Inside a Photographer's Notebook 1. 'Look' photo (c) Peter Marlow/Magnum. Quote: Bruce Lee

<<Return to the Learning Zone When I first started entertaining the idea of being a photographer, about 7 years ago, I had a million and one ideas in my head and nowhere to put them. I can’t remember who first suggested it to me, but someone gave me the idea to put them down in a notebook, to collect all my ideas and sources of inspiration in one place. So, I did. Over the following few years I would cut out pictures from magazines, write down quotes that inspired me, have friends write down their thoughts and log important deadlines for competitions and exhibitions.

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China. Beijing. A young boy in a hutong near Tiananmen Square. 2005

I first came to China in the autumn of 2005. I had just finished a 1-year paid internship at Magnum Photos in London and upon the completion of the internship, Magnum gave me and my fellow interns a grant in order to help begin our work as photographers. The grant basically enabled us to afford a plane ticket to anywhere in the world. I decided to go to China.

For 6 weeks, I walked the traditional alleways, or  hutongs, that make up the old part of the center of Beijing working on a story about the disappearance and destruction of these traditional neighborhoods. One evening I came across this young boy, standing, watching the world pass him by in a hutong to the south of Tiananmen Square. At this point, I spoke virtually no Chinese which presented the challenge of trying to capture a portrait without being able to communicate with my subject. So, how do you do it?

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