A Giant Salamander in Wuhan Zoo. 2008

“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 in which the animals were being kept. As a result, I returned to the city a few weeks later in order to photograph the various animals in an attempt to convey the appalling conditions in which they were living.

China has a mixed record in the way in which it treats its animals. From the use of animal parts for Chinese medicine to the new conservation efforts to protect tigers (as a result of  this year being the year of the tiger), it seems confusing whether animals are valued or not. Maybe attitudes are changing. A quick trip to the  zoo in Wuhan will certainly dispel you optimism for change however.

In this week’s ‘Photo of the Week’, a Giant Salamander is kept in the zoo’s aquatic house in a cramped and shallow pool. As visitors pass the pool, they throw coins in an attempt to make them land on top of the Salamander. This is done supposedly to bring the visitors luck and fortune.

To view more images from this series of animals such as crocodiles, lions and bears and the awful conditions in which they live in, please visit my portfolio site and follow Index>China>Lockdown-Inside China’s Zoos

From Left to Right: Jessica, Sean, Pip, Ross, Rita, Fredrik, Eva, Andrea, Alexia

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.

Andrea, Eva and Rita

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 morning class and straight way found that everyone was at a similar level and wanted the same things out for the day together.

Daphne, Fredrik, Eva and Alexia

Our first afternoon session shooting turned out to be longer than expected as everyone became increasingly fascinated with life in the hutongs. It was a typical day in this unique area of central Beijing and students were offered photo-opportunities at every turn in the maze-like alleys. Editing sessions after the first shoot and in the later half of the afternoon offered students a chance to talk about the photos they were creating and how they could improve.

Ross and Pip

As the afternoon went on, the temperature dipped quickly but everyone was still enthusiastic about trying to get that ‘one last shot’. As the snow fell and the fireworks went off at the end of the day, another successful Hutong Photography workshop came to and end.

Fredrik, Sean and Andrea

Jessica and I want to express a big thanks to Jim, Pip, Ross, Andrea, Daphne, Eva, Rita, Alexia and Fredrik for making it a very interesting and special workshop!

Ross, Pip and Jim making notes in class.

Andrea and Alexia

Class editing session

Jim and Sean

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]]> http://gallagher-photo.com/blog/2010/03/04/photos-from-hutong-photography-workshop-iv-w-jim-pip-ross-andrea-daphne-eva-rita-alexia-and-fredrik/feed/ 0 http://gallagher-photo.com/blog/2010/03/01/photo-of-the-week-cadres/ http://gallagher-photo.com/blog/2010/03/01/photo-of-the-week-cadres/#comments Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:04:52 +0000 sgallagher http://gallagher-photo.com/blog/?p=1938

Cadres | Beijing | China | 2007

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 that represented the city at night.

It was an interesting shoot and the result was a very nice book which showed off many of the eclectic pictures captured from that night. The above picture from a club in the city didn’t actually make the final edit but I always liked it due to the intense colours and the contrast between the Long March Cadres on the wall and the revellers dancing.

The Guardian Newspaper | UK

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 you are assigned to a job, you ‘get the shot’ that your client wants.

Most editors/clients have little patience for excuses such as ‘the light wasn’t good’, ‘i didn’t have the right lense’, ‘the atmosphere wasn’t right for a picture’ etc. These are poor excuses and a client hires you because they expect you to overcome these obstacles and get the picture, because it’s your job to deliver.

About 18 months ago, I got a call from the Guardian Newspaper from the UK for a 1-day assignment. At that time, the country was panicking about a recent health scare involving a potentially harmful substance in milk products, called melamine, which was especially harmful to children. My brief was to get a portrait of a child (and parent preferably) who was suffering from melamine poisoning.

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I went to the Beijing’s Children Hospital, early in the afternoon. Although I was unsure of the specific lighting situation in our ultimate destination I tried to guess what it would be like i.e. indoors, fluorescent lighting maybe, natural lighting from a window possibly etc. This enabled me to set-up so that I wouldn’t have to change too many settings once we arrived.

Eventually I arrived in one room with about four or five children and their parents. There was one lady who was there with her grandson who was suffering kidney problems, as a result of melamine poisoning. The lady was happy to talk and gave me permission to photograph her grandson. I knew I had to work fast. For one, I was a non-Chinese with a professional looking camera in my hand, secondly there was a large window on one side of the room which went directly into the nurse’s station.

In this post, I have posted the 17 frames that I managed to shoot before we were (politely but sternly) told to leave. The first 7 frames were shot as soon as I got into the room in the space of about 30 seconds. In the 8th frame (IMG_5027) you can see that my angle changes. This is because I was forced to stand from a crouching position as a nurse walked into the room and questioned us. It was quite clear that we were going to be asked to leave. So, as I stood and listened to nurse talk (on my right), I folded my arms and positioned my camera to aim at the grandmother and child (on my left) and shot 10 more frames without drawing the nurse’s attention. This period lasted no longer than a minute and then we were asked to leave.

