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Monday, February 8th, 2010
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.
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Tags: europe, italy, photo of the week, photographing people, photography, piazza san marco, st mark's square, street photography, venice
Sunday, January 31st, 2010
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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Tags: asia, Baiyun guan, beijing, china, city weekend, education, ideas, inspiration, photographing people, photography, photography workshops, street photography, the hutongs, weekend workshops, white cloud temple
Monday, January 18th, 2010
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!
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Tags: asia, beijing, china, education, hutongs, inspiration, photographing people, photography, photography workshops, street photography, weekend workshops
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
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.
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!
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Tags: asia, beijing, china, education, hutongs, photographing people, photography, photography workshops, street photography, weekend workshops
Monday, October 19th, 2009
Diwali celebrations in Trafalgar Square, London. UK. 2004
A friend of mine reminded me this weekend that it was the Hindu festival of Diwali this week. In case you don’t know, Divali (or the Festival of Light as it is also called) is a celebration held over 5 days by Hindu communities throughout the world. Lights are lit, fireworks are set off and families come together for this important day.
Diwali celebrations in Trafalgar Square, London. UK. 2004
This week’s ‘Photo of the Week’ comes from Diwali celebrations, not in India, but in London. I took them in 2004, during my one year paid internship at Magnum Photo’s London office. I remember having only been at Magnum for a couple of months when this festival came about. Having been inspired day-in-day-out (as I was for most of the year) I headed out onto the streets to try and capture some of the colour and fervour that surrounded the festival on the streets of the UK’s capital. I’d like to share five of those images with you taken during celebrations in 2004.
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Tags: britain, diwali, london, magnum internship, magnum photos, photo of the week, street photography, the festival of lights
Saturday, October 17th, 2009
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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Tags: beijing, china, education, hutongs, inspiration, photographing people, photography workshops, street photography, weekend workshops
Monday, October 12th, 2009
Pedestrians in downtown Hong Kong. 2008
This week’s ‘Photo of the Week’ takes us to Hong Kong. I first visited Hong Kong in November of 2008 and was completely taken by this unique and exciting city. 155 years of British colonial rule have obviously left a lot of British influence and I immediately felt at home in what was a place that seemed to have the feelings of both China and Britain, blended together into a unique anglo-sino melting pot.
The above photo was taken on one of the main shopping streets on Hong Kong island. I like this image for one reason really, the colour. I often look for singular colours in images in order to simplify the picture. Whilst out wandering the streets, my attention was obviously caught by the radiating neon signs that jumped out from the shop window. Having seen such a situation, I then decided to stand and wait for pedestrians to walk past in order to create an image with an interesting composition. I didn’t just want a straight shot of the window. I wanted to somehow convey the movement and dynamics of Hong Kong in the one frame.
After returning to my computer and looking closer at this image, other elements started to reveal themselves to me. The condensation on the window for example, running in streaks vertically down the glass. The way that the shapes and lines of the two people’s faces seem to fit together like a puzzle, in a way that reminds me of two continents that were once joined but have slowly separated over time. It’s always great to discover more elements in an image that you don’t realise are there when you first capture it.
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Tags: china, hong kong, photo of the week, photography, street photography
Thursday, October 8th, 2009
Sean giving advice to Prachit and William in the first editing session.
Tuesday saw the first of our new “Hutong Photography” Photo Workshops, held in the hutongs of Qianmen near Tiananmen Square. The workshop was a great success and we had five participants who spent the day exploring the hutongs and learning about the fundamentals of photography. Below is a selection of photos taken by Jessica Zheng, who also acted as our guide and translator throughout the day.
The day started with a class introducing the basics of photography, covering topics such as ISO, using light, aperture, shutter speed and how to approach people to take pictures. Following on from that, we had a second short class on ‘photography chinese’, learning useful words and phrases that would assist us in speaking and connecting with the people we photographed. We then headed into the hutongs for the first shooting session, focusing on the points we had learnt from our first class. Returning to the Far East International Youth Hostel for lunch, a 12-dish spread of traditional hutong food awaited us!
While we digested our feast, we entered into our first one-on-one editing session, looking at each student’s images from the first shooting session. Once we had reviewed each student’s images, we headed out for our second photographing session, aiming to improve on what we had learnt in our editing and earlier classes. Having navigated the hutongs for a second time, we returned to edit our images again, this time in a group setting, sharing our ideas and common experiences from the day in the hutongs.
As you can see from the above photos, a great day was had by all, exploring both the hutongs and our photography. Thanks to Jennifer, Bruce, Prachit, William and Myles for helping to make this a memorable first “Hutong Photography” Workshop!
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Tags: beijing, china, education, hutong photography, photo class, photographing people, photography, street photography, weekend workshops
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
A Japanese child, perched on his mother's bike. 2003
I was trawling through my archive today, looking for images to accompany a presentation that I am giving as part of my workshop tomorrow. As I looked through my ‘older’ files, I stumbled upon many of my images that I took while I lived in Japan between 2003-2004. I had just finished University and I was quite unsure about what direction my life was taking. Having been dabbling in photography for a year or two, I decided to take myself off to Japan in order to experience a completely alien culture to my own and see what it brought out in me photographically.
At the time I did not work as a professional photographer. I was on the JET programme, an initiative run by the Japanese government that brought native English speakers to the country to teach schoolchildren. I was based in the small and little-known town of Himeji, on the coast, south of the larger cities of Kobe and Osaka. My main school was in Himeji itself, however for two days of the week I would get on a boat and head out to a small group of islands off the Japanese coast to teach in a school that served the small archipelago.
My daily commute involved a 20 minute bike ride to the local docks, a 25 minute speedboat ride and then another 20 minute bike ride to the school. Not the worst way to travel to work! On one of my commutes whilst cycling on the small islands, I stopped at a small junction and saw this young Japanese buy perched on his mother’s bike. Using my small Minolta Dynax 5, loaded with my favourite film at the time, Fuji Velvia 50, I snapped this one frame of the boy.
I love this photo, as it is one of the first portraits that I was truly happy with and it takes me straight back to my experience of living and working in Japan. The islands (called Ieshima, by the way) were a unique place, and like Japan, hold a special place in my memories living, working and travelling in Asia.
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Tags: japan, photo of the week, photographing people, photography, portraits, street photography
Monday, August 17th, 2009
An advertising hoarding in Beijing featuring Yao Ming, China's leading basketball player and Tiger Woods. 2006
I received a picture request this week from a client for images of golf in China. While I was searching through my archive, I stumbled upon this image that I took in 2006, just after I arrived in Beijing for my second time. The image was taken on Beijing’s main Wangfujing high street, which is one of the city’s shopping districts, popular with visiting tourists, both Chinese and foreign.
Many photographers use the approach of first searching for a backdrop, in order to create a picture. They wander, they look, constantly searching for a background that will serve as almost a ’stage’ for which they will wait until the passing ‘actors’ all fall into place. That is exactly the approach I took with this photograph. Upon seeing this advertising hoarding, with the huge figures of Yao Ming and Tiger Woods looming over the shopping street, I knew it would make an interesting composition, if I was able to work the moving elements of the pedestrians into the frame too. So, I sat and I waited. Waiting for all the ‘actors’ to pass by and fall into place.
I enjoy the symmetry of this photo, how the passing pedestrians form almost a triangle in the bottom portion of the frame and the figures of Woods and Yao Ming stand like pillars to either side, helping to frame the photograph.
“All the world’s a stage, And all men and women are merely players. They have their exits and entrances.” – As You Like It – Shakespeare
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Tags: beijing, china, photo of the week, photographing people, street photography
