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NOTE FROM JONAH: The following blog post is a guest lecture I am giving to the International Multimedia Journalism MA in Beijing, Wednesday night. The course is based in Beijing, and is a collaboration between the Beijing Foreign Studies University and the University of Bolton in the UK. The course leader is Dr DJ Clark.

DISCLAIMER 1: Dear Biel Calderon, Stephanie Thiedig, Mark Esplin, Joseph Djima, Dirk Claus, Jeff Kennel, Lui Chen, Tracey Shelton, Michela Orlandi, Olga Papakonstantopoulou, Yi Song, Lee Ryan Perkins, Chen Mai, DJ Clark, Sharon Lovell and BFSU social media and photography students,

In talking about online promotion for photographers, there is no correct answer. There are certainly best practices, things to avoid and techniques to help, but the information that follows this note is simply my quasi-guerilla (social) warfare technique that I employ to promote me, my photography and my business. The online atmosphere for #togs is constantly changing and in many ways, to stay up to date with the blogosphere, microblogosphere and visual communities — would be a full time job. While we have other full time jobs already, doing every step below, every day, is simply not always possible … but we can sure try.

DISCLAIMER 2: Yes, I am promoting myself, by talking about promotion.

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WHY SHOULD WE PROMOTE OURSELVES?

The first question we might ask before we get into how I go about promoting myself, might be — why should we promote ourselves?

We are currently living in an over-saturated photographic world. Nothing says this better than the latest iPhone update. While the phone has improved a small bit, the big push from Apple this round was a photographic update. For $399 mobile phone users now have an 8MP camera and a video camera shooting 1080P at 30 fps. Apple’s attention to this detail (over some more practical things) is certainly a testament to the world’s current obsession with photography.

Given that the average meathead has at least 8 MP in their pocket, and thousand of talented graduates come out of J-school, photography school or multimedia programs like yourselves every year, it becomes increasingly important that we as professionals not only separate ourselves from the general amateur photo community, but also within the professional community.

By promoting ourselves efficiently we gain two things. First and most importantly, we gain eyes on our work. Second and also most importantly, we gain income. While some will disagree, our work is heavily based on technology that is constantly changing and improving. To keep these toys in our hands, we need money. Increasing our revenues to keep up with technology is important (as is money to live comfortably while tackling this competitive world).

While no one will put a knife to your throat saying “promote!!!” there is a great risk in not promoting because everyone else will be doing it. This has a semi-swing effect for photographers who don’t have web sites, have no Google klout or place in online social communities. At least from the public perception and online eye, you could become buried under those who do. For some this is very tough. I have plenty of friends who truly dislike social media and online promotion — but who are great photographers. You can chose not to play the game, but given the online environment for #togs, you are walking a slippery line.

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PREPRODUCTION AND ENTREPRENEURIAL JOURNALISM: YOURNAME.COM

When I was going through J-school I was always told — if you are looking for money, you might want to try the business school across campus. Post univisity, in my first years as a staffer at newspapers I was paid the equivalent of peanuts by Swift Communications, a chain of newspapers in America’s west.

While you probably won’t become a millionaire by being a photojournalist, for the entrepreneurial journalist there is a world of financial opportunity out there. To get a piece of this, you need to think about your images, as your business.

Freelancers often think about themselves as independent contractors going from job to job. This is true. However, what you are really doing is creating a business. So whether you sell cupcakes, lemonade or photos — you should have a plan. Brand yourself as your business. Branding is essential to any business.

The first step to this branding, is creating a web site. And the first step in creating a web site is creating a name for your web site. I see a lot of questionable decisions at this early stage of the game.

Do you want to brand your name or some other abstract title? For example, you might have a portfolio site that has lots of breathtaking photos form Asia. You want a web site to show case this work and call it “asiaphoto.com.” Now, let’s say this site becomes popular. The average person will now know asiaphoto.com instead of your name (.com). I see this very often with nascent production companies and individuals who chose a name which makes them look like companies. In the much more likely scenario that the business doesn’t succeed, you’ve also wasted time branding a business that doesn’t exist anymore, while you as a person, photographer and business — will always exist.

My first web site was called kesselimaging.com. This site branded “Kessel Imaging” which was actually just me. After a couple years I decided to pull the plug and stop wasting time promoting an ephemeral brand, and instead brand me (a real person … I think) and moved my branding efforts to jonahkessel.com.

• For more on entrepreneurial journalism check out Steve Buttry’s post “Jonah Kessel and Carmen Sisson discuss entrepreneurship and photojournalism” here.

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STEP ONE: YOUR ONLINE BACKBONE

The backbone to my online presence is my web site (not to be confused with my blog, photoblog, microblog, etc.). First, in no way does Facebook “cut it” as “your website”. Neither does Flickr, Picasa or some other photo sharing site.

I meet photographers almost daily who don’t have personal Web sites. Many of these folks will have Flickr pages or Facebook pages — but don’t be confused, these become largely invisible to the public eye, expanded social networks and bots who will be your friends in getting visitors, clients and eyes on your work.

While bots are increasingly indexing social media, by hosting your works on these sites, you end up promoting them, sometimes more than yourself. They gain traffic. They gain Google status. And perhaps worst off,they can gain the rights to your media. On an subconscious level or psychological level, hosting your content exclusively on a social media site such as Facebook or Flickr, can create an unprofessional association with your work.

