How do you find a scientist?

“It’s Dr. Evil, I didn’t spend six years in Evil Medical School to be called “mister,” thank you very much.”

Dealing with science and scientists has been an important part of my work whilst covering environmental issues over the past few years in China. Virtually every story I have investigated and covered began with reading the research of scientists working on the subject matter and/or in the location I intended to visit. Many scientists have been key to my research and without their input, much of my work wouldn’t of been possible.

I studied science at University, Zoology to be exact, so became quite familiar with many aspects of research and the scientific method. Not all of us studied science however and sometimes dealing with science and/or scientists can seem somewhat daunting. Researching the latest studies and/or news coming from scientific circles however is really one of the first things you should do, to get a thorough grounding of the current level of understanding of the topic you have decided to cover. This applies if you are covering environmental issues, medical or social.

So, to try to help you bridge that gap, here are my top 5 tips for dealing with science and scientists when researching a potential story….

1. Where to Start? So, you have a great story idea, you’ve identified some potential subjects but before you go anywhere you want to learn what the latest scientific research on the matter is. Where to start? Your first stop should be popular scientific magazines such as Nature, Science and Scientific American. These magazines are written for the educated layman and lay out all the latest happenings in the world of science. Do a quick search on their websites and see if anything comes up related to your subject matter.

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It was a very sad day for the environmental movement yesterday, learning that Wangari Maathai had passed after losing her battle with cancer at the age of 71. This inspiring lady who was a Nobel Laureate and founder of the Green Belt Movement, was one of the leading world figures in raising awareness about environmental issues.

The above video is a perfect message for all of us who try to figure out what we can do, as individuals, to contribute to protecting our planet. Please spread the word…

Thanks to Elizabeth Conley for posting this link on Facebook

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.

Live broadcast by Ustream

“24 Events…24 Time Zones…24 Hours of Reality
Droughts, floods, heat waves, insect outbreaks, wildfires, sea level rise – we are encountering the reality of our changing climate every day. Five years after the theatrical release of An Inconvenient Truth, Nobel Laureate and former Vice President Al Gore will host an international event that brings the world together in a critical moment of global consciousness to deliver the message: The climate crisis is real, and it’s already happening.”

Whichever time zone you are in, please tune in to this 24-hour broadcast and listen to the incredibly important lectures outlining the impacts of climate change on our world.

Get the evidence. Accept the reality of our changing climate. Take action.

The Climate Reality Project

Regular readers here and followers of my work will know that the main focus of my photography is on environmental issues. In recent years, notably on access and availability of water in Asia, specifically China. I came across this short video on the National Geographic website that I wanted to share here with you. It tackles the question, “Why Care about Water?”

“If you took all the water in the world and put it into a gallon jug, less than one teaspoon of it would be available to us.” – Alexandra Cousteau – National Geographic Emerging Explorer

We have precious little usable freshwater to play with in the world. With our global population skyrocketing and demand for water increasing everyday, access and availability to water is going to be one of the most crucial factors determining how our future develops.

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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.

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National Geographic have just released a series of very interesting articles in their latest issue, on the status of humanity’s population. As part of their interactive features, they released the video above titled ‘the face of 7 billion’, depicting what is the most common face on the planet. Do you have it?

It seems that there have been a few of these kinds of graphic’s coming out recently, most notably one which was going around the internet a few weeks ago of composite images of women from different countries in the world. It’s quite an interesting technique.

The National Geographic series of articles on population are up to the very high standards you would expect from them. They have some fascinating graphics which break down the current statistics surrounding our global population. It’s well worth taking time to explore.

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<<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?

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TEDx Canton

Next week sees the arrival of TEDx on the Guangzhou Science Center, in southern China. I feel very flattered and honoured to have been invited to be one of the speakers at the event, talking about my recent work over the past couple of years for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. For those of you who are free on Saturday 4th September, click the picture above to get info about how you can get hold of some of the last remaining tickets that are available. I am sure that it is going to be an amazing day, with great talks and attended by a lot of very interesting people.

If you see me there, please come and say hi!