A quick post to let you know of a new multimedia production that I just launched late last week looking at the challenges facing China Forests. Followers of my work will know that I began work on this topic late last summer with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. I was very happy when the Asia Society’s China Green indicated their interest in helping make this become a multimedia project which we launched together recently.

Above is the video embedded fro YouTube, but I also encourage you to visit the China Green website and look around. They have some great work looking at various environmental issues in China. To watch the video in max. 1920×1080 HD quality (recommended!), head over to my Vimeo channel.

China Green - The Asia Society

A quick post here to let you know of a new video that has just been released by the Asia Society, focusing on my work over the past few years on China’s environmental crises. It was put together by Shreeya Sinha, who is an excellent multimedia journalist in her own right, and recorded when I was in New York a few months ago. The video provides a pretty concise view of my work and what I have been trying to do whilst covering these issues in China. Hope you enjoy!

From the Asia Society Blog…

Beijing-based videographer and photographer Sean Gallagher has been documenting China’s environmental problems from various perspectives since 2006 — covering everything from wetland disappearance, desertification, air pollution, to endangered species like the giant panda. Often backed by Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, Gallagher has raised awareness about the global impact of China’s rapid development.

Gallagher points to China’s desertification problem, which parallels similar issues in North Africa and Australia, as one example of a topic he’s covered that resonates worldwide. “These are issues affecting everybody and it’s incredibly important that we realize the impact we are having on our ecosystems and bio-diversity.”

The multimedia profile above encompasses the wide range of Gallagher’s reporting in photography and video, and offers a personal account of what it’s like to be a freelance journalist in China.

Burn Magazine

This week, one of the most important grants of the year was announced, the Emerging Photographer Fund from David Alan Harvey and BURN Magazine. This year, $15,000 is being given away to photographers of any discipline, who are seeking funding to continue their long-term photographic work. I was lucky enough to receive the first of these grants back in 2008 and I can assure you that is well worth your time applying. Last year I wrote a post explaining what the grant had done for me, in terms of my professional development, which you can read here.

Earlier this week, one of my most recent projects ‘China’s Fragile Forests’ was published on Burn Magazine. It’s a perfect venue for the work and I thank David for helping the issue reach more people.

The deadline for the Emerging Photographer Fund is May 15th, 2012. So, start getting that application together. Or, if you have more images to shoot, stop reading this and get out there taking some pictures! Good luck!

Asia Society - Giant Pandas

Last week saw a couple of interesting publications online that I wanted to share here. They are quite contrasting but are linked by their ties to environmental issues in China, which as readers of this blog will know, is a subject that I specialise in covering here in Asia.

The first is from the Asia Society who did an interview with me about the current state of Giant Panda populations in the wild in China. I really like collaborating with the Asia Society as they are very much dedicated to covering environmental issues and highlighting under-reported stories in the region. You can also view the 7-part Multimedia series on China’s Wetlands here that I produced with them and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting at the end of 2011.

Foreign Policy Magazine - The Smog That Ate Beijing

The second publication online was with Foreign Policy Magazine who published a series of images on the subject matter of Beijing air pollution, titled The Smog that Ate Beijing. At the end of last week I published a post with some extra images from this shoot and also some thoughts into how I made the images. That post was titled ‘Behind the Smog That Ate Beijing’ and you can view that here.

Happy browsing!

A view of air pollution over the CCTV building in Beijing, China. Wednesday January 18th 2012

I got a call on Wednesday from Foreign Policy magazine asking me to do a quick 1 day assignment. The brief? To travel around Beijing and capture the dense layer of smog that was sitting on top of the city. Beijingers and visitors will be all too familiar with this ‘fog’ which regularly descends upon the city. The story was published yesterday online and has become one of the most popular stories on the FP site (view here). I thought I would include here on the blog, a few shots that didn’t make the final cut and explain some of the challenges in photographing air pollution.