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I was quite nervous after we left as I was unsure if I had ‘got the shot’. This was a new client and I had not time to check my pictures as I went, as I would normally do. Some portrait shoots are short, but a minute and a half? With over half of the pictures taken without looking? It was going to be a close call.

I sent all the pictures to the client and they chose the very last picture (IMG_5036) of the 17 picture sequence to run with their article. This was the picture taken a fraction of a second before we had to leave from my hip without looking. Luck? Well, I like to think that experience meant that I was prepared (technically) before I got in the room to act quick. Also, when positioning the camera under my arm and not looking, I knew my camera and lense well enough that I could position the subject within the frame without looking. The autofocus was on because as I was working quickly and the autofocus ‘beep’ was switched off, as it normally is, so no attention was drawn when shooting the extra shots. All of these combined to get the shot.

I hope the above information helps, in terms of trying to get a shot under pressure. The main points I want to highlight are (i) to know your equipment to the point where you can use it blinfolded (ii) try to anticipate the shot and shot location before you get there and set yourself up accordingly  (iii) act quickly, in preparation and when the subject appears (iv) try to squeeze out that one last shot if you aren’t convinced you got it, or you need to ‘cover your bases’.

Interestingly, as a side note, I was contacted a day later my another newspaper, this time in Australia. They wanted to use the image seen in the Guardian. I sent through the picture, plus a  few other images from the sequence. They decided to go with a different picture (IMG_5032). Lesson? Different editors may go for different pictures. Always give them a choice. Even if you only have 17 frames to work with!

The Age | Australia

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Dry and cracked soil in Gansu Province.2009

“Desertification is one of the most serious threats facing humanity”- Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General. World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought. 2006.

A tourist stands on one of the large sand dunes that make up the Shapotou Desert tourist resort. The resort has provided jobs for local residents and has been a way for the local economy to benefit from the desert. 2009

“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 disaster”, says Zamusu, a farmer who has lived his entire life on the central grasslands of  Inner Mongolia, in Northern China. These legendary grasslands are slowly deteriorating, suffering as a result of the world’s least reported environmental crisis.

A theme park in Ningxia Province is shrouded in sand during a sandstorm. Sandstorms occur as the spring winds blow and throw dry and degraded topsoil into the air. 2009

Desertification is the gradual transformation of arable and/or habitable land into desert, usually caused by overpopulation, water mismanagement, poor farming methods, the destructive use of land by industry and climate change.

Workers at the Shapotou desert theme park take a break as work slows. 2009

38% of the world’s surface area is now threatened by desertification, affecting countries across the world from North Africa, the countries of the Middle East, Australia, China and the western edge of South America.

A tourist runs in the desert in Ningxia province. 2009

“If we don’t take action, current trends suggest that by 2020 an estimated 60 million people could move from desertified areas of sub-Saharan Africa towards North Africa and Europe, and that worldwide, 135 million people could be placed at risk of being uprooted”, Kofi Annan (2006).

Creeping sands in Inner Mongolia swallow a fence at the side of a road. 2009

In 2007 I began photographing the issue of desertification and how it was affecting the lives of people in one of the world’s hardest hit countries, China. With the help of grants from the David Alan Harvey Fund for Emerging Photographers in 2008 and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting in 2009, I have been able to document how the people of China are being affected by this crisis, which has consumed over 20% of their country.

The grasslands of Inner Mongolia are suffering as a result of overgrazing and pressure put on them by rapid population and industry growth in the area. 2009

To learn more about how you can help combat desertification, please visit the Million Tree Project which aims to reforest areas of Inner Mongolia being affected by desertification.

A sandstorm descends on a bridge in Ningxia Province, bringing life to an almost standstill. 2009

White Cloud Temple | Baiyun Guan

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 fairs that are taking place. This week’s ‘Photo(s) of the Week’ come from the White Cloud Temple in Beijing. This Taoist temple is over a thousand years old and is one of the locations for Beijing’s most interesting celebrations during this special week.

The photo at the top is of people rubbing chinese characters, in order to gain luck, fortune, prosperity etc. from the character of corresponding meaning.

White Cloud Temple | Baiyun Guan

The second image is taken within the grounds of the temple and is of two young girls, dressed up in their finest new year clothes.

We’re very excited to be returning to this temple tomorrow for our special Chinese New Year Photography Workshop where students will have the chance to capture the unique celebrations at this special temple. I wish all readers of my blog a happy and prosperous new year of the Tiger! 虎年快乐！

Word Cloud

As you can see, the top 4 are China, photography, desertification and workshop. These four really sum up a lot of what I have talked about over the past 7+ months in which I have been blogging. Read more about each below…

China – I have been lucky enough to call China my second home really, since moving here 3 and 1/2 years ago. Most of my posts are about my life and work here and it’s inevitable that this is the focus of my posts. I do try to add a sprinkling of thoughts and photos from other locations however, when I can.

Photography – Well, this one is a little obvious!

