Last week I visited two Chinese cities, Shenyang and Chongqing, for the British Council as part of their Smart Talk series. We had a great turnout in both cities, with over 500 people turning out altogether.

One of the highlights for me as a photographer is to connect with my audience and be able to talk about my motivations and reasoning for carrying out my work. I feel many photographers often close themselves off and retreat from interaction with their audience. I embrace it. I feel it’s part of my responsibility to communicate  these issues further though dialogue. These environmental issues are vitally important for us all to understand.

I recorded the second of the talks, at Chongqing University’s Film school, so that you can listen in. I broke the audio up into different parts, so that you can dive straight into the part that interests you the most, or just pick and choose which you listen to.

I have also uploaded the presentation (above) so that you can scroll through and follow what I was showing on-screen to those in attendance.

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Earlier this year, I was invited by the British Council to take part in a series of talks in China, presenting my work on documenting the country’s environmental issues to over 300 students at Shanghai’s prestigious Tongji University. I was honored to be part of this series promoting the work of British figures, as previous speakers have included people such as entrepreneur Richard Branson and actor Patrick Stewart.

Next week, I go back on the road again to take part in the same series of talks, this time visiting the cities of Shenyang and Chongqing. It will be an exciting opportunity to speak to new audiences in new cities and bring the message of environmental awareness through photography and multimedia.

If you happen to be in those cities next week, I shall be speaking in Shenyang on Wednesday 21st September and in Chongqing on Thursday 22nd September. You can book your place here.

In light of my recent travels for the Pulitzer Center and new multimedia, I’ll have a new presentation to give, however here is a video of my first presentation in Shanghai earlier this year, to give you an idea of the things that I’ll be talking about.

March 15-27 saw the holding of the Washington DC Environmental Film Festival in America’s capital. It was a showcase of short films made about environmental issues around the world and I was lucky enough to have been invited to show some of my recent work from China, as part of the presentation given by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

Even though I wasn’t there myself, this was a wonderful opportunity to spread the message about my work on wetlands issues in China and bring this issue to a new audience. The above video is from the beginning of the Pulitzer Center’s presentation, given by Jon Sawyer, the Pulitzer Center’s Director. I’m proud and flattered that they led their presentation with my recent piece on the plight of Dongting Lake, in central China. You can watch the piece by watching the video above.

For more information about the film festival, here is their Missions Statement and outline from their website:

Mission Statement

The Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital seeks to further the public’s understanding of environmental issues – and solutions – through the power of film and thought-provoking discussions with environmental experts and filmmakers. The Festival is a platform that fosters environmental awareness and action.

Founded in 1993, the Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital has become one of the world’s largest and most influential showcases of environmental film and a major collaborative cultural event in Washington, D.C.  Each March the Festival presents a diverse selection of high quality environmental films, including many Washington, D.C., U.S. and world premieres. Documentaries, features, animations and shorts are shown, as well as archival, experimental and children’s films at venues throughout the city.  Films are screened at partnering museums, embassies, libraries, universities and local theaters and are attended by large audiences. Selected to provide fresh perspectives on global environmental issues, most Festival films are accompanied by discussions with filmmakers, environmental experts and special guests, including national decision makers and thought leaders, and are free to the public. The Festival’s Web site serves as a global resource for environmental film throughout the year.

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The evening of November 22nd saw the opening of the first public print display of ‘China’s Threatened Waters’, as part of the Greening the Beige annual party. We had a great attendance with a few hundred people attending the events and it really was a wonderful evening. Please find above a small selection of photographs from the evening, taken by myself, volunteers and GtB’s event photographer Jordan Thomas Mitchell.

Next week, I shall be heading back to western China again to visit the province of Qinghai (hopefully some very exciting developments will be announced after, and as a result of, this trip — please stay tuned!). I won’t be posting as much, so I shall leave you with these photos for the time being. There have been plenty of posts this week, so if you missed them , please go back and check them out. To help point you in the right direction, I have added a new plug-in which will recommends other blog posts to you that you might be interested in, depending on which you are reading at that time. You can find this at the bottom of each post. Happy reading and exploring!

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Dear All…Quick update today to let you know about a special event that we (myself and Greening the Beige) would like to invite you to on the evening of December 10th at the Hutong in Beijing.

As the exhibition of Threatened Waters finishes at Yugong Yishan, we wanted to do something productive with the prints, so in collaboration with Red Gate Gallery, we shall be having an evening of wine and Asian tapas, culminating in an auction of fifteen, signed prints of mine, ten from the exhibition and a further five from my China’s Growing Sands Series.

The proceeds of the auction will go to covering the costs of the exhibition, with all other proceeds going to the Mangrove Action Project. I chose this organization because they are actively involved in environmental education in China are on the forefront of trying to change perceptions of wetlands and their importance. I documented the work of this NGO this summer and you can see the great work they do by watching this multimedia piece.

I really hope to see some of the regular visitors to this blog there. Whether you are interested in purchasing a print for yourself or for a loved one or friend in the run up to Christmas, we hope that the added knowledge that your money is going help create positive environmental change in China, will make it an even better Christmas purchase.

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