China blocks my blog!!!!!!

OK so I can still post but it takes a while but can't read my post freely from inside the PRC!!!! What is soooooo bad?

Hooray!!!! It's going well.......

So yesterday Wang Meng got hold of another boy, initially they weren't sure as they can't fit in with any other times.....but then were OK when I said I can teach him alone on Saturday afternoon and we can meet at their house, they live near. I picked up more films, so far only one was bad.........and the photos coming back so far were really good, only a few fingers!
This morning I had lessons with 4 kids, the first two we looked at the films and had some finger reminders lol! The photos were technically good, and they had been really creative. The other two were also great - one girl, who came last week with a hat on, hiding her face from me and not speaking, came in more confident and had a friend with her.......her pictures were outstanding BUT then.....aaarghhhhh..............I noticed that her picture size was set really small........at least that gave us a topic for teaching lol........So the pics are great but too small to use.....we also reset the other boys camera as his was a little small too! The girl had tried out some great composition techniques, for both portraits and landscape pictures, and it has worked really well. With all the kids we went through all their photos and discussed which ones were good etc and what made a good photograph and subject.

Only one blank film so far!!!!

Ok so today I picked up the first few films and so far only one was blank hooray!!! Much better than last time, also the other films had more on too!!!! Yay! And I got some digital images that were ok too......
Been doing more reading....feels like that bit is neverending!
Also I went shopping in Hymall at Peace Plaza, which was interesting....I was there just after schools finished and suddenly found myself in the confectionery aisle....looked around and saw quite a few fat kids shopping with their grandparents.....sure enough a quick survey of the contents of their trolleys.........(and skinny kids too) showed soft drinks, chocolate, crisps, sweets.....no fruit or healthy food.....and the kids leading the shopping choices! Next time I need to have my camera around my neck ready!

And still going....

I did a bit more reading today. I talked to Alex to see if she knew any fat kids, she said that she knew a great kid....then said they were not fat.....She has agreed to ask the one fat kid she does know if I also teach the other kid too............Oh to wake up when this is all over and no more explaining to do he he.

Still going on.......

Still going on here, but slow.....saw some kids outside the middle school yesterday but was on my way somewhere - now I have to find a translator to hang out with to talk to them. It is getting frustrating that I need someone to speak Chinese all the time for this, I just want to get stuff done when I see people!!! GGGGRRR! Still I fail to learn Chinese though.......I have also been doing quite a bit of work on getting stuff for my essay, reading more about the one child policy and famine etc to get more background information for the chapters. I went on a walk with Lauren to Xinghai and got some photos of a kid who was collecting crabs....Even Lauren now has an obsession for helping me spot fat kids lol!

A bit more positive.........

Ok so after a day where I felt like explaining my project to some people was like explaining rocket science to George Bush, today started off a bit more positive. I met 4 teenagers and although the 2 girls were very shy, they all seem very willing to participate in the project, and learnt very quickly. Their English was good, but at least one of the girls has never spoken to a foreigner before, so that explained a certain amount of the shyness! Their parents were explaining a little bit about a childs life in China, and all the kids told me that they have just 2 hours of PE a week, and are at school from 7am - 6pm and then may stay up doing homework until midnight. So they don't have time to do much at all. This project will hopefully provide an interesting insight!
Yesterday afternoon I went to Olympic Square, and, for once I predicted correctly that there would be a few fat children there. I managed to get quite a few photographs of children, lots of them taking part in rollerblading lessons. I also took some photos in McDonalds and KFC.....

AAAARRRRRGHHHHHHHH

Now I am really panicking. I met 5 kids last night but only 1 was slightly fat. I have no idea what to do now, its getting late and I don't know where else to go or what to try. We tried some high schools but no luck, due to the subject matter apparently. I am feeling really down about the project now and don't know what I can do to rescue it. All the fat kids seem to have disappeared. This afternoon I am going to Olympic Square and places to do some street shots, but may go alone so can't ask people if they will be involved. I am now really scared I could fail this module.

The search for information continues...

Well here I am still updating my searches, it would appear that since my last searches for term 2, there has been so much about obesity in the world press, and also a couple of interesting photo stories online for me to look at.......So it is taking a lot longer!!!! It is also raining fairly heavily. I am getting impatient and just want to start properly but I will be doing that tomorrow so not much longer to wait now!!!! I have lots of stuff to do over the weekend so I will be pretty busy hooray! Justin Jin, a Panos photograher, has done a photo essay about a 6-year-old Russian boy, and Kathy Plonka has done a project following an American family with an obese child. There has also been a lot in the Chinese press, I must get someone Chinese to search Chinese artists too, there may be some stuff there. I am also in the process of making a powerpoint presentation about basic composition for the kids first lessons......

Back to reality and my project!!!