Desertification – The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting sponsored me to work on covering the issue of desertification in 2009 and since, it has been my main body of work. I continue to try to spread the word on this vastly underreported issue to as many people as possible.

Workshop – In October 2009 we began the Weekend Workshops, photography classes aimed at introducing the participants to China, through photography. Slowly but surely they are gaining in popularity as more Beijing residents and visitors look to explore China’s capital with their cameras in hand.

…And that’s it, in a nutshell. I hope it helps give you a quick idea about what this blog is about. Maybe I’ll try this again in a year, to see how the focus had changed. This will be a useful exercise for me too!

Greenpeace China

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. You can see the article here, or scroll down to read the text as it was published.

Beijing, China — China’s poverty-stricken northwest is swathed in sand. The deserts are creeping over ever larger areas, in part because of weather changes linked to climate change. Sean Gallagher a young British photographer travelled to Ningxia to document China’s growing sands.

“You can smell a sandstorm. As I woke this morning, my throat was drier than normal and the smell of dust and sand had crept into my room whilst I was sleeping. I opened my curtains expecting to see the Yellow River out of my window but all I could see was a haze of yellow light.” Sean Gallagher. Diary entry. April, 2009.

Greenpeace China Front Page

The sandstorm that descended on me that day was the most visually arresting sight I had seen during my time in China. Blocking out the sun, casting a yellow/orange light on the earth and bringing life to a standstill, I was experiencing something that was strangely unnerving. The underlying cause would prove to be even more so.

I was in a place called Shapotou, in the province of Ningxia. Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region is a small province lying in Loess highlands of north-central China. Dry and desert-like, it is China’s poorest province and is the least visited by outsiders. It was the second of my stops on a 4000km journey across China documenting the effects of desertification on the north and west of the country for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. It was a journey that would take me to a city of environmental refugees, visit degraded grasslands, abandoned cities, desert theme parks and disappearing oases.

So what is desertification? The desertification of north and western China is arguably the most under-reported environmental crisis facing China today and is little understood outside the circles of NGOs and groups of scientists who are desperately fighting against it.

Desertification is the gradual transformation of arable and/or habitable land into desert, usually caused by local and global climate change and more recently in China, fuelled by the destructive use of land in the forms of over-grazing, increased population, water mis-management and outdated farming methods. As land becomes degraded, the spring winds of northern-central China pick up sand and dust, hurling into the air creating vast sandstorms which batter the region.

Each year, desertification and drought account for US$42 billion loss in food productivity worldwide. In China, approximately 20% of land is now classified as desert or arid, and desertification is adversely affecting the lives of over 400 million people in China alone.

“Desertification is one of the most serious threats facing humanity.  It is a global problem, affecting one fifth of the world’s population in more than 100 countries”, stated former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in a message on World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought in 2006. “If we don’t take action, current trends suggest that by 2020 an estimated 60 million people could move from desertified areas of sub-Saharan Africa towards North Africa and Europe, and that worldwide, 135 million people could be placed at risk of being uprooted.”

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St Mark's Square | Venice | Italy

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. Luckily, I had a good friend who was a local, who was able to steer me away from some of the more heavily visited areas.

When you visit a place like Venice, which is photographed constantly, it is sometimes hard to create something that is perceived as unique or different. You try to avoid visual cliches that have been reproduced by hundreds of other photographers before you.

Whilst I was happy with a lot of my photos, my favourite photo actually came from the most visited part of the city, St Mark’s Square. As anyone who has visited the square will know, it is normally inhabited by large numbers of pigeons all vying for the food which tourists happily feed them. This one girl donned in a cat’s mask, patiently waited in what almost seemed like a trap for the unsuspecting avian residents. Did she catch any? I can’t remember but it was fun to watch as she created this visual idiom before me.

City Weekend

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 Chelin! To see images from the workshop Chelin attended, please go here.

Snap Happy: Hutong Photography

*Amateur photographer Chelin Miller tells us why she hones her skills in Sean Gallagher’s photo workshops

What is it about photography that draws you?

Photos tell a story, preserve memories and can be a fantastic creative outlet.

Have you ever studied photography before?

I have never studied photography seriously, but I’ve had a passion for it since I was a teenager.

(c) City Weekend

How did you find the hands-on photography workshop?

There was a feeling of camaraderie from the beginning. We were eight in our group. Armed with our cameras, we went out around the hutong and although we were all together, we all perceived different aspects of the area, the people and the architecture. It was fascinating to come back to the hostel and review everybody’s photos; I think we all learned a lot from each other.

Is the workshop accessible to the camera challenged?

Yes, the workshop was very clear and concise. It covered enough basic technical and composition steps to be able to take good photos even if you were a total beginner, without slowing down the pace for those with a little bit more experience.

Will you be taking the workshop again?

Yes, definitely. I can’t wait to go to Harbin for the ice festival with Sean and Jessica’s group. Being with others who share my passion, making jokes, feeding ideas off each other and learning from each other is what makes the workshops so enjoyable.

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