Images of Kashgar

My Photo scholarship 2011 entry

Worldwide | Tuesday, November 8, 2011 | 5 photos

I'm Phil Edwards, an unemployed English language teacher who doesn't really want to be an English language teacher anymore, which perhaps explains why I'm unemployed.

Back in 2007, when teaching English was still fresh and interesting, I worked at a high school in Xinjiang, a ruggedly beautiful province in western China. During the summer vacation, I visited the famous city of Kashgar and these images are the result.

Kashgar is famous for its old town, an absurdly photogenic series of dusty streets and decaying stone houses set on a hill overlooking the modern city. I was particularly taken with the beautiful wooden doors, one of which features in the photo set. Children played ball games in the streets and posed in large gangs for photos (as children are wan to do) and two ancient ladies showed me their yard and grinned largely toothless grins .

The following day I visited the Sunday animal market, a must for any tourist who finds themselves in this part of the country. I found it a largely unpleasant experience, although one which provided some arresting photo opportunities. In the final shot it is incumbent on me to point out that the donkey is being weighed, not tortured

As for why I should win, I'm having a fairly rough time at the moment and perhaps I'm due a break (to South Africa). That's obviously not a reason why I should win, more why it would be nice if I won, but there you go.