Today, June 17th, marks the United Nations‘ World Day to Combat Desertification. As regular readers of this blog and followers of my work will know, a large portion of my work in recent years has been about the scourge of increasing desertification in China. Please take this opportunity today to spread links and talk about the issue of desertification, one of our world’s most pressing and under-reported environmental crises.

According to the United Nations:

“Desertification, land degradation and drought (DLDD) threaten human security by depriving people of the means to decent livelihoods. They undercut food production, access to water and the means to economic activity, and even destroy their homes. At worst, they lead to a breakdown in national and regional security as people are forced to leave their homes or to engage in low- or high-level intensity conflicts over increased or extended periods of resource scarcity.

Land degradation in the drylands, commonly known as desertification, begins with the clearing of vegetation, which means “forests are the first step towards healing the drylands and protecting them from desertification and drought,” as Mr Luc Gnacadja, Executive Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification observes. Dry forests may become the single most important determinant of the future sustainability of the drylands as the impacts of climate change escalate. Yet, only 18% of the drylands is forested.

UN Drylands World Map - Desertification

The United Nations has designated 2011 as the International Year of Forests to stress the need for forests that serve people. Scientists and experts agree that this link is most evident and felt in the drylands where trees play multiple roles for the communities. They provide food and medicine for the people and their livestock. They are their places of worship and shelter and their decision-making centers. Trees mean life here and are not taken for granted by the close to 2 billion inhabitants that call drylands ‘home’.

In his call to the international community in February when unveiling the 2011 theme, Mr. Gnacadja stated, “If each of us makes the commitment and ensures that just one tree is planted in a degraded part of the drylands and that the tree survives through the year, we could have well over two billion trees in the drylands by the end of the year. That is a tree for every inhabitant. …let us go forth and forest the drylands to keep them working for present and future generations.”

New Travel Magazine | Page 1&2

I hope you will excuse the seemingly self-promotion nature of this post today. I’ve been lucky enough to have two nice spreads in magazines this month, which I thought could serve as a nice reminder that online publication is not always to be all and end all. Seeing images in print in magazines and books have such a different impact and feeling for me, that it’s important to remember the importance of combining distributiuon methods to reach as many people as possible with our stories and images.

Desertification in China | Ventiquattro Magazine | Page 1&2

It is also interesting to see what different editors decide to do with my images. On a production level, I normally hand over my images to editors and then they take it from there. This is their job, of course. Speaking from only my personal experience, I rarely am consulted in terms of layout. I am fine with this as I am lucky enough to work with some really very good editors, who try to get the best out of the images. I am rarely disappointed.

So, if you happen to be in Italy at the moment, pick up a copy of Ventiquattro Magazine, which is running a very nice 8-page spread of my work on desertification in China. If you are in China, you may like to pick up a copy of New Travel Magazine 新旅行 which is running a 6-page spread of my work on the plight of the Chinese Alligator. Samples of both, are shown in this post. Scroll down for more…

The Chinese Alligator | New Travel Magazine | Page 3&4

The Chinese Alligator | New Travel Magazine | Page 5&6

Desertification in China | Ventiquattro Magazine | Page 3&4

Desertification in China | Ventiquattro Magazine | Page 5&6

Collecting Firewood in Inner Mongolia

This week, I returned again to the deserts of Inner Mongolia, whilst on assignment. I have been to this region a number of times over the past few years and really enjoy my time there. For those who don’t know, Inner Mongolia is one of China’s most northerly provinces, stretching across most of northern China. The landscape is dominated by grasslands however much of it is under serious threat from desertification.

In this photo, locals were collecting firewood, moving it from their truck to the side of the road. Deforestation is one of the main drivers are desertification in these regions. As trees are uprooted and roots removed, the soil loses its stability, drying quickly  as the desert moves in.

For those living in very rural areas, firewood is essential for their daily lives, however unregulated collecting can have disastrous consequences, especially when combined with other activities that fuel desertification. It is difficult though to implement a workable balance between local people’s needs and their impact on the environment.

Camera Info: Canon 7D | 16-35mm f2.8 lens | ISO 100 | f8 | 1/500th

World Water Day | Newseum | Pulitzer Center

If you happen to be in Washingotn DC this week, you may want to drop by the Newseum to check out a slideshow that will be on show in the main lobby. The show is being hosted by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and National Geographic Society to mark World Water Day, showing images from around the world depicting the global water crisis.

World Water Day | Newseum | Pulitzer Center

I’m very happy to have a couple of my images from China included in the show. The show runs from March 17 to April 1, so should hopefully reach out to many people passing through the main atrium in the Newseum. If you’re in town, stop by and let me know how it looks!

World Water Day | Newseum | Pulitzer Center

Sandstorm over the Taklamakan Desert | NASA | NASA/GSFC, MODIS Rapid Response. http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/

What you are seeing above is a sandstorm hanging over the southern edge of the Taklamakan Desert in western China, taken by one of NASA’s satellites. To get a really good look at it, click here for the HighRes. The Taklamakan is China’s biggest desert and is an immense sea of shifting sand dunes, which dominates the west of the country.

I was lucky enough to spent a couple of weeks travelling around the Taklamakan desert, as part of my Pulitzer Center sponsored work on desertification in China. The fringes of the desert are most susceptible to desertification, as overgrazing on farmland bordering the desert tends to strip the lands of their grass and hence allows the desert to take hold and expand. It’s a worrying trend which is having serious consequences for the people of this region.

