of my work for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting from April to May of this year. One of the stipulations of my grant was to produce a multimedia piece for internet distribution upon completion of my travels. This kind of stipulation would have been [...]

One of the blogs I regularly check out is RESOLVE, the blog of liveBooks. It’s a great resource and window into the workings of photographers, across a spectrum of genres. They have regular contributions from excellent photographers such as Ed Kashi, Reza and Art Wolfe,  all writing detailed articles about various aspects of their lives as pro-photographers. When I [...]

First…Thankyou for visiting the new Sean Gallagher Photography Blog. This blog will be an area for me to keep you updated with what I am currently working on here in China, my thoughts on photography in general and hopefully a window into the life of a photographer in China.
So you may be wondering, why a [...]

Thanks for visiting the Sean Gallagher Photography Blog. I’m not quite ready to go, but please check back soon as I’m nearly there!

Thanks for visiting the Sean Gallagher Photography Blog. I’m not quite ready to go, but please check back soon as I’m nearly there!

First…Thankyou for visiting the new Sean Gallagher Photography Blog. This blog will be an area for me to keep you updated with what I am currently working on here in China, my thoughts on photography in general and hopefully a window into the life of a photographer in China.
So you may be wondering, why a [...]

One of the blogs I regularly check out is RESOLVE, the blog of liveBooks. It’s a great resource and window into the workings of photographers, across a spectrum of genres. They have regular contributions from excellent photographers such as Ed Kashi, Reza and Art Wolfe,  all writing detailed articles about various aspects of their lives as pro-photographers. When I [...]

The above multimedia piece, China’s Growing Sands, is the culmination of my work for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting from April to May of this year. One of the stipulations of my grant was to produce a multimedia piece for internet distribution upon completion of my travels. This kind of stipulation would have been [...]

‘Photo of the week’ is to be a regular feature here on the Sean Gallagher Photography Blog. Every Monday, I shall post an image from my archive and write a little bit about it to explain my choice. The choice may be because it didn’t make the cut into my portfolio site, or maybe it will be [...]

On Saturday July 4th at 6 p.m. at Cafe Zarah in Beijing, a selection of images from my Pulitzer-sponsored China’s Growing Sands project will go on display to the public. Located in the heart of Beijing, Cafe Zarah is a beautiful location for the first select showing of these images. Please take a moment to visit their website, to [...]

As mentioned in an earlier post, I have been asked to be a guest contributor on the Livebooks blog, RESOLVE. Over the coming weeks, I’ll be describing the processes and working practices that I employed whilst covering my Pulitzer-sponsored project on the subject of China’s Growing Sands. If you missed the first post on [...]

If you have any interest in China, especially in environmental issues related to the middle kingdom, you MUST visit the website China Dialogue. Set up by leading UK journalist Isabel Hilton in 2006, the website has become one of the de-facto go-to websites for all issues covering the numerous challenges China is currently facing with the environment. What [...]

I first came to China in the autumn of 2005. I had just finished a 1-year paid internship at Magnum Photos in London and upon the completion of the internship, Magnum gave me and my fellow interns a grant in order to help begin our work as photographers. The grant basically enabled us to afford [...]

As of today, Sean Gallagher Photography can now be found on Twitter. I’ll be posting shorter updates on Twitter, keeping you up-to-date with all my announcements and news from China in bite sized pieces. My handle for Twitter is @gallagher_photo

You may notice from the image above that I have created a backdrop for my Twitter [...]

As a reminder for those who are interested in viewing the first exhibited images from my ‘China’s Growing Sands‘ project, here are a couple of promo-pieces that have come out for the event tomorrow. Two of Beijing’s leading magazines, the Beijinger and Beijing City Weekend, approached me in the past couple of weeks to conduct [...]

This week’s photo comes from a region of China that has shot straight into the headlines over the past 24 hours. The region is Xinjiang, China’s westernmost province . In Chinese, its name means “new land” or “new frontier” and it is one of the most exciting, beautiful and interesting provinces in the whole of [...]

*Update* – P.M. Wed 8th July 2009 – A friend has recommended a proxy-server which means I can temporarily circumvent the great firewall of China. Let’s hope this last until things return to normal. Spread the word on this site, which keeps the information flowing. See you on Twiiter and FB, for now!
*Update* – A.M. Wed 8th July 2009 – Twitter [...]