BEST PRACTICES FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS CORE WEB SITES: The top five concerns I have with my site, and also the top four problems I see with other photographers’ sites are: usability, compatibility, search-ability, share-ability and load times. Let’s quickly go through these elements:

• USABILITY: On a basic level, your web site should be easy to use. In fact, it should be so easy to use — an idiot should be able to navigate. For the busy client who is checking dozens of photographers’ sites, fancy and hidden buttons can turn mean a click off or closed tab.
• COMPATIBILITY: Your web site should function not only across all browsers but all platforms — and for all users. jonahkessel.com may look like a flash built site, but there’s more than meets the eye backstage. Underneath the flash site is a mirror HTML site for users who don’t have flash as well as for bots who are indexing content. There is also a site for mobile users, a site for tablet users and another site for disabled users.
• SEARCH-ABILITY: Photographers who simply have one flash built site lose a tremendous amount of traffic because bots can’t truly search the content of the site. Every image on jonahkessel.com has: (1) file names specifically labeled for SEO, keywords specifically labeled for SEO, titles specifically labeled for SEO. While this information is not contained in the flash built site, it is contained in the HTML site. When bots cruise the Web they see this information, index it and then make it available for users and potential clients browsing. Then when they click the link, the images forward to the flash built site. If your content is not searchable or findable, its almost as good as it not being there.
• SHARE-ABILITY: I’m assuming you are all children of the 21st century and understand the power of sharing. A viral video or a photo can take off putting millions of eyes on your work. Let’s hope that content links back to you — but in the meantime, let’s make sure there is a sharing button accessible ALL OF THE TIME. By not having these buttons easily accessible, or accessible at all, you are simply loosing out to potential traffic, eyes and income.
• LOAD TIMES: Unlike print journalists, our media unfortunately requires some space. It is critical to keep file sizes on videos and photos down to the smallest point possible. A long load time can be the difference between a click off and view. You could have the best content in the world, but if it takes too long to see it — no one will.

There are about a thousand choices for web sites. For the past three years I have been a client of Livebooks, a company who makes web sites for photographers. For the most part, I’ve been very satisifed. The company has lots of options including custom options. Might site is custom built off of my own functionality and front end visual design.

The company allowed me to give them the blueprints of how everything should work and look, and then they build the back end. The back end (in screenshot above) has a graphic user interface that makes managing the web site extremely simply, easy and fast. When I update the GUI, it updates the site and all mirror sites (including mobile and tablet sites). While this isn’t free — I couldn’t imagine updating 6 web sites manually every time I make a small change. The money spent on the site surely is made up in productivity time later.

In my continued efforts to brand myself as a business, the details of the site will also cross into the upcoming topics. Fontography, color schemes, link functionality and logos will be cross-branded across all of my web sites. Although these are small details and are largely ignored, the subconscious effect of branding continued out over multiple platforms turns you as an individual — into a brand.

You can sell a brand. Selling yourself is much more difficult … or illegal (in most places).

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STEP TWO: YOU HAVE A SITE, NOW WHAT?

After creating jonahkessel.com, my goal was to create a continued traffic stream to it. While there are a number of ways to do this, we can split it up to a couple key categories: the blogosphere, the microblogosphere and social media communities. By engaging in these three keys elements, you will bring direct traffic to your site, while creating a Google ranking that will bring clients to your doorstep.

• BLOGOSPHERE: The site you are currently viewing is my blog, hosted by Wordpress. This site, named “Nomadically Curious Visual Thoughts” (note visual branding/attention to myname.com over title in logo) is dedicated to long form blogging and details images I take from traveling, as well as commentary about work I do. The general topics are journalism, photography, technology, video, China and travel. In an active month I will update it eighth to ten times. In a inactive month (which probably means I’m too busy to even sleep) I will update it two or three times. Since I am always working or traveling — there is never a shortage of items to blog about.

  The Wordpress community is often a more mature community and technically sound one, than some of its counterparts (i.e. Blogger, Tumblr, etc.). People who use Wordpress generally know HTML (at least enough to update a blog) and in general, the professional blogosphere is found here.

  I also host a photo blog called “Good Light and Good Luck” hosted on Tumblr. The Tumblr environment is very very different to that of the Wordpress community. In general demographics of users seem to be much younger. Narrowcasting seems to be much greater in the Tumblr environment as well. While in the Wordpress arena we see blogs on China or technology for example, on Tumblr, topics are widdled down to a much more specific level. Some of my favorite examples of narrowcasting on Tumblr include Kim Jong-il Looking at Things, Lesbians Who Look Like Justin Beiber, Fuck Yeah Girls on Bikes and Awesome People Hanging out Together.

  I do believe a monkey could use Tumblr. Its extremely simply, extremely efficient and requires no knowledge of HTML. While I target a general audience with my Wordpress, I am targeting a younger demographic with the Tumblr blog. However, my Tumblr account is linked directly to my Twitter account and Facebook account, and these are updated simultaneously to a Tumblr post.

  The photoblog I update (at least) every day. However, this process is automated. About once a month I will update the blog for the next 30 days. I program the system to release one picture a day that includes a large caption with some backstory about the photo. I initially started this blog as a simply traffic fishing device that required little effort; however, over time I have come to like the community and its ability to focus on very narrow subjects.

  My Google Analytic report for last year shows my Wordpress blog as the eighth largest traffic generator toward my mane site, and Tumblr coming in at eleventh.

