Monthly:October 2009
What a busy few days it has been since I arrived in the US 5 days ago. I spent the first few days at Kent State University, where I gave a total of eight (yes 8!) presentations for my work for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, mainly to students enrolled in the school’s various journalism/photojournalism programmes. Even though it was rather intense, it was great to meet people such as Barbara Hipsman, Karl Idsvoog and Glenn Luther who apart […]
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. This week’s ‘Photo of the Week’ comes from Diwali celebrations, not in India, but in London. I took them in […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. [nggallery id=7] The day started with a class introducing the basics of photography, covering […]
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80AR9MzC-rs&feature=player_embedded[/youtube] The above video is an episode of Foreign Exchange, a weekly American TV show dedicated to covering global current affairs, hosted by journalist Daljit Dhaliwal. Last week’s episode was devoted entirely to the current global water crisis and featured heavily the work of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and its work on covering the issues surrounding this crisis across the globe. As many readers of this blog will know, I was fortunate enough to receive a grant from […]
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 […]
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyj0NiOSnko[/youtube] The above video is one that I produced for the Globe and Mail newspaper, along with the Asia Bureau Chief Mark Mackinnon and his assistant Yu Mei, a couple of weeks ago. The video centers on the preparations for the country’s 60th anniversary that passed on October 1st, focusing on the city of Hangzhou which lies to the west of Shanghai. One of the highlights of the video process was meeting and filming the author Yu Hua. Originating from Hangzhou, Yu Hua is […]
I got a surprise yesterday evening when I got a text from a colleague telling me that one of my photos had run on the front page of Canada’s national newspaper, the Globe and Mail. Regular readers of this blog will know that I have been contributing the visuals from China quite a lot to the Globe and Mail recently. They are a great team to work with and I was delighted to see that they had decided to run […]
Today marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Here in Beijing, Tiananmen Square has become awash with parades, both military and civilian, as the populace celebrates Mao Zedong’s founding declaration, exactly 60 years ago here in China’s capital. The build up to this event has been quite something. Beijing has come to a standstill at regular intervals over the past couple of weeks as dry-runs of today’s celebrations have taken place. Tanks have once […]