A sandstorm in Ningxia Province, China. 2009

During the spring, winds tend to increase in intensity in the west of China. As the spring winds blow, they pick up the sand and dust lying on top of the degraded land and carry it into the air, creating these massive dust and sand storms.

During my travels in western China, I found myself in a number of these storms. Photographically, they are a challenge as you try to keep your camera equipment safe from the sand. The resulting pictures however are quite spectacular and offer a very surreal viewpoint sometimes, such as the image above.

Invite - Page 1

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.

Invite - Page 2

]]> http://gallagher-photo.com/blog/2010/11/30/print-auction-chinas-growing-sands-threatened-waters-dec-10th/feed/ 0 http://gallagher-photo.com/blog/2010/06/14/images-from-zhengzhou-universities-talks/ http://gallagher-photo.com/blog/2010/06/14/images-from-zhengzhou-universities-talks/#comments Mon, 14 Jun 2010 13:04:43 +0000 Sean Gallagher http://gallagher-photo.com/blog/?p=2247

Standing room only at one of our talks

This weekend I travelled to the Chinese city of Zhengzhou, a city of some 7 million people lying next to the Yellow River in central Henan province. I was in the city to give a series of talks at Universities in the city, presenting some of my work in China over the past 4 years and also introducing our workshops to the students of the city.

Showing work on desertification in northern China.

My presentation began with an introduction about myself, reasons for coming to China and a general overview of the types of subjects that I cover. I then introduced the main part of my presentation, about my work on desertification over the past three years. I structured the talk about desertification to take the audience across China, starting in Beijing in the east and then finishing in Xinjiang province in the west. Many of the students seemed surprised about the scale of desertification throughout the north of China.

Presenting an image of snooker star, Ding Junhui.

After presenting my work about desertification, I introduced images of a number of images of Chinese celebrities that I have had the opportunity to photograph during my time in China. The highlight was definitely showing my photos of Ding Junhui, a snooker player of national fame here.

Introducing our Workshops

Towards the end of the talks we introduced our workshops in Beijing and announced the beginning of these workshops in Zhengzhou which will hopefully start during this summer/autumn.

Students asking questions at the end of our talks.

At the end of the talks we opening up the floor to questions and I was surprised how many students were keen to ask questions. The questions were varied and included inquiries mainly about desertification and other environmental issues in China. Many students were also keen to ask questions about the aesthetics of photography and were looking for advice on how to get started in photography.

Poster advertising talks at one of the Universities in Zhengzhou

Our talks started on Friday evening and by Sunday evening we had completed 4 talks and spoken to over 1000 students. Not bad for a weekend’s work! Hope you enjoy the photos. Scroll down for a few more….

We were lucky enough to have full rooms in most of our talks.

-

View of presentation from the rear of a classroom.

I am delighted to announce here on my blog that this month’s issue of National Geographic China contains a 12-page essay of my images and text, about my Pulitzer Center-sponsored work on “China’s Growing Sands”. This is a wonderful opportunity to reach out to a new audience in China and bring wider attention to the issue of desertification, which is gripping the north of the nation.

I considered just posting photographs of the layout here as a traditional tearsheet display, but then I thought it would be more fun to create a short video to showcase the layout. Also, this story only appears in the Chinese edition of National Geographic this month, so I wanted those not based in China to be able to see the excellent layout, as if you were flicking through yourself.

Please click on the video above to begin and thumb-through the magazine article with me on Vimeo. If you prefer YouTube, please go here.

If you are in China now, or over the coming few weeks, please pick up a copy. You should be able to buy it on most newsstands across the country.

Always happy to hear your thoughts. What do you think? Do you like the spread?

Moving Sands in Dunhuang, Gansu Province. China. 2007

This week’s ‘Photo of the Week” comes with a slightly odd title and to be honest, is admittedly a slightly odd picture.

I created this image in 2007 near the town of Dunhuang, which is situated in western China in Gansu Province. The area is famous in China because of its spectacular desert scenery, an oasis which has been present for hundreds of years and also local grottoes that contain 1500 year-old Buddhist paintings.

I was in the region as I was beginning my work on the subject of desertification, which as readers of my blog will know has become one of my main works over the past couple of years. This was my first trip to begin photographing this phenomenon and I found myself outside of the slightly touristy town of Dunhuang, exploring areas away from the hoardes of visitors. As I tend to do when I visit a new place, I had rented a bicycle and began exploring the area on my own.  My meandering brought me to a very surreal and somber scene. A huge graveyard on the fringes of the desert.

What caught my eye the most was many of the graves were being swallowed by the sand. As I have travelled and photographed desertification, I have witnessed roads, buildings, power lines etc. being swallowed by sand, but this is the only time I have seen it happening to graves.

Treading with upmost care, I positioned myself near one of the tombstones to frame it in my viewfinder. As I did so, I noticed motorized hang gliders flying above me, carrying tourists who were visiting the region and who were trying to get an eagle’s-eye view of the area. As I framed the tip of the enveloped tombstone, the pair of hang gliders came perfectly into the frame.

The juxtaposition in this shot sometimes confuses people when they first look at it. I’ve had people comment that it looks like a coin has been stuck in the sand in the foreground. Others have missed the tombstone altogether and just seen the hang gliders and desert scenery in the background. What did you first see when you looked at it? Did you ‘get it’ straight away?

Get Your Free Web Ring Webring by Bravenet.com

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