• MICROBLOGOSPHERE: While my blogs rank eight and eleventh in traffic generators to my main site, microblogs are ranking much higher, coming in at third, only behind Google and direct traffic. When I talk about microblogging I am primarily talking about Twitter. I believe Twitter is the single greatest tool we have for promoting ourselves as photographers; however, without the assets listed above (site, blogs) it becomes a much different beast.

  Twitter is something that has become integrated not only into my work but my life. It is always on. While I have backed off a bit compared to where I was at about a year ago (in terms of time actually spent watching Twitter feeds), it is still an intrigal part of my life. It connects me people who see and view my work. It gives me the opportunity to let those people who do follow my work, do follow it as it develops.

  From posting cell phone photos during shoots, to talking about the process as it happens from shoot to edit, Twitter helps me create transparency in what I do. People ask me questions daily about photography, technology and the stories I am working on. As a journalist I believe transparency in our work creates exponential value to our content. When readers, viewers or users have a connection to both the content and journalist, this becomes a lot easier.

  Making Twitter an effective tool for promoting is not as simple as just placing a link to your content when it becomes available. In fact, per article you publish you might have a specific roll out plan just for Twitter in how to best promote your work. But first, you need an active community of followers and aggregators to help spread your links around. And this means actually being part of the community, helping to promote other journalists and photographers works and engaging in dialogue.

  If you have 100,000 followers, but you are not active with them — the tool will be much less powerful. However, 200 active followers can be a huge help in getting your work into their networks.

  Here’s a couple things I keep in mind when using Twitter to promote my work:

  • TIME ZONES: Your followers most likely follow many people, and probably exist in many time zones. Therefor, if you post something once at 9:00 am its probably unrealistic to think Sahid in Qatar, Jaques in France and Chen in China all see the link. This makes it necessary to post things for different audiences in different time zones. Now look at times during the day when people might most likely be online.

    Right before lunch, when desk employees are killing time before they can take off. Right after lunch, when people don’t want to do work cause they are tired and full. Maybe 45 minutes after people arrive at work and are finished checking their work emails and thinking about how long till lunch. 30 minutes before the end of the work day is another great time when the Twittesphere becomes very active.

    If you post during those times and based on different time zones, you’re sure to get a little more attention.

    However, if you post the exact same Tweet twice, or Tweet too often, you’re followers will likely be annoyed with you for clogging up streams with content they’ve already seen. There is a fine balance between tweeting often enough, but not too often to be annoying.

    To give your followers more than just your content its important to stagger tweets linking back to your content, with tweets leading elsewhere, or commentary on other people’s works. If I put out a big piece that I thought could really go viral, I would link out to it every four hours for a day, and in between link to other things. With an article that was not as important, I might do it twice in a day (once for the Eastern hemisphere and one for the West – usually separated by 12 hours exactly).

  • TIMED TWEETS: You may be thinking … well, that seems like a lot of work. And it is. However, you don’t need to be sitting next to a computer the entire day waiting for 4:30 to roll around in every time zone. Instead you can use tools to automate Twitter. For example, right now, I am talking to you; however, I have programmed Twitter to automatically send tweets out during this lecture every 10 minute pointed at one of your Web sites.

    Having a presence on Twitter during all time zones will create a bigger following in more places. So take advantage of technology and tweet while you are sleeping.

  • SEO: You only have 140 characters, and Google is watching, so make them count. Just like writing a good headline, writing a good Tweet will make be clip or pass over.
• SOCIAL COMMUNITIES: Beyond Twitter and the microblogosphere, other online social communities are critical in creating traffic to your sites. Last year, Facebook ranked fourth (only behind direct traffic, Google and Twitter) in generating traffic to jonahkessel.com. In the last six months of this year, Vimeo ranked eight, with stumbleupon, YouTube, Google+ all also ranking in the top 20.

  Social communities can build your profile independently of your web sites as well. Today (November 23, 1:52pm), I had 2,300 views on Vimeo alone. This doesn’t count YouTube, Youku and Toudu where I also host videos.

STEP THREE: BANG FOR YOUR BUCK

So far, we’ve discussed the basics of online promotion. This is the bare minimum. However, if you want to excel I believe with each article or project you produce you can have a promotion plan and weasel your content into more places. Let’s take a couple examples, going from simple to some more complicated methods.

THE TEASER: If movies can have teasers, why can’t you? As cinematic journalism increases you’ll probably see more of this. I’m currently working on a project for Save the Children documenting disabled people around China. On December 1 a series of six videos will release on a new channel on Youku to promote the NGO and the channel. The videos are funded by the European Union as well as Save the Children.

The client requested a teaser to help promote their screening as well as the upcoming online dissemination. This can be a great money maker because, hey, its easy. Most of the content will already be ready to go: edited, color graded, codec-ed, etc.

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THE REEL: In the past, it was normally just cinematographers, cameraman and movie people making reels. However, in the realm of cinematic journalism putting images with music can create a great self promotional tool. Having a reel ready, also opens up the doors to working outside of the traditional journalism fields. While I am largely video based now, in the past I would still make an annual reel made up of still images.

Creating a reel can be effective and fun. However, there are many things to think about when creating one. See this post “The Science of the Reel” for more thoughts on journalists using a reel as a promotional tool.

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THE GUEST BLOG: Alright, so you have a blog, a photo blog, a microblog — now its time to guest blog. I guest blog on a number of different sites, one of my favorite being DSLR News Shooter. This community is mostly film makers and visual journalists, but plenty of audience members too. The video above, which was made mostly for the fun of it — has received over 5000 views, just on this site. For taking 20 minutes out of my day to write a blog post, I would say this is worth it.