Last weekend, I held the opening of my first solo exhibition in mainland China of China’s Growing Sands, at Cafe Zarah in central Beijing. The evening was a wonderful success, attracting a great crowd of people interested in environmental issues, desertification and photography. Thankyou so much to all those who made it on the night. The exhibition runs until August 5th, [...]

This week’s ‘Photo of the Week’ is about a subject that is never too far away from the lips of China’s residents…air pollution. The above photograph was taken in Shanghai, in early 2008, towards the end of a trip I undertook travelling the Yangtze river. Shanghai is one of China’s most spectacular cities, however this [...]

Today marks one month since I posted my first blog post. I just checked my statistics and in the past 4 weeks I’ve posted 14 posts attracting 641 visits and 1709 page views. These are pretty modest numbers but not bad I think for the first month. Thanks to everyone who has stopped by here and started [...]

When I first started entertaining the idea of being a photographer, about 7 years ago, I had a million and one ideas in my head and nowhere to put them. I can’t remember who first suggested it to me, but someone gave me the idea to put them down in a notebook, to collect all [...]

Forty years ago today, the world watched a truly unique event as Apollo 11 blasted off on its journey to the Moon, putting human beings on another world for the first time. Now, don’t let the above photo fool you. I must admit, I was not there, although it would of been possibly the best [...]

Just wanted to let you know about a nice little review that has been written about my China’s Growing Sands exhibition which is still on show at Cafe Zarah in Central Beijing at the moment. It appears City Weekend’s Art Critic “Art Attack” caught the show and had some nice things to say about it. [...]

In 2004, I was lucky enough to to be selected for the prestigious 1-year paid internship at Magnum photos in their London office. This was  an incredibly important year for me and for the development of my knowledge about photography. It is an experience that I shall have to blog more about, as I receive regular emails [...]

I’m pleased to announce that the above image has been selected for the foto8 Summer Show which is currently on show at HOST Gallery in London this week and will be there until the 5th of September.
“The Foto8 Summer Show saw over 2,300 individual image entries submitted by photographers from over 44 countries. The final [...]

Please click here to listen to China Radio International Interview with photographer Sean Gallagher
The above audio file is an interview that aired with China Radio International today, on the subject of desertification and my work for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
This is the first time I have been interviewed on the radio in relation [...]

You may recognise the image to the left as my selected ‘Photo of the Week’, which I posted on Monday. As regular visitors here will know, it was recently chosen for inclusion in the foto8 Summer show exhibition at HOST gallery in London.
Well, in addition to the above, it was also chosen by Daily Telegraph [...]

Yesterday morning, I was invited to the China Radio International studios here in Beijing, to take part in a panel discussion about desertification. The discussion was a great success and I was really happy to be able to talk about this issue and my work for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting on the radio for the second [...]

This week’s ‘Photo of the Week’ is a choice in response to a video I saw last week online which I quite enjoyed. The video was of an aquarium in Okinawa, Japan filmed for nearly 5 minutes accompanied by a music track. Whilst a relatively simple concept, the video reminded me of a recent trip I made to Beijing’s own aquarium [...]

If the answer is yes, then please take a moment to visit the PhotoBlog Awards 2009 website here, where you can vote for this blog. Once through to the PhotoBlog Awards site just go to the ‘vote’ icon in the top-left corner next to the name of the blog, click and then register on the [...]

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China’s Growing Sands appears in the August issue of The Beijinger this month. For the foreign community in Beijing, the magazine needs no introduction as it is a well-known steady source of news, events and happenings in and around the Beijing area.
I’ve put the layout into a handy piece of software which allows you to [...]

I’m happy to announce that my exhibition, ‘China’s Growing Sands‘, which is on show at Cafe Zarah in central Beijing, has been extended by one month until the beginning of September. If you haven’t had a chance to swing by, you now have an extra month to drop-in to check out the show!
All of the prints [...]

I have been invited to have an exhibition next week, which will showcase 48 images from my work on desertification in China over the past 2 years, at a Science and Technology Conference on Desertification Control in Inner Mongolia.
The details of the space I have available for the exhibition have been sent through to me [...]

This week’s ‘Photo of the Week’ was taken in Inner Mongolia earlier this year, during my 6-week trip for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. I have chosen this photo this week because on Wednesday, I am heading back to Inner Mongolia to take part in the International Conference of Science & Technology on Desertification [...]

After a 19 hour train journey from Beijing, I have finally arrived in the north-eastern city of Wulanhaote in Inner Mongolia. I’m here for the next 4 days to attend the 2nd International Conference on Science & Technology for Desertification Control – a gathering of some 200 people all linked by one thing – their [...]

