david peart

I’ve been shooting for China’s Modern Electronics magazine. The mobile phone phenomenon in China has a deeper dimension than it does in most western countries – phones are a currency of face. Often, the lowest salary earners will flaunt the most expensive phones. Modern Electronics brings in TV stars to showcase their “reviews” of mobile phones. This one is for Samsung, and it is being held by the lovely Li Xiaoyi.

Shooting today for The Beijinger, Beijing’s local expatriate magazine. These events are known as “Mommy Make-Overs”. The magazine brings a local mother to a beauty salon, I shoot her on arrival, as she is being made-over, and then the final result, the idea being the contrast between the before and after shots. Today was difficult – Helena was already quite stunning before work started.

To western minds, reproducing a painting or photograph in minute detail with a brush and paint is, strictly speaking, not art. In China, however, the most skilled of these reproduction artisans are considered highly-skilled artists and are highly paid and sought-after. Lili’s paintings are almost indistinguishable from the originals.

Yongji Public School No 7

I have been privileged over the last week to visit Chinese state-run schools in a small town in Northeastern China called Yongji. Wang Fang is one of the teachers there.

Professor Dong Hongying, seismic design engineer.

I return many times each year to the Great Wall to photograph. Although it took hundreds of years to build and stretches over some 5000 kilometres of mountain and desert, it never actually succeeded in preventing any of the invasions that came across it.

Some more welders for you.

A comment from panda expert Sara Bexell recently prompted me to wonder whether the current generation of adults is a lost cause, and if our only hope of preserving the planet lies with instilling in children a sense of the sacredness of life and the marvels of giant ecosystem that is the earth.

Beijing is not always grey/copper polluted skies. Here’s the sky as seen during a late summer thunderstorm.

Shooting executive portraits for French company Thales earlier this year.