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Dongting Hu – A Lake in Flux – Pulitzer Center #5

Sean Gallagher — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 09:39:12 +0000

Sand ships on Dongting lake in Hunan Province.

SEAN GALLAGHER FOR THE PULITZER CENTER, HUNAN PROVINCE, CHINA

I was starting to feel a little anxious as I approached the shores of Dongting Lake in China’s central Hunan province. From a distance, I easily spied the country’s second largest freshwater lake. As I approached, waves lapped up on the shore, breaking near the barriers separating the lake from the nearby walkway. As I peered over the barriers and gazed further, I saw clumps of green protruding from the water. They were tree tops. This wasn’t exactly the scene I was expecting.

Dongting Lake has been reported as a lake in crisis. Dropping water levels have sent alarm-bells ringing in scientific and environmental circles, as the area of the lake has reportedly dropped by nearly 50 percent in the past 70 years. What I was witnessing however appeared to be the opposite. One fact was certain, this was a lake in an incredible state of flux.

CHINA. Waves lap onto a walkway in Yueyang city next to Dongting Lake, Hunan Province. Due to flooding, the lake has temporarily increased in size. 2010

“You’ve come at a time of flood,” reassured Liu Juxiang, as we chugged along in her compact water-taxi, used to ferry goods from the lake’s shore to waiting ships on the water. “Three months later, the water will become less. Many places have no water. The water could become one kilometer wide in the dry period, while it’s two kilometers wide now.”

Lying just off the Yangtze River, Dongting Lake has served as an essential buffer zone in times of flood in the region, receiving excess water from China’s mightiest river and protecting many downstream. In recent decades however, the lake has shrunk dramatically, causing scientists to begin investigating the causes of these changes and their effects on one of the country’s most important lakes.

CHINA. Flooding of Dongting Lake in Hunan Province has pushed water onto industrial land in nearby Yueyang city resulting in contamination of the water. 2010

“150 years ago, it was 6,250 square kilometers. 60 years ago, it was 4,350 square kilometers. Now, it’s 2,600 square kilometers”, commented Jiang Yong, on the area of the lake. Mr. Yong, an ecologist who has spent the past 18 years studying the province’s largest body of water, has become increasingly concerned about the trend. “Mud and sand keep silting up in the south of the lake. Therefore the capacity is becoming smaller. The silted mud becomes new land, which becomes islands and beaches which people then live on.”

It was a simple process to envision in action. Dongting Lake is fed by not only the Yangtze River but also by a number of other smaller tributaries. Combined, they have led to the flushing of sand and mud into the lake. As China’s burgeoning population grows, the demand for land is increasingly high. Opportunities for land reclamation are hard to pass on.

CHINA. A man turns away from pollution that has gathered on the shores of Dongting Lake, Hunan Province. 2010

As our water taxi bobbed across the lake, we weaved around huge ships carrying large conical piles of sand. Pointing to one of the looming hulks which dwarfed our boat, Mrs. Lu reminisced about the changes she had seen on the lake. “In the past, there were 20-30 sand ships in the lake. Now there are more than 300. They dig sand every day, every month, every year but there [is] still sand here. I don’t know how fast the sand grows, but it definitely grows.”

As I hopped off Mrs. Lu’s boat and strolled along the lake, piles of sand could be spotted on nearly every ship passing by. “Some of the ships dredge the lake to make the transportation smoother. If the sand silts up at the bottom, ships will not be able to pass through the lake easily. Others are doing it for raw material for construction”, explained Jiang Yong. “Too many ships on the lake will disturb the life of animals in water, like dolphins. We have river dolphins here, and sand digging will affect their lives.”

Fish restaurants line the streets of Yueyang, a town lying on the northeast shore of the lake. They advertise a myriad of aquatic creatures for sale to the hungry tourists who descend on the town. “Fish has become a brand of Dongting Lake. People have the idea that eating fish is a must when you come to Dongting,” said Jiang Yong. ”Therefore the demand is larger and larger.”

CHINA. A man swimming in Dongting Lake. 2010

Lake shrinkage has exceeded the fish’s ability to adapt to their dwindling ecosystem, resulting in fewer and fewer fish. Coupled with pollution, only smaller species remain in what was once a lake teeming with larger ones. Now, most of the bigger fish in the town are brought from other lakes, as the numbers have shrunk so much in Dongting itself. Overfishing has caused many fisherman to abandon their traditional ways of life for more lucrative and easier jobs on passing ships. Government sponsored programs have also recently encouraged fishermen to leave the water and seek land-based jobs.