Please find below, a selection of images from my exhibition opening this morning in the city hall of the the city of Wulanhaote, in Inner Mongolia as part of the International Conference of Science and Technology on Desertification Control (ICSTDC). The above image is the leading shot in the exhibition.

The opening was a great success [...]

Just a very quick post to let you know that I have introduced a new ‘Archive’ page to the blog, which will allow you see all my previous posts in one place, allowing you to browse directly to each. Just look to the top-right of the screen and the archives are just to the right of the ‘About’ tab. Happy browsing!

I received a picture request this week from a client for images of golf in China. While I was searching through my archive, I stumbled upon this image that I took in 2006, just after I arrived in Beijing for my second time. The image was taken on Beijing’s main Wangfujing high street, which is [...]

“I would stare at the grains of light suspended in silent space, struggling to see in my own heart. What did I want? And what did others want from me? But I could never find the answers. Sometimes I would reach out and try to grasp the grains of light, but my fingers touched nothing.” [...]

I’m very happy to announce that my work for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting on ‘China’s Growing Sands’ has been awarded 2nd place in the Editorial: Environmental Professional category at the International Photography Awards 2009. This is the first prize recognition I have had for this body of work and I am happy that [...]

I’m delighted to announce here on my blog the launch of my new photography workshops here in China. The first will be held from Friday 18th September to Sunday 20th September here in Beijing, offering students a chance to change the way they approach their photography through a tailored 3-day programme introducing them to photographing [...]

First, I need to apologise for my lack of a ‘Photo of the Week’ last week. I know many of you stopped by expecting to see a new image. I was on assignment in a place that had no internet and was completely out of touch with the outside world for almost the whole week. [...]

I’ve had some pretty unique experience so far working as a photographer but last month, I had a very new one. Normally my style is to be as unobtrusive as possible – skirting the edges of an event, carefully shadowing a person, doing my utmost not to affect the situation which I am photographing too [...]

As some of you may already know, last week I was on assignment in North Korea. Forgive me for not giving a hint of this exciting assignment beforehand, however myself and Mark MacKinnon from Canada’s Globe & Mail, for whom I was working, wanted to try and keep this as quiet as possible until (a) [...]

This week’s ‘Photo of the Week’ comes from North Korea. I wanted to post a photo from NK as last week’s POTW but I held off as I was waiting until the Globe & Mail, who commissioned the shoot, published the  images on their website.
Throughout my journey with the G&M’s Mark MacKinnon, we were whizzed across the [...]

The above video is the second short-video by myself and the Globe & Mail’s Mark Mackinnon from our assignment in North Korea. The topic of this video is the Arirang Mass Games which are held in the May Day stadium in Pyongyang.
In case you don’t know, the Mass Games are a gymnastics, dance and song spectacular [...]

This is the third and final installment of mine and Mark MacKinnon’s short videos from our trip in North Korea.
This third video focuses on the Chinese city of Dandong, which lies on the North Korea/China border and offers a startling contrast between the two sides of the Yalu river. Whilst the city of Dandong thrives, fuelled by the economic boom in [...]

I just noticed today that I haven’t had a new post up for 10 days! Wow. I have been quite busy of late, having just got back from a shoot in the Chinese city of Hangzhou where I teamed up again with the Globe & Mail’s Mark Mackinnon for a new story. More on that [...]

This week’s ‘Photo of the Week’ comes from my wanderings on the streets of my Chinese hometown of Beijing. Last week I had a two-day assignment for my German agency Laif, who had arranged for me to shoot a story on Beijing’s infrastructure. Whilst meandering through Beijing’s CBD district, Guomao, the amazing light that afternoon [...]

This week’s ‘Photo of the Week’ was taken in 2006 as part of a story that I did on the destruction of the ‘hutongs’ of central Beijing. For those of you who aren’t aware, the hutongs are a maze-like series of homes and dwellings that used to dominate central Beijing. I say used to because [...]

SPECIAL 1-DAY OCTOBER HOLIDAY WORKSHOP – “Hutong Photography”
Dates: Tuesday 6th October 2009 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Course Leaders: Photographer Sean Gallagher & Guide/Interpreter Jessica Zheng
Location: The Far East International Youth Hostel, Beijing
Participants: Minimum 5 people, Maximum 10 people (Registration is on a first-come first-serve basis)
Student Level: Beginner/Intermediate – All ages welcome!
Cost: 499 Chinese Renminbi per [...]