Guest blogging also opens up the door for community members of that blog, to find your blog, increasing your core audience. On all major articles I produce I try to write at least one guest blog talking about what went into the production or some type of backstory, on top of creating content for my own blog. Here’s a couple examples:

Video above, guest blog post here:CHINESE NEW YEAR GOES WITH A BANG FOR SHOOTERS JONAH KESSEL AND PAUL MORRIS WITH CANON DSLRS

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PRODUCT REVIEWS: Reviewing products can benefit more than just a manufacturer. When reviewing gear, you can use your own work as an example of what can be done with the kit. By speaking out on your experience with gear and kit, you can help create dialogue for both users of technology and the creators.

In this example, I combine a product review of Kessler Crane’s Pocket Dolly, with a promotion for my own work. Guest blog post here: KESSEL ON KESSLERCRANE – JONAH KESSEL REVIEWS THE KESSLERCRANE POCKETDOLLY V2.0

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PEOPLE HAVE QUESTIONS, YOU HAVE ANSWERS: People are curious. That’s a universal truth. One of my favorite new sites (which admittedly I had more time to use) is called Quora. Its a social media based Q&A site with an excellent community of experts on various subjects. As journalists we’re always (at least attempting to) answering questions. Often when I have a new story I think about what question it might be answering. For more on Quora and its potential see this post “Curious on Quora.”

In the example above, I created a video on censorship. I searched Quota for questions relating to censorship and China and found a couple that it related to. For example, one user had asked “When will China’s web censorship stop and the government’s attitude change?” While my video didn’t exactly answer this question, I did have an unused quote that I added to the conversation. I then gave some links to help push viewers from this site to my content in other places.

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UTILIZING YOUR ASSETS: Often I see great content with short legs. This means, I see a great article but I don’t think the journalist (if its a freelancer) necessarily got all they could out of it. If you can promote your content efficiently, you will have the capability to make more money while getting more eyes on your content.

This means one project can have many different lives. In the fall of 2011, journalist Kit Gillet and myself created a project called “The Fate of Old Beijing.” This was an interactive project funded by the Asia Society and included three videos, a digital tour and two photo essays. You can see the project in that form here. However, we wanted more eyes on the content.

While we had an audience in the nonprofit sector, we then found a home for the video package in the editorial, or news sector. We sold the package to Global Post, who published all three videos in a series called Beijing’s vanishing act. You can see those videos here.

After a nonprofit and online newspaper — we moved to television and sold the rights to the Archeology Channel, where the videos were shown in the summer of 2011. Their posting about the series here.

Using our own contacts in the media, we started offering interviews and screenings of the films. This might seem like an obvious thing to do, but you will gain a greater audience by simply making yourself available to other journalists. Here’s some links of some of the places I interviewed, blogged or helped promote my material:

• Interview: Jonah Kessel, ‘The Fate of Old Beijing: The Vanishing Hutongs’
• Travel Site: Filmmakers Jonah Kessel and Kit Gillet examine the fate of old Beijing’s hutong
• Local listings: A documentary screening of The Fate of Old Beijing: The Vanishing Hutongs will be held alongside a dialogue at the UCCA.
• Guest blog post: THE PERILS OF SUBTITLING AND TRANSLATION IN VIDEO – JONAH KESSEL ON HIS LATEST 5DMKII PROJECT
• Photo Essay: The Vanishing Hutongs
• A converging media gray area
• Backstory — The Fate of Old Beijing: The Vanishing Hutongs
• CANCELED or CENSORED? The Fate of Old Beijing: A Vanishing World Documentary Screening & Dialog
• The Fate of Old Beijing: A Vanishing World Documentary Screening & Dialog

Beyond online media, we had enough content on this one to flip it around into a print article. As DSLR shooters, you always have the option to shoot stills and video. I often grab a still shot before I shoot video, to examen the frame. This gives me still photographs of most subjects and places I go. When video is rolling, you are grabbing quotes. So the only thing left is to fill in the details of the story where the quotes leave off.

This video appeared as a print article in UK based Geographical magazine in November of 2011, nearly six months after its first publication at the Asia Society, again — bringing in more revenue while getting more eyes on our content.

THE WIDE WIDE WORLD: You may have noticed a great variety of places mentioned above. Geographic variation can be another great asset to your content. When I publish an article, often times I think — “Ok, its published in China. Where’s next?” While publications like the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal won’t make this possible, other publications have looser rules surrounding the issue.

HONG KONG: SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST

In many instances this can be a great asset to you and publications. For example, it is unlikely a reader in India will read a newspaper in Hong Kong. Above, you can see an article titled “Tunnel Vision” which appear in South China Morning Post in May.

BEIJING: THAT’S BEIJING

Three months later, a slighter shorter version appeared in That’s Beijing’s August edition. The article would again be printed in Caravan, an Indian magazine. And of course, a blog post. Looking at your content as dynamic assets will get more eyes on your content while at the same time raising your profile and your income.

RE-EDIT/RE-SELL: Keeping control of the rights to your content is perhaps the most important thing you can do in repackaging and reselling. While NGO’s and the nonprofit sector don’t necessarily pay well, its usually pretty easy to control the rights to your content while helping out a good cause. Most NGOs are very happy in this scenario as it creates greater awareness of their cause. Here’s an example:

I support a couple different NGO’s, one being Shanghai Roots & Shoots. In the fall of 2011 I helped create a series of twelve, two-minute videos detailing one of their projects called “The Million Tree Project.”