I havent posted for the last few days as things have sure been busy since I returned from Dandong. On Monday I started a few portraits and general pics of fat kids, but it was not easy to find kids as it was a school day! So plans were laid to return to Xinghai Square on Wednesday to take portraits.......
Then came the news that we are not sure if ANY of the 8 kids I will teach over next weekend are fat, I had an initial panic but then we discussed that if they aren't we will ask them to invite their friends who are to the lessons.....It felt like I was on an emotional rollercoaster............Hopefully it will go well, I now see the first kids Friday and then more on Sunday, and we are going to some schools in Heishi Jao on Friday just in case to set up some more lessons there next week if we can. Some of the older kids will use their own digital cameras and so I am a bit more confident that I will get lots of photos!!!
I spoke to one bright spark who found my phone number on the internet, he is in middle school and has never used a camera but he sounds really keen. We were confused as to how he called me but then Wang Meng realised who it was and found out how he got my number!
Then came the search for more info on the net, I have searched (updated term 2 ones) newpapers and articles online, then started to find more photos from all the main agencies, WPN, Getty, Panos etc. I looked up some of the main artists who look like they have done a story and not just one off news photos, and am still ploughing through the major newspapers again as there has been a lot written recently.
I also wanted to buy a background for my street portraits..........I decided on plain white, then went on the search yesterday when me and Wang Meng went to visit the University of Light Industry. We discovered that they ran a photograhy program, and so we asked there where we could find a good background.....they came up with 2 shops, the first did not have anything so reluctantly I went to 27 square which is always a nightmare! I got lost as usual but managed to find some material - one lot I have wrapped around a long tube like a real background in a studio, and then the other is a large piece of polar fleece which may work as it does not crease too easily. I then went to the post grad dorms to try it out, it seemed to work but the lighting was not great.
Then today i went with Wang Meng to Xinghai Square as kids have Wednesday afternoon off.......we thought we might track a few down and so took the backgrounds with us......but NO kids at all, just tourists.....then we jumped into a cab for Olympic Sqaure - so near to all the language schools i thought it was a sure bet........but NO again no kids.....then Wang Meng heard the loudspeaker which was announcing that there was a sports meet in the stadium - surely there would be kids there.....so off we went.............asked one kid but he was shy.....then he asked why and she told him we were looking for fat kids....he then yelled up to his friends 'anyone fat want their photo taken.........." but was still too shy and insisted he was too ugly! The teachers we asked were not very helpful and so we decided to call it a day - the lighting was also pretty bad and it so looked like it would rain.
So today I am feeling very frustrated.............

We interrupt this project to bring you a news update.....or not as the case was!

So things kicked off in North Korea and the boys (Adam, Xiao Yi and Markel) went to take photos of the border in Dandong. Last Friday, the girls decided to go and join them and see if we could sell photos..........(me, Christine and Purple). Me and Christine stayed up really late on Friday night, emailing loads of magazines and newspapers and picture editors etc. We then headed for Dandong early in the morning, and finally arrived there about 11 am. We set straight off to take photos then edited and submitted to a few places but no luck. Adam was getting stuff on for Reuters but the rest of us did not get far at all.....So we tried again the next day but then decided to return on Sunday as no-one appeared interested in our photos despite them being the same as those from Reuters, AFP and AP...........We learnt a lot about the whole process of news photograhy and the importance of having contacts ready at the drop of a hat etc.

Teacher goes searching in the rubbish!

Good news was given to me today by Wang Meng, she has found 8 children (she thinks 1 may be too thin!), some of whom have parents who work at the uni so I will teach them on campus. They are in 3 small groups and are different ages and different sexes, perfect! They have all seen the photos from my semester 2 project and are keen to join in and willing to discuss their photos and get really involved over a few weeks. Hooray!!! I will meet them next week and start to teach them. I am happy they are in small groups, they can motivate each other and it is great practice for me. Wang Meng will translate if needed but then if their English is good enough I will do sessions with no translator! (We can contact her by phone if really necessary). 2 of them are in high school and so should have good enough English!
Then I went on the hunt for bottle labels, and at lunch saw huge posters in the dining room advertising soft drinks - Hou Rui has suggested I go to a supermarket and ask if they have something like it I can use. Could be a good backdrop, but I need to try it out. Hou Rui has also never been to Olympic Square so we will go there on our first shoot, as lots of fat kids go to the language schools near there and some learn to rollerblade which will be cool for my random portrait section! He he! So if I get enough labels I can make the backdrops over the next two days ready!
To the delight of the students I was then seen with the rubbish lady at the corner - I am collecting bottle labels for a possible backdrop, and so went to ask (with Olivers translation help) if I could take them! As students came out from lectures they saw an English teacher searching through rubbish! Not sure if it will give the right effect but its worth a try nonetheless.

Feeling positive again!!!!

Well tonight I have had thoughts, also bouncing ideas around with Christine, about the portraits section of my book. I had seen a background in KFC in Heishi Jao, a collage of the history of KFC then pictures of the Chinese enjoying KFC among it. I like the kind of collage background effect. So I started thinking of ways to do this. I have started to collect soft drink bottle labels and am thinking of making large pictures with different labels for people to choose from....ie maybe a pepsi one maybe a snickers one.....mcds....the other way I can do it is to collage photos I take of these places.........I love the whole kind of picture within a picture collage effect! Then we saw a printing place that print giant pictures so I will go and ask them how much a print that size will cost. Will make the creative decisions over the next few days and will experiment a bit.

Up and down.....

Well today was going really well, this morning I talked with 2 of my students and explained the project to them in detail and explained that I was looking for some children to get involved. They both seemed to understand well and had good ideas about where I may find children - schools, their contacts, and then I went to the clinic in the hospital where they treat kids with growth issues. We found out the name of the doctor who specialises in this and where she works etc and so can make a time hopefully to meet up with her. Then we went and chatted more about schools and stuff, so all seems to be going well.
Then I had my tutorial and felt that went well too, I am fairly clear about where I am going and Dave had some really useful suggestions.
So this evening we critiqued my project as a group and now I am down and pissed off. The Chinese students said I had not given enough education about composition and not used enough kids....................................I am not even going to go there. I had weeks of heartache and stress and unshot film........................And also don't speak Chinese so had to use translators when teaching etc.
Anyway I am still excited about the project despite what others say.

The final task....

Term 3 lectures start tomorrow, we are on the final strait of our MA!!! I am thinking of ideas to carry out my project, I have a translator ready for action, and cameras ready for the kids. This time i have taped over some parts so hopefully people won't rewind film early or open the back....we shall see! It's late so i will post more details soon......