“When the demand of the people goes up, the quality of the environment will go down”, was one of Jiang Yong’s final comments to me. This thought sat with me as I strolled along the lake shore one final time. Crowds had gathered to play in the waves, now lapping over the barriers and spilling onto the walkway. Yet the water’s temporary advance failed to hide the severe problems the lake currently faces.

Photo of the Week | Hang Gliders and Graveyards

Sean Gallagher — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 10:59:58 +0000

Moving Sands in Dunhuang, Gansu Province. China. 2007

This week’s ‘Photo of the Week” comes with a slightly odd title and to be honest, is admittedly a slightly odd picture.

I created this image in 2007 near the town of Dunhuang, which is situated in western China in Gansu Province. The area is famous in China because of its spectacular desert scenery, an oasis which has been present for hundreds of years and also local grottoes that contain 1500 year-old Buddhist paintings.

I was in the region as I was beginning my work on the subject of desertification, which as readers of my blog will know has become one of my main works over the past couple of years. This was my first trip to begin photographing this phenomenon and I found myself outside of the slightly touristy town of Dunhuang, exploring areas away from the hoardes of visitors. As I tend to do when I visit a new place, I had rented a bicycle and began exploring the area on my own. My meandering brought me to a very surreal and somber scene. A huge graveyard on the fringes of the desert.

What caught my eye the most was many of the graves were being swallowed by the sand. As I have travelled and photographed desertification, I have witnessed roads, buildings, power lines etc. being swallowed by sand, but this is the only time I have seen it happening to graves.

Treading with upmost care, I positioned myself near one of the tombstones to frame it in my viewfinder. As I did so, I noticed motorized hang gliders flying above me, carrying tourists who were visiting the region and who were trying to get an eagle’s-eye view of the area. As I framed the tip of the enveloped tombstone, the pair of hang gliders came perfectly into the frame.

The juxtaposition in this shot sometimes confuses people when they first look at it. I’ve had people comment that it looks like a coin has been stuck in the sand in the foreground. Others have missed the tombstone altogether and just seen the hang gliders and desert scenery in the background. What did you first see when you looked at it? Did you ‘get it’ straight away?

Climate Change, Copenhagen and China | Special Post

Sean Gallagher — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 05:14:37 +0000

A sandstorm in China's central Ningxia Province. 2009

As many followers of my work and my blog will know, much of my work falls within the category of environmental photography. As talks begin in Copenhagen today, on the immediate future plans of our governments to tackling climate change, it seemed appropriate to write a special blog post on photographing climate issues in China. In between the text are some of my favourite images from my work on climate change here in China.

A lone chimney stack on the outskirts of Baoding, China's first carbon-positive city. 2009

It seems that photographing climate issues have become quite a trendy topic recently. Magnum photographer Martin Parr recently described it as “as hip as it gets” in a recent blog post (via/ the excellent Duckrabbit, who do sterling work on Climate issues in Bangladesh, by the way). This is all unsurprising really. Climate change is the story of our generation and it’s a bandwagon that everyone should be jumping on. Our responsibility as photographers comes with truly understanding the issues we are photographing and being clear in the message that we are trying to convey with our pictures.

The blade of a wind turbine. 2009

I like to think I have a slight advantage in covering climate issues as my educational background stems from that direction. My interest in the sciences stemmed from high school in northern rural England and was fuelled by a degree in Zoology. Whilst many of my course colleagues and friends went off into scientific research, teaching and working for science journals, I decided to follow my passion for photography. I naturally gravitated towards photographing environmental issues. Now, my bookshelves are lined with as many books about photography as about science.

A worker in a factory producing solar panels. 2009

Today, I find myself in China photographing from the front line of climate change. During my time in the country, I have photographed air pollution, desertification, environmental refugees, sandstorms, disappearing grasslands, wind power, solar manufacturing etc. all key instruments and factors in the myriad of ways China is involved with how our world is changing.

Air pollution hanging over Shanghai. 2008

I really do hope that some kind of concrete and progressive agreements will be agreed upon this week which start to push us in the right direction, however I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t skeptical and a little pessimistic. What can I do? How can I make even a jot of difference? Well, it is up to me to try and get my work out there. ‘Out there’ in the sense of getting it in front of the eyes of people that matter. That includes you. I want you to see what I am seeing and witnessing here in China and present it in a way that is clear, reasoned and visually arresting. Why? Because we should all know what is happening to our planet. What happens here in China affects you, wherever you may be reading this from.

Tourists travelling on the Yangtze River near to the Three Gorges Dam. 2008

This week, my work on desertification will be shown in Copenhagen as part of the Earth Journalism Awards. I received an honorable mention for my work on “China’s Growing Sands” and I am delighted visitors to the summit will have a chance to view my images from my work on desertification. This will be my small contribution. As I have blogged about before however, I am increasingly pushing this work online and in print into as many different outlets as possible, trying to spread the word.