The NGO paid for my expenses to travel to Inner Mongolia and film their volunteers planting trees in the desert. While there I grabbed more content that I knew would not be needed for their films, but might be useful for an additional program. In the end, I had enough content to create their videos as well as another long form piece here:

I find the nonprofit and NGO sector to be a great resource in doing ethical work while gaining assets that would otherwise be expensive and hard to find. In my experience, its pretty rare to encounter newspapers and magazines that will pay freelancers expenses (lodging, flights, food, fixers, translators). However, NGOs can do this — and as long as you can keep yourself separated as a journalist from their agenda, you can put yourself in a great position to gather unique and sellable content.

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FINDING THE TIME

If the above plan sounds daunting, it is. On good days, I can get it all done. On days where hundred of emails are stacking up and the clock clicks away toward deadline, this can become tough. However, I have found the effect of my dissemination and promotional plan to be invaluable to both my career and content.

Now … Any questions? Those of you in class, ask away, those of you not in Beijing, feel free to write in questions in the comment section below or email me.

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“Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana”
Groucho Marx

Sometimes life moves so fast, months pass by and you don’t even notice.

In general, as one gets older, time seems to pass by quicker and quicker. I think there is actually some science behind this — in terms of individual perception of time and self. For example, one year of a four-year-old’s life is 25 percent of their entire life. However, one year of a ten-year-old’s life is only ten percent of their entire life. Therefore, one year from the perception of a four-year-old will take much longer than that of a ten-year-old. So one year from the perception of a person who has lived 100 years is really nothing — only 1 percent of their entire existence. Yet, for the ten-year-old, its a good portion of their life.

While these statements might be obvious, I find at 31-years-old time is passing by exponentially quicker than in the past. However, I don’t think my age is the only factor here and I believe some of the choices we make in life can really speed up our perception of how quick time is passing. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve also continued to travel more.

Perhaps traveling increases one’s perception of the rate at which life passes by. In August and September I clocked 55,208 km in North America and Asia, which Google conveniently tells me would take 84 days and 21 hours, if I were to drive it.

My time over the past two months has been spent working jobs for the New York Times, Asia Society, Global Post, Danwei.com, British Petroleum, Coca-Cola and Pendragon Productions as well as seeing friends and family on both coasts of the United States. During this time of ultra-productivity, my location has continually changed. I’ve taken over 30 flights and spent (literally) many days in the air. This time seems to evaporate: an early wake up call, a frantic packing of your bag, a taxi to the airport, security check, board a plane, watch a movie, read a book, exit plane, claim baggage, back in another taxi — repeat.

Do this enough, and its almost like it doesn’t happen. Time has just passed. One moment its June and the next its November.

Now, factor in what you do in between those stops. For me the pattern seems to be: client meetings -> preproduction -> shooting -> postproduction. When I’m lucky, I get some time in between those events for personal things. However, as a freelancer working for many different companies at once — some part of that process is always happening and usually overlapping. The actual photography part can be pretty minimum when you factor travel times and the additional steps in which one must take in order to make yourself a viable business.

Time seems to be completely lost during post production. Recently, oil giant British Petroleum (BP) sent me on a two week trip around China interviewing employees in Guangzhou, Shenyang, Shanghai, Chengdu, Zhengzhou and Beijing. The effect of this (travel) and shoot is another ten+ days in an edit suite. Normally, on a deadline like this dealing with massive amounts of content I go into the office around 9 am and leave somewhere between 12am and 4am. Do that for ten days straight and you will have simply just lost ten days. Sometimes, the only thing you really have to show for the time, is the product which you create. A 10-minute video representing 22 days of your life — for me, this is the best evidence I have of what has been happening because time just seems to jump: In this case, as if June went straight to November.

Through this time where from my perception, I seemed to have skipped months in time, life has been excellent. However, this may have marked the first time in life where I’ve become so busy, social media and blogging dissemination has actually come to a real slow. I never thought I would actually be “too busy for social media” or “too busy to return emails” but alas, there are only so many hours in the day (for anyone whose email I might have missed and who happens to be reading this, I apologize).

Since the last personal update (“31 Years Old with the Energy of an Eight-Year-Old: An Update from China”) on this blog work has been much fun. Right now I am in between two storms — a calm. Unlike in the photo above, there is no operating of jibs or shooting (at least until tomorrow). Taking more control of my time now, regular blogging activity on this blog, Tumblr and Twitter should be back to normal.

I’ve just finished some commercial jobs and am moving back to editorial and NGO work in November. If people can trade carbon, I’m hoping to trade karma this month and will back off the commercial kick and will be focusing on, what I would call — more ethical work (hence the karma trading). I’m currently working on projects with the New York Times and beginning a new series of videos for Save the Children China. The upcoming months seem to have so many possibilities, its hard to predict where I’ll be and what I’ll be doing.

But the general report from China this fall: As Groucho Marx once said “Time Flies Like an Arrow, Fruit Flies Like a Banana.”

Work is busy as ever. Life is great. Time is passing quickly. This is life.

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NOTE FROM JONAH: This post was originally written for Dan Chung’s DSLR News shooter blog.

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Frequently I’ve been doing more and more solo shoots.

No assistants or colleagues to help setup shoots, sound, light or mitigate the weight of my kit. The problem is, creating cinematic journalism requires some kit. So for me – when it comes to solo video production, its all about “bang for your buck.” Or in DSLR terms, how to create the greatest visual impact, with the smallest amount of kit.

