A quick post to let you know of a new multimedia production that I just launched late last week looking at the challenges facing China Forests. Followers of my work will know that I began work on this topic late last summer with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. I was very happy when the Asia Society’s China Green indicated their interest in helping make this become a multimedia project which we launched together recently.
Above is the video embedded fro YouTube, but I also encourage you to visit the China Green website and look around. They have some great work looking at various environmental issues in China. To watch the video in max. 1920×1080 HD quality (recommended!), head over to my Vimeo channel.
I came across this video over the weekend which I felt compelled to share here on my blog. It’s a panel discussion with the great Sebastiao Salgado, whose work I greatly admire. Salgado has taken documentary photography to another level, pushing the role of photographer beyond being merely a witness and into an agent for change. The above video is nearly an hour and a half in length but it is well worth the time to sit down and take in some of the great discussion.
“What I want is the world to remember the problems and the people I photograph. What I want is to create a discussion about what is happening around the world and to provoke some debate with these pictures. Nothing more than this. I don’t want people to look at them and appreciate the light and the palate of tones. I want them to look inside and see what the pictures represent, and the kind of people I photograph.” – Sebastiao Salgado (from PhotoQuotes.com)
A quick post here to let you know of a new video that has just been released by the Asia Society, focusing on my work over the past few years on China’s environmental crises. It was put together by Shreeya Sinha, who is an excellent multimedia journalist in her own right, and recorded when I was in New York a few months ago. The video provides a pretty concise view of my work and what I have been trying to do whilst covering these issues in China. Hope you enjoy!
Beijing-based videographer and photographer Sean Gallagher has been documenting China’s environmental problems from various perspectives since 2006 — covering everything from wetland disappearance, desertification, air pollution, to endangered species like the giant panda. Often backed by Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, Gallagher has raised awareness about the global impact of China’s rapid development.
Gallagher points to China’s desertification problem, which parallels similar issues in North Africa and Australia, as one example of a topic he’s covered that resonates worldwide. “These are issues affecting everybody and it’s incredibly important that we realize the impact we are having on our ecosystems and bio-diversity.”
The multimedia profile above encompasses the wide range of Gallagher’s reporting in photography and video, and offers a personal account of what it’s like to be a freelance journalist in China.
Posted February 25th, 2012 in journalism, News by Sean Gallagher
A must watch video about the continued distressing events taking place in Syria at the moment. Released by the UK’s Channel 4 television station and shot by a French photojournalist, going by the name of Mani.
Posted February 23rd, 2012 in inspiration by Sean Gallagher
99% of people just walk on by. If you just watch the above video, that’s what you will of seen. Maybe it was more than 99%. Incredible beauty in the everyday was walked passed, ignored, momentarily noticed and then forgotten.
I’ve often felt that about photography, in that, when photographers go out and take images, we are trying to see unique and special moments in the ordinary. But those moment aren’t ordinary. They are quite incredible and often breathtaking. The way the light is falling. The drama of shadows. The excitement of colour. The serendipitous juxtaposition of people in the street as they pass oneanother. The texture and depth of emotion caught between people in the briefest of moments.
These are moments that are are not noticed by 99% of people, even though they are right there infront of them.
For me though, these are the most important things in life to see and recognise. This is why photography is so special.
The music is everywhere. Stop and listen.
Read more about the violinist Joshua Bell and the fascinating experiment in the video here
For regular readers who have stopped by over the past few weeks, I must apologise for the lack of posts recently. The past couple of months were busier than I expected and blogging kept getting pushed back further and further down my list of things ‘to do’. Needless to say, I am back and will endeavor to post as regularly as possible in the new year. This is a new year’s resolution at the top of my list!
First up is an interview that I did for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting recently, talking about my project from last summer on ‘China’s Fragile Forests’, looking at the current threats to China’s Forests. I hope it gives you some insights into my project and how I approached it. Stay tuned for more updates on this project in the new year!
It was a very sad day for the environmental movement yesterday, learning that Wangari Maathai had passed after losing her battle with cancer at the age of 71. This inspiring lady who was a Nobel Laureate and founder of the Green Belt Movement, was one of the leading world figures in raising awareness about environmental issues.