Today marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Here in Beijing, Tiananmen Square has become awash with parades, both military and civilian, as the populace celebrates Mao Zedong’s founding declaration, exactly 60 years ago here in China’s capital.
The build up to this event has been quite something. Beijing has [...]

I got a surprise yesterday evening when I got a text from a colleague telling me that one of my photos had run on the front page of Canada’s national newspaper, the Globe and Mail. Regular readers of this blog will know that I have been contributing the visuals from China quite a lot to [...]

The above video is one that I produced for the Globe and Mail newspaper, along with the Asia Bureau Chief Mark Mackinnon and his assistant Yu Mei, a couple of weeks ago. The video centers on the preparations for the country’s 60th anniversary that passed on October 1st, focusing on the city of Hangzhou which lies to the west [...]

I was trawling through my archive today, looking for images to accompany a presentation that I am giving as part of my workshop tomorrow. As I looked through my ‘older’ files, I stumbled upon many of my images that I took while I lived in Japan between 2003-2004. I had just finished University and I [...]

The above video is an episode of Foreign Exchange, a weekly American TV show dedicated to covering global current affairs, hosted by journalist Daljit Dhaliwal.
Last week’s episode was devoted entirely to the current global water crisis and featured heavily the work of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and its work on covering the issues [...]

Tuesday saw the first of our new “Hutong Photography” Photo Workshops, held in the hutongs of Qianmen near Tiananmen Square. The workshop was a great success and we had five participants who spent the day exploring the hutongs and learning about the fundamentals of photography. Below is a selection of photos taken by Jessica Zheng, [...]

Yesterday and today, or today and tomorrow, depending on your time zone sees the launch of the new burn.gallery.show. This is one of the newest ventures for Burn magazine to raise funds and increase exposure for this new and exciting online photography magazine. If you have been living under a little bit of a rock [...]

This week’s ‘Photo of the Week’ takes us to Hong Kong. I first visited Hong Kong in November of 2008 and was completely taken by this unique and exciting city. 155 years of British colonial rule have obviously left a lot of British influence and I immediately felt at home in what was a place [...]

In case you missed it earlier this week, the Digital Journalist published a dispatch of mine in their October 2009 edition. The dispatch is titled “Inside North Korea” and recounts some of the experience that I had when I was shooting in North Korea. You can read the dispatch on their website here, or just scroll down [...]

NOVEMBER WORKSHOP – “Hutong Photography”
Dates: Sunday 15th November 2009 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Course Leaders: Photographer Sean Gallagher & Guide/Interpreter Jessica Zheng
Location: The Far East International Youth Hostel, Beijing
Participants: Minimum 5 people, Maximum 10 people (Registration is on a first-come first-serve basis)
Student Level: Beginner/Intermediate – All ages welcome!
Cost: 499 Chinese Renminbi per person*
As a result [...]

A friend of mine reminded me this weekend that it was the Hindu festival of Diwali this week. In case you don’t know, Divali (or the Festival of Light as it is also called) is a celebration held over 5 days by Hindu communities throughout the world. Lights are lit, fireworks are set off and families come [...]

Lots of things seem to happening at the moment and I am struggling to find time to write individual blog entries, so forgive me for including three subjects in one entry today.

First, I shall be heading the US on Saturday to speak at a number of events for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting who [...]

What a busy few days it has been since I arrived in the US 5 days ago. I spent the first few days at Kent State University, where I gave a total of eight (yes 8!) presentations for my work for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, mainly to students enrolled in the school’s various [...]

It has been a whirlwind couple of weeks for me as I near the end of a 2-week trip to the US, which has involved talks at Universities, NGOs, an Emmy party, lots of meetings and pounding the streets of New York with my portfolio in hand.
So, when I checked my email the other day, [...]

If you are in the Washington DC area this week, then you should make a beeline for the wealth of photography events they on this week as part of FOTOWEEKDC. I am slightly miffed as I spent the best part of last week in DC and had to leave just before all the events kicked [...]

*UPDATE* For lots more photos from this great exhibition, please head here at brightyoungthings.com
This will be a very quick post, but wanted to show you the print of mine in the David Alan Harvey Presents… exhibition over at PhotoWeek DC at the moment. As you can see, the prints have been almost ’strung-up’, hanging side by [...]

One of the highlights of my trip to the States this month was a behind-the-scenes look on Capitol Hill in Washinton DC. Guided by fellow photographer and friend Brendan Hoffman, who is an accredited photographer on ‘the hill’, I was given a glimpse of life behind the scenes of the American Senate.