For news videos I want to mix some type of mechanical movement, with natural movement, with stationary shots. This means I need a tripod, a shoulder rig and one more device for mechanical movement. After a recent assignment, someone in an email wrote to me:

“Really nice shooting on the piece. Did you lay down track for those slow dolly shots, use a jib, or use some new toy I don’t know about?”

And thus lies my answer to achieving mechanical movement for the solo shooter — the Kessler Pocket Dolly v2.0, Traveller size. What people are doing with this product is truly amazing. There are countless examples of beautiful work with this dolly; however, on a run-and-gun shoot that doesn’t allow much possibility for planning, this tool is excellent. In a matter of 30 seconds you can be setup and ready to shoot in any environment.

Here’s Kessler’s Pocket Dolly v2.0 Traveler Size a week earlier during a shoot in the deserts of Inner Mongolia. This product is simply amazing. The length of this slider (26.5″) fits perfectly on the side of my F-Stop Gear Satori bag (or inside of the bag if you need to).

The slider itself weights 5 lbs. and balances quite nicely with a Manfrotto 190Cx Carbon Fibre Q90 4-section Tripod (weighing in at 3 lbs.) – which is the smallest/lightest tripod I can find that will support the weight of the Kessler’s slider and a Canon 5D Mark II with a Canon 70-200 f/2.8 lens on it.

When you have the slider and tripod on the side of the bag the weight balances out well and you can continue to shoot stills if you need. Here I am a couple months ago shooting stills in India with both tools on the side my F-Stop bag. So … its portable, useful — and guess what, you can even break it.

Ok, so you don’t want to ever break a piece of gear, but in case you do, this might be the product to break – because it was designed for people like me who might shoot in some less than controlled environments.

I just finished a film for the Asia Society called At the Desert’s Edge. The short film documents the trials and tentative successes of a collaborative effort between locals, governmental initiatives and NGOs fighting to combat China’s growing deserts by planting vast barriers of trees.

However, while shooting and traveling my slider got a couple nicks in the rails. Shooting in sand storms, traveling in less than comfortable conditions and constantly moving — things like this are bound to happen.

Although these nicks don’t look so bad they will effect your shots. The above photograph is taken with a Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x Macro Lens at about 4x — so this nick is almost invisible to the naked eye. But Kessler’s dolly was made with insertable rails which in a recent email they told me, is: “one of the reasons we went to the insert, so dings like this could be repaired.”

Kessler’s labor costs are very reasonable, and for about $35 dollars my slider is being repaired. Other sliders I’ve seen would need to be completely replaced in the case of a dent or nick.

By no means – are Kessler’s products “breakable” or even easy to break. However, the reality of video journalism is that that you can’t control your environment, the people around you — or how airport security handles your kit. So beyond the beautiful movement you can achieve with the slider, the versatility in build is a huge bonus.

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NOTE FROM JONAH: This is a guest blog post written for A Good Week based on the question: “What Does Good Mean to You?” A Good Week: is a global celebration of all the Good that happens in the world. We will shine a spotlight on the people, communities and businesses who do Good.

I was honored to be asked by A Good Week to answer this question. Funny enough, although the question is simple, the answer is not. I encourage everyone to check out this Web site and the people they are interviewing around the world. Myriad topics span across the globe documenting what people are doing to make earth a better place. From Sir Richard Branson to students in Palestine, to a retired teacher back at it in the Himalaya, to thoughts on ethical consumerism — there is a wealth of good thoughts on the site.

Here are mine …

Inspiring Good through visual storytelling
July 28, 2011 4:40 pm

Jonah M. Kessel is a Beijing-based freelance photographer, videographer, print and web designer. Jonah’s own desire to do Good leads him to create and document stories that inspire people to take action themselves, in a way that shows that rest of the world that individuals can make a difference to the global community. Here, he talks to A Good Week about what Good means to him and in more detail about what he hopes to achieve through his work.

Earlier this year UN Ambassador of Peace Jane Goodall said to me: “If you really want something, and you work hard, and you take advantage of opportunity, and you never give up — you will find a way.” When you look at the problems facing our world, it can be quite intimidating. But Goodall’s message gives me hope that individuals can and do make a difference.

And while I can’t claim to define what “good” is, I can describe what “good” means to me.

The tricky part of this question is to examine the relationship between “good” and “better”. There is a certain amount of subjectivity here; however, I believe to do “good” is to make things “better”, to improve things. This means, not just understanding the problems and issues we face as a global community, but fundamentally understanding that we are all part of one global community. We are all connected — regardless of where we are or what we do.

I believe there is also a strong relationship between “awareness” and “good.” Issues which people are not aware of, have very little chance of getting better.

As a visual journalist and storyteller, when I have the chance to document something that I believe people should be aware of, I try to jump on the opportunity in the hope that any subsequent action will be enough to make people think and, if I’m very lucky, encourage people to take action. As an individual this is how I try to do good — by creating awareness, which I hope in turn will cause a wider audience to think about our world and the issues that exist within it.

Through my job I see individuals frequently doing good things. Last month, I created 12 videos documenting volunteers of Shanghai Roots & Shoots on a reforestation trip to the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China. While the volunteers are combating desertification by planting trees, they are also sending a message to people around the world that individuals can take action — and make things better, both on a local and on a global level.