The above video is a perfect message for all of us who try to figure out what we can do, as individuals, to contribute to protecting our planet. Please spread the word…
March 15-27 saw the holding of the Washington DC Environmental Film Festival in America’s capital. It was a showcase of short films made about environmental issues around the world and I was lucky enough to have been invited to show some of my recent work from China, as part of the presentation given by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
Even though I wasn’t there myself, this was a wonderful opportunity to spread the message about my work on wetlands issues in China and bring this issue to a new audience. The above video is from the beginning of the Pulitzer Center’s presentation, given by Jon Sawyer, the Pulitzer Center’s Director. I’m proud and flattered that they led their presentation with my recent piece on the plight of Dongting Lake, in central China. You can watch the piece by watching the video above.
For more information about the film festival, here is their Missions Statement and outline from their website:
Mission Statement
The Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital seeks to further the public’s understanding of environmental issues – and solutions – through the power of film and thought-provoking discussions with environmental experts and filmmakers. The Festival is a platform that fosters environmental awareness and action.
Founded in 1993, the Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital has become one of the world’s largest and most influential showcases of environmental film and a major collaborative cultural event in Washington, D.C. Each March the Festival presents a diverse selection of high quality environmental films, including many Washington, D.C., U.S. and world premieres. Documentaries, features, animations and shorts are shown, as well as archival, experimental and children’s films at venues throughout the city. Films are screened at partnering museums, embassies, libraries, universities and local theaters and are attended by large audiences. Selected to provide fresh perspectives on global environmental issues, most Festival films are accompanied by discussions with filmmakers, environmental experts and special guests, including national decision makers and thought leaders, and are free to the public. The Festival’s Web site serves as a global resource for environmental film throughout the year.
I’ve been debating with myself over the past week whether or not to write a post on the subject of the loss of Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros. I did not known these men personally. I coincidentally know many of their friends very well but I had never been lucky enough to meet them myself. I knew of Tim due to his reputation within photojournalism but I am afriad I was not familiar with the work of Chris Hondros before the tragic events in Libya on 20th April. I was deeply saddened in knowing the world of photojournalism had lost these two men. Having seen many of the heartfelt dedications coming out to these men from close friends and colleagues, I felt it was inappropriate for me to comment since I did not know them.
I felt I needed to write this post today however, as last night I finally had the opportunity to watch two pieces of work by Tim Hetherington that I felt compelled to share here. The first, is the movie Restrepo, made by Hetherington and his co-director, Sebastian Junger. Set in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan, the movie focuses on the lives of one platoon whom the filmamkers followed for a year, documenting their engagements and experiences dealing with war. To say it’s a powerful film is an complete understatement. It’s one of the most powerful movies about war I have ever seen.
The second piece of work that I felt compelled to share was ‘Sleeping Soldiers’, a conceptual piece by Hetherington focusing on images he has taken, literally of sleeping soldiers, overlayed with video footage of combat situations in Afghanistan. The resulting piece of work is what I believe is a pardigm-shift in storytelling from a photojournalism perspective. It’s hard not to be engaged and at the same time disturbed when watching this short piece. I felt like I was being thrust into the traumatic and turbulent dreams that men who suffer war must endure. I have never seen work like this before presented in such a way.
So, as a small dedication to these men I can only offer links to their work and spread the messages that they were trying to communicate to the world. This is what we as photographers and storytellers all try to do. Spread the word. Tell untold stories. Illuminate darker places. Work for some kind of change for the good. These two men were at the forefront of our industry trying to do that.
Link to Chris Hondros’s Website | Parting Glance: Colleagues and Friends Remember Chris Hondros – New York Times
For a complete list of links to dedications and tributes to Hetherington, Hondros and their work, please visit Photojournalism Links and DVA Foto
Welcome to the blog of Sean Gallagher, a British environmental photojournalist, videographer and multimedia producer based in Beijing, China.
Sean specializes in covering environmental issues in Asia, documenting the conflicts between nature and humanity.
Sean's work has featured in news outlets including Newsweek, The New York Times, The Guardian and Der Spiegel. He is also a contributing photographer to the National Geographic Image Collection.
