Back in Beijing

My Photo scholarship 2010 entry

China | Saturday, October 16, 2010 | flickr photos

For a few days I wandered around Beijing with a 50mm prime lens trying to capture the spirit of the capital city of a fascinating country - the country in which I was born, but had hardly lived. Having emigrated to England with my parents at the age of 5, I had fleeting memories of life in China, and although I'd visited often before, this was the first time I had done so as a person mature enough to understand and reflect upon what I saw with any real insight. This set of photographs shows a portion of my efforts.

I am very deliberate in my focusing, and thus I chose a fast lens in order to enhance what I wanted to portray - for example the men watching the dancing girls, and the teenagers walking past the homeless man.

Having received a traditional education conservative upbringing, I have long been ushered down the route to a traditional career that reliably pays the bills. However, having discovered my love of photography, I want to see if I could pursue it as a career. I have been playing around with my camera for a few years now and believe that I have something of a knack for it, however, having never received any form of training or guidance I know that there is a lot I can learn from this scholarship. I'm ready to accept that there may be many basic techniques that I have not fully grasped and I am very keen to fill in those holes. Not only do I hope that this scholarship will enhance my technical photography skills, I also believe that having the perspective of Jason Edwards will alter the way I perceive the world in general, and I hope that in turn my photographs will do the same for others.