In other instances, videos I take don’t show people taking action, but highlight problems that need attention. I recently finished a project documenting the redevelopment of a culturally rich area in Beijing. Some organizations are fighting for the area and the residents who live there; however, without greater awareness the area and its historic and cultural legacy may become lost amid China’s rapid modernization.

I think the direction that young people on this earth are going in is very encouraging. We have problems, but there are people who are actively trying to make things better, create awareness and who ultimately — do good.

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NOTE FROM JONAH: This post was originally written for Dan Chung’s DSLR News shooter blog.

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While all around China, journalists were reporting on the July 1, 90th anniversary of the Communist Party of China and dozens of red revival stories are popping up — to celebrate this anniversary I went someplace where there was no need for a red revival. This place had been red for a long time.

It was nighttime when I found my Canon EF 14mm f/2.8L II USM pointed up at a 10 meter high portrait of Stalin in the middle of Central China. I was filming in a village called Nanjie — China’s last Maoist collective.

While contemplating Stalin’s role in history the words of the village’s Party Secretary echoed in my head. “Nobody is perfect, even saints make mistakes.”

I was filming in a place where Stalin is considered a saint. Next to Stalin’s portrait were equally over-sized portraits of Marx, Engels and Lenin … all of which were trumped in size by a 20 meter tall statue of Mao Zedong.

Over the past three decades while China has been moving toward a market economy, this place had stayed frozen in time. All of the land and the commercial enterprise are owned by the collective.

Residents get free housing and apartments, education, health care — even food. This place was actually what I thought a communist society was supposed to be like, just about the opposite of what I see at home in Beijing. It was as though I were transported 60 years back in time — but given a Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 60D and Panasonic Lumix DMC-zs10, a Pelican case full of glass and a Kessler Crane Pocket Dolly v2.0 to take with me.

This was one of the stranger assignments I have been on in China. As if everyone in the town had eaten some communist version of ecstasy, to say the least, it was hard to get anything negative out of anyone in this town.

This was a classic example of going someplace end being escorted around by the village’s PR, as if the town was a museum. While being escorted around in golf carts, a young pretty girl with a headset would tell us about the town pointing out landmarks and notable buildings. While everyone was seemingly happy as could be, I was initially skeptical I was just being shown the “good” side of things. However, after we dipped out from the PR and seemingly lost our follow, I began to talk to lots of random people — seemingly uncensored. I came out thinking these people were truly happy. Although only four subjects made it into the short news clip, I interview about twelve people.

However, there was something a bit dodgy about this village of only 3000 people. The 3000 people — have 7000 migrant Chinese working for them. On top of this, the town had massive bank loans.

What appeared to be a simple video, was now something a little more tricky. It had to be a revealing piece — showing that one layer below the peacefulness of the commune, lay some confusing philosophies.

At some point, New York Times reporter Ed Wong asked the Party Secretary if he lived in the same housing unit that everyone else did.

“I have a house,” the secretary said. “How many villagers live in an actual home,” asked Ed.

“Just me,” he said, and smiled.

Orwellian notions filled my head: “All are equal. But some are more equal than others.”

While there was clearly some strange communist ideology going on, no one in the town thought this was strange or bad. Even the migrant workers seemed to be happy — making more money then they might in other parts of China, although they still didn’t get benefits from the collective.

Coming off some longer video pieces, I was trying to keep this under four minutes, so to reveal this was tricky.

While the town seemed to be stuck in time, I pulled back the saturation on all the footage to give it a little bit more of a historical and film feel.

On my way back to Beijing, I tried to recap the seemingly North Korean-esque village I had just shot. I wondered if my footage would accurately represent the place. Happy, yet dodgy. Socialist, but elitist. In the end, we got the video to a pretty compact nature. Quick, quirky and hopefully insightful and entertaining at the same time.

– To read New York Times reporter Ed Wong’s story “In China, a Place Where Maoism Still Reigns” click here.

– Jonah M. Kessel is a Beijing-based freelance visual journalist working with photography, video, print and web design. Follow Jonah on Twitter here and see his web site here.

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Thank you to everyone on Twitter, Skype, GChat and Facebook for your birthday wishes! As my phone buzzed every 5 seconds continually over the past 48 hours with notifications (birthdays last a long time when you exist in multiple hemispheres) I couldn’t help but be a bit overwhelmed by all the support from all corners of the world.

And while things are really excellent here in China, its been many moons since I’ve seen most of you. And although I’ve spent a good deal of time out of the United States over the last decade, my time in Asia has not yet come to an end and I’m more psyched than normal with upcoming projects and life in China. And as I am now 1 year older, and 1 year (allegedly) wiser, when it comes to video and photography, I feel like I have more energy than an eight-year-old. So much energy in fact, I’ve put all your Facebook comments in a nifty graphic above (you’ll need to click on it to find your name).

If you didn’t know June 14 is Flag Day, as well as National Pop Goes the Weasel Day. In fact, while I do want to thank everyone, a special shout out to Charles Apple for always keeping an amazing on eye on what everyone is apparently doing on their birthday. Its truly remarkable! This year Charles informs us:

Shannon, Jonah and Rob share a birthday with actors Yasmine Amanda Bleeth, William Rankin “Will” Patton and Margaret Theresa Bradley (better known as Marla Gibbs); musicians George Alan O’Dowd (better known as Boy George) and Burl Kle Ivanhoe Ives; sports greats Stefanie Marie “Steffi” Graf (tennis), Eric Arthur Heiden (speed skating), Kevin Edward McHale and Samuel Perkins (both basketball); novelists Józef Lewinkopf (better known as Jerry Kosiński) and Harriet Beecher Stowe; Cuban revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara, presidential press secretary-turned-TV journalist Pierre Emil George Salinger, photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White and gazillionaire Donald John Trump.