Human remains in the abandoned city of Yingpan in Xinjiang province. 2009

My single goal as a photographer is assist in the understanding between cultures and people. It’s a simple goal. I have no delusions that I think my photography ‘will change the world’ but I hope that it informs and increases awareness. I just want to understand the world better myself. I hope when others look at my images, they can understand it more with me. With a camera in my hand, I think I can do this and do my part. As one of my heroes, the late Magnum photographer Philip Jones Griffith’s, said, “You have to leave this world a better place.” Let’s hope our leaders do.

Photo of the Week | 13.07.09 | Air Pollution

Sean Gallagher — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 07:18:32 +0000

Air pollution hangs over the Bund in central Shanghai. 2008

This week’s ‘Photo of the Week’ is about a subject that is never too far away from the lips of China’s residents…air pollution. The above photograph was taken in Shanghai, in early 2008, towards the end of a trip I undertook travelling the Yangtze river. Shanghai is one of China’s most spectacular cities, however this alternative photo sheds the city in a different light. A somewhat greyish light, if you will.

The debate surrounding air pollution has always been intense. In the run up to the Olympic Games last summer, China famously banned cars from the roads, closed building sites and shut down factories ahead of the games, in attempt to clear up the air and protect competing athletes. Athletes arrived, some sporting masks, however it was generally perceived that air quality was improved during the games. A new study published just last month in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, has revealed that spectators and participants faced an “unprecedented level” of air pollution at the Games. Particulate air pollution in the air during the Beijing games was most worrying, well above the World Health Organisation’s safe limits and at levels almost 30% more than stated by experts in China.

To many, this news will not come as a surprise. While China did undertake great measures to reduce air pollution and reduce the threat to spectators and competitors during the Games, the initial levels were seemingly so high that their efforts still could not bring the levels to those deemed as safe by the WHO.

View of pollution hanging over the Beijing Skyline. API LEVEL 205 - Classification "VERY UNHEALTHY". July 13th 2009

Today, nearly one year on since the Games, life has almost returned to normal. The above picture (a bonus picture of the day if you will – taken today) shows the haze that has descended back onto the capital in recent days. The general consensus from many people on the street is that there have been many more ‘blue sky days’ in recent weeks and months since the Games, however blue skies do not always indicate safe air. It is the particulate matter, the particles that are naked to the human eye, yet breathed in unknowingly with each breath, that are the problem.

Statistics and data on the actual levels of pollution in Beijing aren’t too difficult to come upon, however the level of trust that can be placed in the results has always been debated. Depending on the source, they usually contradict oneanother. That’s why the emergence of an air pollution monitoring station on top of the American embassy has quite a stir recently, updating its readings every hour via its page on Twitter. As discussed in this article here, air pollution levels stated by official sources are proving to be wildely different from those reported from the roof of the American embassy. Not completely surprising.

So what does this mean? Is China really doing anything to combat this issue in Beijing and other cities, now the Olympics has moved on? As a resident of Beijing for 3 years, I certainly worry about what effect breathing in this air is having. Of course, I have the choice to leave but I call this city home and so do millions of others. I worry that the residents of this great city are slowly being poisoned along with millions of others across China in similar situations.

So what about your city? Does anyone out there have links to their city’s air pollution? Anyone out there suffering like Beijing’s residents? Please feel free to post links to images.

Photo of the Week | 22.06.09

Sean Gallagher — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 07:52:36 +0000

China. Beijing. Lightning storm over the city. 2007

‘Photo of the week’ is to be a regular feature here on the Sean Gallagher Photography Blog. Every Monday, I shall post an image from my archive and write a little bit about it to explain my choice. The choice may be because it didn’t make the cut into my portfolio site, or maybe it will be tied in to something in the news, or maybe it’ll just be a photo I really like.

So here is the first one I have chosen for you.

Back in the summer of 2007, China was hit by a series of erratic weather which caused large scale storms and floods across the country, resulting in many deaths. The above picture was taken in Beijing from my apartment window during one of the summer storms during that year. Beijing’s erratic weather has been the talking point of many locals and visitors over the past week, as the summer storms seem to be reappearing.

Last week, the capital was shrouded by a thunderstorm so thick with cloud that it blocked out the sun at mid-day resulting in headlights and streetlights being turned on. A few days later, darkness again descended in the middle of the day when a grey mist enveloped the city, which was speculated to be as a result of air pollution. Today however, the skies are a radiant blue and I can see half way across the city from my window.

As a British person, I am used to talking about the weather, but Britain has nothing on Beijing and China for its erratic and severe nature!