Brendan spends many of [...]

It’s Friday night here in Beijing and rather than being out and about, I have just returned from another busy day since my return from the US last week. It always seems that being away from home for any period of time leads to a serious build up of work that needs to be caught [...]

*This week’s ‘Photo of the Week’ is an image from my story on the Bethel Training Center for Blind Orphans, currently being featured on the Photophilanthropy website. Below is the extract which supports the story. To see more images from this story, please click on the Photophilanthropy link.”
“I can see, and that is why I [...]

This weekend saw our WEEKEND WORKSHOPS continue with the second of our “Hutong Photography” classes. Braving the bitter cold in Beijing were Anne, Charlotte, Frank, Chelin, Jenny and Josh. The weather was against us, but a great day was had by all in the end, as we were determined to explore the hutongs against the [...]

It is ALWAYS great to receive feedback from our students about how they think our workshops have gone. Over the past couple of weeks, we have gathered a few of their responses, which you can find below.

As of this weekend, our WEEKEND WORKSHOPS programme now has a page on Facebook. To get updates on news, upcoming workshops, student photos etc. please become a ‘fan’ and get those updates sent straight to your news feed so that you know exactly what is happening and when. Click on the ‘Find us on Facebook’ link [...]

The ‘Sea of Death’ is the not-so affectionate name that has been given by the Chinese people to the Taklamakan desert, a desert of such epic proportions and intimidating size, that its name in the local Uygur language translates as ‘You can go in, but you will never come out’.
I visited the Taklamakan desert as [...]

One of my biggest challenges working in China over the past few years has been making inroads into the Chinese press. Notorious for the control that is placed upon the industry by the state, it is hard for foreign reporters to contemplate working under such restrictions that see their work scrutinized so closely and possibly [...]

Read this quote here today and I just had to post it here…
“What kind of typewriter did Hemingway use?” Jim Estrin, photographer at the New York Times for the last 20 years, asked his news photography class by way of an introduction this morning.
Nobody knew.
“That’s because it doesn’t matter,” said Estrin.
Have a look at the [...]

This time last year, I was in a sewer underneath the streets on the Mongolian capital of Ulaan Baatar taking this picture. I was there to do a story on the homeless communities of the Mongolian capital who live underneath the streets. At that point last year, the economic crisis was in full swing and [...]

I have been invited to speak at the British Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, on January 14th 2010, speaking about my work for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting on ‘China’s Growing Sands’. If you are in town on the date, please come along! This is a rescheduled event from last year, so hopefully this [...]

I haven’t announced this officially but I now have a YouTube channel! As I have started to produce more video work and multimedia over the past few months, I obviously want to get this work out to as many people as possible and YouTube seems to be the perfect venue as it is possible to [...]

As many followers of my work and my blog will know, much of my work falls within the category of environmental photography. As talks begin in Copenhagen today, on the immediate future plans of our governments to tackling climate change, it seemed appropriate to write a special blog post on photographing climate issues in China. [...]

A couple of online publications this week that I’d like to share with you this week.

The first one was on the New York Times’ Lens Blog which appeared on their site on Tuesday. James Estrin of the NYT wrote a very nice piece on me and my work on ‘China’s Growing Sands for the Pulitzer [...]

“The UN proclamation of the annual International Migrants Day offers a rallying point for everyone across the world who is concerned with migrants. It is an opportunity to recognise the contributions made by millions of migrants to the well-being and economies of their countries.” – Compassion for Migrant Children
This Friday, 18th Dec, will see the [...]

It’s a small milestone for the Sean Gallagher Photography Blog today (well, yesterday, technically)…we’ve hit 6 months blogging! I just wanted to take a moment to say thanks to everyone who has stopped by, read what I’ve had to say and commented on some of the pictures, videos and articles that I’ve posted.
The most popular [...]

Dear Friends of Weekend Workshops,
I hope this message finds you well in your preparations for Christmas.
I am delighted to announce two new workshops in January, to welcome in the New Year.
The first is the next in line of our increasingly popular “Hutong Photography Workshops” which will be held on Sunday 17th January at the Far [...]

Wishing all readers a happy Christmas and New Year!!!

First, Happy New Year everyone! I hope this blog entry finds you well after what I hope was an enjoyable and festive-filled Christmas and New Year. I apologise for my lack of posts over the past couple of weeks. Christmas for me (as it is for most) is a big family occasion and I decided [...]