Tourists on Coal Hill in central Beijing. Wednesday January 18th 2012

The first challenge was making sure that I was able to get a representative picture of Beijing in the space of around 6 hours. This was an unplanned assignment, as FP editors had been closely watching the BeijingAir feed on Twitter, waiting for it to hit “hazardous” levels. This meant that logistically, I had to plan the day in the space of a few minutes before grabbing my cameras and heading out the door. Making sure that I was able to get to as many of Beijing’s distinctive landmarks as possible, I decided that given the time that I had I would aim for Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the CBD area of Guomao and the Olympic stadium.

The sun burns though the smog in central Beijing. Wednesday January 18th 2012

The next challenge comes from actually getting images that convey the sense of pollution and haze. If you are shooting with a wide-angle lens at ground level, it’s actually difficult to effectively show the effect of the haze. I quickly decided that to get shots with some impact, I would have to find some way to change this. I decided I needed some elevation.

The CBD area of Beijing is similar to most other business districts, lots of hi rise office buildings. I knew that if I wanted to get a sense of being in the smog, I needed to get up into these office buildings to shoot. I was a little hesitant at first, as I expected any request I made to photograph from the buildings to be denied. Surprisingly though, the couple of offices that I tried happily let me in to shoot for a couple of minutes.

A view of air pollution over the Guomao (CBD) area in Beijing, China. Wednesday January 18th 2012

From the CBD, I headed to ‘Coal Hill’ which is located north of the Forbidden City. It’s arguably the best place in Beijing to get a view of the Forbidden City and on a good day, you can see half way across the city. I knew that I wanted to try and capture some of old Beijing, to contrast my shots from the CBD and Bird’s Nest. Getting the elevation from being on top of the hill was again, key to getting the shots.

Air pollution obscures the view of the Olympic stadium, the 'Bird's Nest', central Beijing, China. Wednesday January 18th 2012

All in all, I was pleased with the results from this shoot, considering the time restrictions and number of locations. I hope these images help convey the severity of air pollution in Beijing. It’s a very serious issue and one which affecting the health of every person in Beijing and in many other cities throughout China.

First up is an interview that I did for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting recently, talking about my project from last summer on ‘China’s Fragile Forests’, looking at the current threats to China’s Forests. I hope it gives you some insights into my project and how I approached it. Stay tuned for more updates on this project in the new year!

NASA MODIS Rapid Response Team

If you were unfortunate enough to visit the east of China last week, you will have run into what was a very noticeable haze that descended on this part of the country. Residents and regular visitors knew all to well that this was the return of the dreaded vast swathes of air pollution that still hit this region of China. Levels were consistently over 300 on the AQI Index in Beijing last week, which according to the ‘AirNow‘ website… “”Hazardous” AQI greater than 300. This would trigger a health warnings of emergency conditions. The entire population is more likely to be affected.”

The above image was released today by NASA’s MODIS Rapid Response Team and shows clearly a huge wave of pollution lingering in the east, amazingly stretching all the way from Beijing, through central China and down to the west of Shanghai. Incredible. According to NASA….

“Skies over eastern China remained hazy on October 18, 2011. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite took this picture the same day.

Over China’s coastal plain south of Beijing, haze forms a giant, nearly opaque arc that terminates over Bo Hai. Although agricultural fires probably play a role in the formation of the haze, it more likely results from urban and industrial pollution in this densely populated area.”

If you are concerned about the level of pollution during your visit to China, especially in Beijing, you may want to check out the air pollution monitor on Twitter which provides hourly updates in the capital.

For further reading, check out The Globe & Mail’s Mark MacKinnon and his recent report on what it’s like living with air pollution. Think China’s Air is Breathable? Think Again. 

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

British Council Talk

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.

Intro

Deserts

Wetlands

Forests

Biodiversity

Conclusions

Q&A

If you have any questions, or follow-up thoughts from the presentation, feel free to post them below!

Chongqing University | Shenyang University

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.