VISUAL THOUGHTS 视觉观点

A member of staff looks at a feather during a class led by the Mangrove Action Project

SEAN GALLAGHER, FOR THE PULITZER CENTER, GUANGDONG PROVINCE

“Since the end of the second world war, we’ve lost about 50 percent of our mangroves worldwide. Which means, we’ve got about 13 million hectares left.” This was the sobering statistic that began my interview with Martin Keeley, education director for the Mangrove Action Project in China’s sweltering southern province of Guangdong last week.

I had arrived in the province via China’s most southern mainland city of Zhanjiang, to explore the mangroves of the Leizhou Peninsula, a jut of land extending from the mainland into the South China Sea. It is home to China’s largest mangrove reserve and is at the forefront of fighting the battle to protect the country’s remaining mangroves from multiple threats in the region.

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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.

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Chinese Alligators in enclosure at ARCAR

SEAN GALLAGHER, FOR THE PULITZER CENTER, ANHUI PROVINCE, CHINA

When I discovered in my research that China had its own crocodilian, I was excited to try to find an opportunity to photograph it. What I was not prepared for was to learn that the species is perilously near extinction.

“In the past few centuries, the number of Yangtze alligator[s] has dropped dramatically”, explained Xie Yan, a quiet and unassuming  woman who is the current director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s China office. Having studied Zoology in university in Sichuan, she became concerned with the plight of many of China’s animals species, leading her to write numerous books about China’s wildlife. “According to a survey in 1998, only 120 wild Yangtze crocodiles [are] left. In the past, the number should be between 10,000 and one million,” continued Xie Yun, during an interview at the Anhui Research Center of Alligator Reproduction (ARCAR).

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CHINA. A Chinese Alligator. 2010

SEAN GALLAGHER, FOR THE PULITZER CENTER, ANHUI PROVINCE, CHINA

This week I travel to the province of Anhui, situated in the Yangtze River basin west of Shanghai. I travel to this region to begin the chapter of my work on the effects of wetland disappearance on animal species in China.

As way of introduction to this chapter, I recently interviewed Joe Abene, a long-time alligator researcher who worked for the Bronx Zoo in New York for many years and is an expert on the Chinese Alligator (Alligator sinensis), a species which is on the brink of extinction in the wild.

This first post serves as an introduction to the plight of the Chinese alligator. Later this week, I travel to the Anhui Research Center of Chinese Alligator Reproduction to report on the work being done there to save the species.

How and when did you originally become involved in the plight of the Chinese Alligator?

My love of Chinese/Yangtze alligators started at the Bronx zoo, where I worked in the reptile house for 15 years. The curator, John Behler, and the previous supervisor, Peter Brazaitis, had already been trail blazers in crocodilian conservation and Chinese alligators were a species they showed special interest in. By the time I started working at the zoo, the staff there had already been instrumental in the first captive breeding of the species in the USA. During my time at the zoo, I participated in the care of a large group of captive Yangtze alligators. Mr. Behler was the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Species Survival Plan coordinator for the species, and when he passed away, I took over the position.

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CHINA. Xixi Wetlands in Hangzhou. 2010

“Green Hills Soothe My Eyes, Running Water Tranquilizes My Mind,” announced the sign to my left as I entered the Xixi Wetland park in Hangzhou. “Only One Future for Our Children – Development Without Destruction,” proclaimed a second sign just a few meters ahead on my right. “Your Planet Needs You – Unite to Combat Climate Change,” a third sign almost screamed to me as I turned the next bend. If nothing else, these signs were saying all the right things to me and the thousands of visitors streaming through the gates of the Xixi wetland, located in the city of Hangzhou, just a short distance from the megalopolis of Shanghai, on the shores of the East China Sea.

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Pulitzer Center Logo

As many readers of this blog will know, last year I received a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting to continue my work documenting the topic of desertification in China. I am delighted that the Pulitzer Center have chosen to give me another grant this year in order to begin a new body of work on the issue of China’s Wetlands and their dissapearance.

Over the next month and a half I shall be travelling throughout parts of China visiting some of the country’s key wetlands. I shall be writing updates from the field as I go as blog posts for Pulitzer’s Untold Stories Blog, which I shall also be reproducing here. Please feel free to send through any questions you may have about my reporting and I shall endeavour to answer the. You can find the first of my blog posts for Pulitzer below.

CHINA: THREATENED WATERS

Sean Gallagher, for the Pulitzer Center. Beijing, China

CHINA. A dead bird lies on the shores of a man-made reservoir in central Gansu Province. 2009

Standing room only at one of our talks

This weekend I travelled to the Chinese city of Zhengzhou, a city of some 7 million people lying next to the Yellow River in central Henan province. I was in the city to give a series of talks at Universities in the city, presenting some of my work in China over the past 4 years and also introducing our workshops to the students of the city.

Showing work on desertification in northern China.

My presentation began with an introduction about myself, reasons for coming to China and a general overview of the types of subjects that I cover. I then introduced the main part of my presentation, about my work on desertification over the past three years. I structured the talk about desertification to take the audience across China, starting in Beijing in the east and then finishing in Xinjiang province in the west. Many of the students seemed surprised about the scale of desertification throughout the north of China.

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CHINA. Beijing. Muslim men worshiping at Niu Jie Mosque during Eid ul-Fitr, the festival marking the end of Ramadan. 2005

During our workshops over the past few months, I have often been asked the question “Where is the best place in Beijing to photograph….?” Now, you can insert pretty much anything you like into the last part of that question, as queries have come in to me about a myriad of different things. So, I thought it would be interesting to start a new series of posts that answers some of these questions about where I think are the best places to photograph in Beijing.

I have chosen Beijing for this focus, purely because I have lived in this city for nearly 4 years and like to think I have a good idea where things are and where are the best places for taking pictures. I would like to expand this concept to other cities in China, but I’ll start with my ‘home’ city first.

So, for the first part of these new posts, I answer the question “Where is the best place in Beijing to photograph…religion?”

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Double click window above to watch up to HD 1080p on YouTube

Last weekend, I was sat at home wondering how I could test out my recently purchased Canon 7D. I had been waiting to get this camera for a while as it has video capabilities and comes at a relatively affordable price, compared to most high-end camcorders. I had seen the quality of videos that the camera could produce and I was keen to get my hands on one and to see what it could do.

I was trying to think up ideas when I stumbled on a news piece about Earth Hour that evening. I am sure you are well aware of the concept, however if you’re not, head here to Earth Hour’s site to get more background info. In a nutshell, Earth Hour is a ‘call to action’ against climate change by switching off lights for one hour on a specific date, with millions of people taking part all around the world. This year, the date was Saturday 27th March 2010 from 8:30 pm to 9:30pm.

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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.

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