From Left to Right: Jessica, Sean, Pip, Ross, Rita, Fredrik, Eva, Andrea, Alexia
Last Sunday saw the 4th in our series of Hutong Photography Workshops. We had nearly a full class with nine students attending; Jim, Pip, Ross, Andrea, Daphne, Eva, Rita, Alexia and Fredrik.
Andrea, Eva and Rita
Cadres | Beijing | China | 2007
This week’s ‘Photo of the Week’ was a shot taken as part of the ‘One Night in Beijing’ shoot for the Immersion Guides to Beijing in 2007. Exactly one year before the beginning of the Olympic Games in Beijing, photographers all across the capital were commissioned to head out onto the streets to capture images that represented the city at night.
It was an interesting shoot and the result was a very nice book which showed off many of the eclectic pictures captured from that night. The above picture from a club in the city didn’t actually make the final edit but I always liked it due to the intense colours and the contrast between the Long March Cadres on the wall and the revellers dancing.
The Guardian Newspaper | UK
With today’s post, I wanted to give readers an insight into the day-today shooting of a pro-photographer. I’ll be talking about something that is a key skill for working photographers, especially those who work on-assignment usually to tight or restrictive deadlines. When you are working as a photographer, it is of paramount importance that when you are assigned to a job, you ‘get the shot’ that your client wants.
Most editors/clients have little patience for excuses such as ‘the light wasn’t good’, ‘i didn’t have the right lense’, ‘the atmosphere wasn’t right for a picture’ etc. These are poor excuses and a client hires you because they expect you to overcome these obstacles and get the picture, because it’s your job to deliver.
White Cloud Temple | Baiyun Guan
On Saturday night, the skies lit up with fireworks above most Chinese cities, signifying the start of China’s most special holiday of the year: Chinese New Year.
For the next week Chinese families will spent most of the time eating, drinking, visiting family members, catching up with old friends and heading to many of the temple fairs that are taking place. This week’s ‘Photo(s) of the Week’ come from the White Cloud Temple in Beijing. This Taoist temple is over a thousand years old and is one of the locations for Beijing’s most interesting celebrations during this special week.
The photo at the top is of people rubbing chinese characters, in order to gain luck, fortune, prosperity etc. from the character of corresponding meaning.
White Cloud Temple | Baiyun Guan
The second image is taken within the grounds of the temple and is of two young girls, dressed up in their finest new year clothes.
We’re very excited to be returning to this temple tomorrow for our special Chinese New Year Photography Workshop where students will have the chance to capture the unique celebrations at this special temple. I wish all readers of my blog a happy and prosperous new year of the Tiger! 虎年快乐！
If you’re new here and you have stumbled upon my blog, you may wonder, so what is discussed here? What are some of the main topics? What are the majority of the posts about? Well, using a very handy tool at Wordle I have generated a word cloud of the 100 most frequently used words, to help give you an idea. Have a look below…
Word Cloud
As you can see, the top 4 are China, photography, desertification and workshop. These four really sum up a lot of what I have talked about over the past 7+ months in which I have been blogging. Read more about each below…
St Mark's Square | Venice | Italy
This week’s ‘Photo of the Week’ is one that I have dug out of my archive from possibly the most photographed city of all time…Venice, Italy.
I made the obligatory photographers/travellers pilgrimage to this city for a short weekend break and was overcome, mostly by the hordes of visitors there at the same time as me. Luckily, I had a good friend who was a local, who was able to steer me away from some of the more heavily visited areas.
When you visit a place like Venice, which is photographed constantly, it is sometimes hard to create something that is perceived as unique or different. You try to avoid visual cliches that have been reproduced by hundreds of other photographers before you.
Whilst I was happy with a lot of my photos, my favourite photo actually came from the most visited part of the city, St Mark’s Square. As anyone who has visited the square will know, it is normally inhabited by large numbers of pigeons all vying for the food which tourists happily feed them. This one girl donned in a cat’s mask, patiently waited in what almost seemed like a trap for the unsuspecting avian residents. Did she catch any? I can’t remember but it was fun to watch as she created this visual idiom before me.
Chinese New Year Special Workshop: White Cloud Temple Fair
February welcomes a very unique time of the Chinese calendar; Chinese New Year! To mark the most important holiday of the year, we are running a special workshop to coincide with the celebrations here in the nation’s capital. We continue in the vein of trying to introduce our workshop participants to less-visited and authentic locations, therefore will be holding this workshop at the White Cloud Temple, in XiCheng District on Tuesday 16th February from 11:00 a.m. to 16:00 p.m. This spectacular Taoist temple is over 1000 years old and is one of the city’s hidden cultural gems. It will be the perfect place for photographing the true, authentic and traditional new year celebrations. To find out more details about how to join us on this special workshop, please head to our workshop page here.
For those of you leaving Beijing for the holidays and won’t have a chance to attend the Chinese New Year workshop, do not worry! The increasingly popular Hutong Photography Workshop is back again on Sunday 28th February from 10:00 a.m. to 18:00 p.m. and will again offer participating students the chance to explore the maze-like hutongs whilst improving their photography. We were delighted to learn that this month a former student from this workshop was featured in Beijing City Weekend Magazine talking about her experiences taking this class. Read a snippet of her interview here and then find out how to book your place here through our workshop page.
We look forward to seeing you!
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I am happy to announce the addition of the Sean Gallagher Photography Store to this site! In the store you will find a selection of prints for sale, both framed and unframed. Whether buying for yourself, or as a gift for a friend or family member, the wide range of images offers a broad selection to suit everybody’s taste in images.
MTP
To kick the store off, I have teamed up with the Jane Goodall ‘Roots and Shoots’ and Million Tree Project to provide a special offer on anyone buying prints where the subject is desertification. When you purchase a print depicting desertification from the store, 10% of the proceeds will be donated directly to the Million Tree Project who will use your money to plant trees in areas of Inner Mongolia that are being severely affected by desertification.
1 tree costs only 25 Chinese Renminbi (= approx. US$3.7 / GBP2.3 / Euro 2.6), therefore purchasing a print at US$200 will result in the planting of 5 trees (5.4 to be exact)! To learn more about the project, please click on the Million Tree Project logo above.
*Buy prints, offset your carbon emissions and directly help combat desertification*
1/11 - 29.3in x 21.7in (74.5cm x 55cm) - Shapotou Couple- US$250 (excl. P&P)
Inside a Photographer's Notebook | Images (c) Steve McCurry / Magnum Photos
I haven’t done one of these posts for a while, so thought it was about time I shared another page from my notebook. If you haven’t seen the previous posts on this, you can head here and here to see them. The concept is simple. When I was beginning in photography I compiled a notebook of pictures, phrases, poems, sayings etc. that inspired me. I did so that when I was out shooting and I maybe had a down moment, or was lacking inspiration, I could turn to it to help me get going again.
The above page are pictures by the legendary Magnum and National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry. I chose them because for me they represented the exoticism of the places he photographs and I wanted to be reminded of the dynamics of a photo that you could create using objects within a frame (see pic on left) and the power of a simple, well-lit portrait (see pic on right).
At the time, I believe I was reading a book by the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. I was completely captured by how he wrote about life and losing love in Japan. One small haiku that stuck with me was the following:
“furin ya, koenaki kaze wa, uta wa seru”
The translation, although not literal I believe, was interpreted as:
“alone, the wind has no voice, but when it moves through the wind chimes, it sings”
For me at that time, the photographer became the wind and the camera the wind chimes. I liked that idea very much and wanted to remember it.
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.
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!
