Beijing, China. 2005

This week’s image comes from my first ever trip to China, back in the autumn of 2005. I had just finished an internship at Magnum in their London offices and I decided to go to Beijing, to start to photograph some stories I had been forming in my mind during my internship. One of the stories I worked on during my first six weeks in Beijing was on the destruction of the old ‘hutongs’ in the centre of the city. Hutongs are old courtyard communities, based around mazes of alleyways and form an integral part of the character of old Beijing. In recent years, many of these hutongs have been destroyed in an attempt to modernise the centre of the city.

I was out wandering the hutongs one day, as I had been doing a lot during the trip, when I cam across a family moving out of their hutong home. The surrounding area was being demolished and their small community was one of the last that was left. As I watched them start to remove tables, chairs and other items I decided to position myself down one of the small alleyways outside their home. I was hoping that I may be able to catch an interesting moment when someone walked past with an item from their home. I couldn’t hoped for better when for a brief second, someone walked past with a large classical Chinese painting depicting a group of cranes underneath a tree. I managed to capture two frames before the person was gone. Compared to the regular chairs and tables I had seen pass me, this image was the obvious choice from the situation I found.

Camera Info: Canon 20D | 20mm lens | ISO 100 | f4.5 | 1/60th

Tianmo Desert Workshop

We are delighted to announce our upcoming workshops for May 2010! We have two workshops planned, “Shoot-Edit-Photoshop” and “Beijing Desert Workshop”. We hope each one will cater to whatever you current goals in photography may be. Please find the initial outlines below. For more details and detailed itineraries, please head to our Workshop page (via the tab at the top-right of the blog) .  We look forward to seeing you on one of our upcoming classes!

This new workshop titled ‘Shoot-Edit-Photoshop’ is aimed at beginner/intermediate photographers who are looking to improve their digital workflow from the shooting stage, through to editing and finishing images in Photoshop. We all know how it is easy to lose control of all those images you take, so you will learn effective ways in which to edit and categorize your images to improve you skills at managing your photos straight after a shoot. After categorizing our images, we will take them into Photoshop to learn how to get the best out of them through simple alterations such as cropping, changing colour balance, levels, contrast and saturation. Photoshop can be very daunting but we will break it down and show you the few essential functions you can use to get the very best out of your images.

Editing Session: Weekend Workshops

“Beijing Desert Workshop” - Dates: Saturday 5th June and Sunday 6th June 2010 (Please note these dates have changed)

During this workshop you will explore and photograph the little-visited desert of Tianmo. Located just 80km from central Beijing, next to the Longbao Mountain Range, it is the closest desert to the capital and offers visitors a glimpse at the spectacular desert regions that now dominate 20% of northern China. Sean Gallagher, whose images of China’s deserts have appeared in National Geographic China, will guide you during this workshop helping you capture this unique environment. You will have a chance to shoot side-by-side with Sean and learn how to capture landscapes, natural scenery and photograph daily life in this dry but fascinating area.

Hutong Photography Workshop | Beijing | China

The temperature plummeted in Beijing this month but that didn’t stop us from heading out into the chilly hutongs for another “Hutong Photography” Workshop this weekend. Luckily for myself, guide Jessica Zheng and our students Bonnie, Scott, Tina and Kirsten the thermometer crept up over the weekend, hovering around 1-2C making it a perfect winter day to explore the hutongs.

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Along with our class in the morning introducing everybody to the key, fundamental technical aspects of photography we had two shooting sessions in the morning and afternoon. The hutongs are a constant inspiration and you never know what may be round the next corner. For this month’s workshops students encounters included photographing a 98-year old hutong resident, bicycles buried in snow, conversations with pipe-smoking locals, coal deliverers and many more unique characters.

Thanks again to our students Kirsten, Bonnie, Scott and Tina who braved the threatening cold to make it another memorable workshop!

Weekend Workshops Beijing

This weekend saw our WEEKEND WORKSHOPS continue with the second of our “Hutong Photography” classes. Braving the bitter cold in Beijing were Anne, Charlotte, Frank, Chelin, Jenny and Josh. The weather was against us, but a great day was had by all in the end, as we were determined to explore the hutongs against the dropping temperature! Below is a selection of images from the day.

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As in our first “Hutong Photography” workshop in October, our schedule began with a class introducing the basics of photography, making sure everyone was comfortable with how their cameras worked and providing everyone with advice about how to approach people to take pictures in the hutongs. We then had a ‘Photography Chinese’ class taught by Jessica Zheng before heading out into the cold to begin our first shooting session.

We had two shooting sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Both were followed by group editing sessions where we sat down and looked at everybody’s photos, sharing ideas and thoughts about how we could improve. In between the morning and afternoon sessions, the usual hearty spread of food was layed on by the Far East International Youth Hostel, to keep us fuelled for the day’s work.

Even though it was a bitterly cold day in Beijing, it was great to see everyone’s passion for photography keeping us going (although the heater in the hostel did help…see gallery photo of everyone franticly trying to warm hands!). A big thanks from me and Jessica to Anne, Charlotte, Frank, Chelin, Jenny and Josh for making this another enjoyable and successful “Hutong Photography” Workshop!

NOVEMBER WORKSHOP – “Hutong Photography”

Dates: Sunday 15th November 2009 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Course Leaders: Photographer Sean Gallagher & Guide/Interpreter Jessica Zheng

Location: The Far East International Youth Hostel, Beijing

Participants: Minimum 5 people, Maximum 10 people (Registration is on a first-come first-serve basis)

Student Level: Beginner/Intermediate – All ages welcome!

Cost: 499 Chinese Renminbi per person*

As a result of the success of the first “Hutong Photography” workshop in October, another workshop has been scheduled in November for those who missed out on the first one. Just like the first workshop, our class will focus on one of the special areas that makes the Chinese capital so unique…the hutongs!

A chance to photograph the people of the hutongs

During this workshop, we shall focus on photographing the unique way of life that still remains in the hutongs of the central Qianmen district. Photographer Sean Gallagher will guide you through these maze-like communities to show you the best ways to approach and photograph the people and architecture. Along with tuition ‘on the street’ we will also cover the basics of photography before we head out, to make sure you are getting the most out of your camera. Professional guide and interpreter Jessica Zheng will be on hand at all times to offer you insights into the background and history of the hutongs and will also give a brief lesson in ‘Photography Chinese’, key words and phrases you need when photographing people.

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CHINA. Beijing. A young girl plays in the destroyed remains of hutongs (traditional homes) in central Beijing near Tiananmen Square. The hutongs are being destroyed to make way for new developments aimed at modernising the city for the 2008 Olympic Games. 2006.

This week’s ‘Photo of the Week’ was taken in 2006 as part of a story that I did on the destruction of the ‘hutongs’ of central Beijing. For those of you who aren’t aware, the hutongs are a maze-like series of homes and dwellings that used to dominate central Beijing. I say used to because many of them were destroyed in the run-up to the Olympic Games as the city strived to modernise in anticipation of all the visiting eyes that would be looking upon the city.

Whilst the hutongs were arguably a backwards way of living and inefficiently used space, they represented an relatively unchanged age of Beijing that dated back hundreds of years, even as far back as when the Mongolians ruled the capital. Controversy arose also during the destruction of the hutongs as reports emerged of forced evictions and residents not being given adequate compensation.

During my first trip to Beijing in 2005 (sponsored by a grant I received after completing my internship at Magnum Photos) and during 2006, I documented the destruction that had been taking place in the center of the city. You can view more of the images here, at the website OpenDemocracy.net.