Last month I was interviewed by the BBC World Service’s Outlook programme for an article on my work on desertification for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. The interview ran over the new year and has proved to be a wonderful new way to spread the message about this issue (the BBC World Service gets [...]

I was asked recently by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting to answer some questions with regards to my reporting on the subject of desertification in China. This is part of their initiative titled ‘Meet the Journalist”, offering viewers a chance to get ‘behind the scenes’ and find out some of the motivations and working [...]

The temperature plummeted in Beijing this month but that didn’t stop us from heading out into the chilly hutongs for another “Hutong Photography” Workshop this weekend. Luckily for myself, guide Jessica Zheng and our students Bonnie, Scott, Tina and Kirsten the thermometer crept up over the weekend, hovering around 1-2C making it a perfect winter [...]

Over at the Pulitzer Gateway, I am now taking questions from students in the US about the effects of desertification in China and how I reported on the subject last year. As part of the Pulitzer Center’s efforts to break down the barriers between reporters and their readers, they have provided a great venue for [...]

I haven’t done one of these posts for a while, so thought it was about time I shared another page from my notebook. If you haven’t seen the previous posts on this, you can head here and here to see them. The concept is simple. When I was beginning in photography I compiled a notebook [...]

I am happy to announce the addition of the Sean Gallagher Photography Store to this site! In the store you will find a selection of prints for sale, both framed and unframed. Whether buying for yourself, or as a gift for a friend or family member, the wide range of images offers a broad selection [...]

This week I posted a new gallery on my main portfolio site titled “A Modern Life”, which I’d like to invite you to view in the China gallery.
It’s a small set of photos which I did for a magazine earlier last year, which I have only just got around to featuring now. The feature is [...]

February welcomes a very unique time of the Chinese calendar; Chinese New Year! To mark the most important holiday of the year, we are running a special workshop to coincide with the celebrations here in the nation’s capital. We continue in the vein of trying to introduce our workshop participants to less-visited and authentic locations, [...]

We were delighted to find out last week that Chelin Miller, who is a former student from one of out hutong workshops, was featured in Beijing City Weekend and interviewed about her experiences taking on of our classes. You can read a snippet of the interview here online and read it reproduced below. Well done [...]

This week’s ‘Photo of the Week’ is one that I have dug out of my archive from possibly the most photographed city of all time…Venice, Italy.
I made the obligatory photographers/travellers pilgrimage to this city for a short weekend break and was overcome, mostly by the hordes of visitors there at the same time as me. [...]

Recently, I was approached by Greenpeace China do write a short article for their website about my work on desertification in China for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. This has been a great chance to reach out to Greenpeace’s audience and inform them about the work that I have been doing on this subject. [...]

If you’re new here and you have stumbled upon my blog, you may wonder, so what is discussed here? What are some of the main topics? What are the majority of the posts about? Well, using a very handy tool at Wordle I have generated a word cloud of the 100 most frequently used words, [...]

On Saturday night, the skies lit up with fireworks above most Chinese cities, signifying the start of China’s most special holiday of the year: Chinese New Year.
For the next week Chinese families will spent most of the time eating, drinking, visiting family members, catching up with old friends and heading to many of the temple [...]

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“Desertification is one of the most serious threats facing humanity”
- Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General. World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought. 2006.
“The dryness affects our lives a lot. We call it the ‘black disaster’, which means there is no grass. On the grassland, we are afraid of this [...]

With today’s post, I wanted to give readers an insight into the day-today shooting of a pro-photographer. I’ll be talking about something that is a key skill for working photographers, especially those who work on-assignment usually to tight or restrictive deadlines. When you are working as a photographer, it is of paramount importance that when [...]

This week’s ‘Photo of the Week’ was a shot taken as part of the ‘One Night in Beijing’ shoot for the Immersion Guides to Beijing in 2007. Exactly one year before the beginning of the Olympic Games in Beijing, photographers all across the capital were commissioned to head out onto the streets to capture images [...]

Last Sunday saw the 4th in our series of Hutong Photography Workshops. We had nearly a full class with nine students attending; Jim, Pip, Ross, Andrea, Daphne, Eva, Rita, Alexia and Fredrik.

The day started at 10 a.m. with everyone finding their way to the Far East International Youth Hostel with no problems. We got into [...]

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way that it treats its animals” – Mohandas Gandhi
In March of 2008, I was travelling down China’s greatest river, the Yangtze. Passing through the city of Wuhan, I happened upon the city’s zoo one day and was shocked by the conditions [...]