China Economy Feature with Dagens Industri
February saw one of the largest features I have collaborated on being published. The client was Sweden's Financial Magazine, 'Di DIMENSION' The assignment, although substantial was packed into a tight schedule of five cities in four days. They were Shanghai, Kunshan, Chengdu, Wenzhou and Huaxi. Together with the writer and fixer we did a tour of China reporting on China's economic progress and the many challenges it still faces. My favourite part of the trip, as with most assignments was meeting the people that make China what it is today – the migrant workers. A four hour drive from Chengdu we met the son of migrant worker couple who work 7 days a week thousands of kilometers away in Kunshan and only see their child once a year. The portrait below is of Liao Cheng with his grandparents who care for him in their farm house back home in rural Sichuan province.
The feature made front cover and the story was 14 pages in total. Below is the spreadsheet of the cover and one of the double page spreads.
Winter wonderland in Harbin
A delay in getting the blog up but below are a couple of selects of day and night shots of Harbin's world famous ' Ice and Snow Festival'. I spent two days shooting there, required several battery charges in -25 degree temperatures. Only a week or so left till it all melts..
It was published as an online slideshow gallery at Foreign Policy Magazine. Click on the below picture link to be taken to it.
Panda Commissions
The last few months have seen me twice go to Chengdu, Sichuan to shoot stories on the Giant Pandas. The second trip saw me travelling to the bamboo-laided forsts of Sichuan joining a panda investigation team who are currently getting data for the Giant Panda Census. Four hours drive southwest of Chengdu and then a two hour hike was all it took to get us within reach of the reclusive wild panda. Private in nature, the best we got was recent evidence of their presence – namely broken stems and panda poo… Below photos are from the expedition, The man in blue was local to the forest we were mapping.
Below are the tearsheets from the two different commissioning magazines, The Independent Magazine and Dein Spiegel. Photo content was largely shot at the Panda Base in Chengdu – the worlds largest panda breeding centre.
The Independent Magazine
Dein Spiegel (Childrens Magazine)
Cricket Fighting Photo Essay
Happy to have been commissioned by Foreign Policy magazine to produce a photo essay on the ancient Chinese past time of Cricket Fighting. It entailed me participating in two official tournaments and gaining access to streetlevel cricket fighting meant for gambling. Some picks are copied in below. For a full edit please view my Galleries page on my portfolio site.
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To see the more of the published photos and further info on the pastime please view Foreign Policy's Photo Essay section
DMZ and Seoul
I recently got back from a recent trip to Korea where I put a few rolls of negative through my film camera. Below are a few selects, the black and white images were taken at the North and South Korean Border, aka the DMZ. From top to bottom, Tourists peer through the pay to view binoculars to get a closer look at North Korea, Tourists line up to look across the DMZ into North Korea, the coach car park at the observation point fills up at the start of the day.
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And below is a scene I encountered on a beach near Incheon Airport.
Inner Mongolia – grassland workers
One month ago I went traveling in the North East of Inner Mongolia, bordering Russia. I spent a few days on the grasslands meeting the people for which it is their livelihood. Below are a couple of group portraits. The first is a group of men whose job it is to cut the grass for hay, however rains have not come and they wait until it arrives. The second is a group of Mongolian Chinese who keep thousands of sheep and herds of horses.
FOTO8 Summershow 2011 inclusion
One of my prints from the Middle Kingdom Zoo project has been included in this years FOTO8 Summershow . The opening party is tonight and the exhibition will last until the 12th August. Host Gallery, 1-5 Honduras Street, London.
Taiwan President and former Aussie Prime Minister portraits
The last six weeks saw me photograph the President of Taiwan, Ma Ying-jeou in his presidential palace in Taipei for Der Speigel. Last week also saw me take portraits of Kevin Rudd, former Australian Prime Minister, now Foreign Minister. Both challenging due to lack of time and freedom to move the subject around. The Taiwan President shoot was a lucky break as his advisers had told me I would just get a 'snap' of him walking into the room, no more, fortunately he was game to wander into the long bright corridors of the palace after I approached him directly.. However throughout the two minute portrait I was also photographed by his 'palace photographers' Not a comfortable atmosphere for me or Ma Ying-jeou . Kevin Rudd was taken in a hotel suite in Guangzhou during an interview with The Australian, I placed a large reflector off his right-hand side to bounce some of the window light back. Please see below.
Snow Polo Photo Essay
Below find two double page spreads that I was commissioned for by an Australian Magazine looking at China's first Snow Polo tournament. With more cash in Chinese pockets the owner of this new multimillion pound exclusive club hopes to hold many more international horse tournaments, helping promote and put Tianjin as a new must see city in China. Currently though, its far from that – the site was surrounded by concrete shells of building, grey skies and an artificial snow pitch that fast became slushy.
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My preferred images from the weekend are below and which were not suitable for the magazines direction and audience. Below images focus on areas other than the horsemanship on the field.
Photo exhibition at AM Gallery
On the 1st of March for 10 days I exhibited two bodies of work at the AM Gallery, in Brighton, UK. A group exhibition entitled, 'Intimate China' One of the bodies of work was my personal project that I have been working on the last two years. One of the images was selected by Brighton Source magazine for the review of the gallery. See below. This body of work is one which I am still continuing and hope to hold a solo exhibit in the near future.
