A Tibetan woman in Xining. 2011 - (c) Sean Gallagher

This past week saw the first of our new Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau workshops. Leading this workshop with Tibetan Connections, I tried to introduce the students to this amazing part of China through photography. It was a great success and was a fascinating to see the students discover this region in their own different ways. To see images of the participants in action, please go here to the Facebook page for our workshops.

A pigeon in flight at a monastery in Repgong. 2011 (c) Sean Gallagher

In-between teaching, I had the opportunity to make some of my own images and use them as examples of what the students could achieve. By watching how I worked, I was hoping the students could replicate my methods in a way to improve their own photography.

Qinghai is a diverse and beautiful land. Sitting high on the Tibetan Plateau it is made up of mountain ranges and highland grasslands. The people of this region are predominantly Tibetan and as such have a unique and distinctive style and way of life. All of these facets we tried to capture during the course of our workshop.

A monk stands in a doorway in a monastery outside of Repgong. 2011 (c) Sean Gallagher

I want to say a big thanks to all our participants this week. For anyone interested in my workshops, we have another trip planned for October, this time to Xinjiang, also in the west of China. For more information about that tour, please go here to the Wild China website.

-

Very excited to announce here on the blog the launch of a new partnership with tour agency Tibetan Connections, offering photography workshops and tours in western China on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.

Tibetan Connections, a small grass-roots company, have been based on the plateau for a number of years and are actively involved in encouraging responsible tourism in the region. Their ethos is to work with and hire local Tibetan people and visit communities to help support the people of the region through ethical tourism. They will be our logistical partners on the trip, looking after travel, guides and accommodation for us.

Our first collaboration begins in June with a 5-day tour from June 10-14, around the Eastern part of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, focusing on the monastic lifestyle and rituals in this region. I visited this region in November of last year and it really is a stunning part of the country, relatively unexplored compared to many other regions in China.

Below is an outline of the June tour. Be sure to check out the Tibetan Connections website for more information and to confirm your place on this trip.

Continue Reading »

[slideshare id=5869543&doc=ucca-101123001230-phpapp01]

<<Return to the Learning Zone Last weekend, I was invited by Beijing based eco-group Greening the Beige to give a workshop at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art. We had a great turnout, with many students and photography enthusiasts all keen to see images from my environmental work in China over the past few years and learn about some of the thought processes that go into tackling these realtively large issues. We had such a great discussion, so I thought I would post my presentation here on my blog and highlight/elaborate on a couple of the key talking points. I hope this might prove useful for anyone who wasn’t able to make the event.

The aim of the workshop was to help people understand how I approach taking on large scale subjects, aiming this message at many of the students, from both the fields of photography and journalism, who were in attendance. The first question we tackled was: How do you find story ideas?

Continue Reading »

Event Poster

For anybody who is in Beijing this coming weekend, I will be giving a workshop at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art on Saturday 20th November from 4:30 to 5:30. I’ll be talking about ways to photograph large-scale environmental issues and trying to give participants help in helping form and shape their own ideas for approaching these issues.

Here’s the general outline:

“UCCA welcomes two-time Pulitzer Center Grant recipient Sean Gallagher, who has spent the past two years traveling across China documenting the country’s fight against desertification and disappearing wetlands.

Having the ability to visually communicate overarching themes, theories and ideas is essential to helping the public understand sometimes complex and seemingly disjointed issues.

Gallagher’s workshop will focus on the art and science of effectively photographing large-scale environmental issues and conveying eco-stories through imagery. He will also provide participants with useful advice about identifying themes and stories, and offer tips about the process of eco-filmmaking, from shooting to distribution.”

If you think this might be of interest please come along. Entry is free and there are many other events on throughout the day, all along ‘green’ lines. Hope to see you there.