In addition to Flag Day, today is Family History Day and World Blood Donor Day. Seriously.

A Quick Update

After finishing my project documenting redevelopment issues in cultural heritage areas in Beijing, and a 12-part video series in Inner Mongolia on reforestation and desertification I have some great new videos and projects coming out soon, including multiple features with the New York Times which I’m very excited about. More on my involvement with the Times soon … New collaborations with Danwei and a visual look at ancient Chinese instruments has been a great side project this month. Video projects from India will be coming up in my work production queue this month, while this blog will take off back to the Philippines. In July, comrade Kit Gillet and I will be headed back underground to begin a new project in Beijing’s Futurama style post-apocalyptic subterranean world.

While these projects have been going on — I’ve been doing my share of media whoring as well. Here’s a quick list of some of my own media appearances as of late:

• Paper Magazine: WWWe Could Be Next: Jonah Kessel
• Notes on Design: Jonah Kessel: Visual Journalism
• Interview: Jonah Kessel, ‘The Fate of Old Beijing: The Vanishing Hutongs’
• DSLR Newsshooter: The Perils of Subtitling and Translation in Video – Jonah Kessel on his Latest 5DMII Project
• DSLR Newshooter: Do I call myself a Photojournalist, Videographer, or Documentary Film Maker?
• Beijing Daze: Danwei is dead, Long Live the New Danwei
• Hutongs Revisted: Jonah Kessel
• Moodboard Podcast with Jonah Kessel

My geographic location should be in China until late July or early August, when I am headed back to the United States for the first time in a long while. I’ll be traveling through California, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, New York, Vermont and Boston. For those of you who might be along that path, I would love to catch up in the non-Facebook realm and see you in this “real” life I’m always hearing about.

Until then, I’ll be here.

Thanks again for all the birthday wishes and nice words.

Jonah

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A few months back I shot a polo match in Beijing for the Wall Street Journal. Yes … the Chinese now play polo, too.

While watching galloping politicians, champagne guzzling Shunyi housewives and China’s crème de la crème socialize on a polo pitch on the outskirts of Beijing, I realized I had seen this before. However, I’d never been to this part of Beijing. I’d never hung out with so many ambassadors and furthermore I’d never even been to a polo match before, let alone photographed one.

The reason I had seen this before, is because its was the same story. Its the quintessential example of the world’s fascination with China’s nouveau riche.

You’ve seen it before and you’ll see it again: the Chinese now like premium wine, Chinese are now wearing Prada or the Chinese are now buying luxery helicoptors — it all fits the same bill, regardless of the material position du jour.

And while there are plenty of men wearing uncomfortably tight clothing and silly hats holding long sticks all of the world — when the Chinese do it, its news.

While I watched the man whose pants were two sizes too small grab another panda cigarette out a gold colored box, I wondered when the world get sick of the nouveau riche China story?

What would all of us journalists do?

We’d probably need to start reporting on other things, like exploding watermelons or brain-eating parasitic worms.

However, to be fair the world has always been interested in the rich. Since before the days of yellow journalism, the world was always fascinated with the lifestyles of the rich and famous.

Furthermore, the spending habits of the Chinese alude to greater trends in the global economic power shift. For as long as the Chinese are buying cars and horses, we can bet that everyone is doing a little better than in previous times.

60 years ago, many of these people’s families didn’t have enough food or clothing to last through the winter. Today they ride around on $30,000 horses while their wives sip on Don Perrion and their drivers wait for them in their black Audio A6’s smoking a much cheaper cigarette, behind the pitch.

While the world is fascinated by China’s nouveau rich, because its apparently more interesting than reading about the rich with similar colored skin, on a ground level I’m caught somewhere in between disgusted and flabbergasted about the dichotomous nature of what surrounds me everywhere I go.

On the street that my office is on, I can buy breakfast for 3 RMB. 100 meters down the road, I can buy a Farari for 3 million RMB.

I enjoy a 3 RMB breakfast regularly, but when I see people enjoying their 3 million RMB Farari’s the dichotomy just seems greater than in the West. Its simply interesting that these two things happen in the same place.

Back at the polo field, a short fat man with a cowboy hat is showing his son how to hold a polo stick.

It is indeed a different view of China. It is indeed interesting. And they are seemingly so rich, they are just looking for ways to burn money while making sure the world watches. And they do.

I think it will be some time before the world will get sick of reading about China’s nouveau riche.

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Do video journalists need showreels? While I don’t know the answer to this question, for the past two years I’ve gone with —yes. However, the science of creating a (show)reel is seemingly far more complicated than one might believe.

Showreels have traditionally been made by cameraman, DP’s and those of us in the photography industry that find themselves on the film side of things. However, as I explained recently, video journalists, cinematic news photographers and documentary makers are certainly in a gray area between film and traditional video journalism.

When DP’s, directors and producers need cameramen its normal for them to request to see a reel. Since going freelance, I’ve had weekly requests for these from various people around China. However, it would not be so normal for a newspaper or magazine to ask to see a reel. So if you work in news photography, why would you make one and what are the challenges?

WHY: With converging media, its certainly becoming easier for photographers to jump from one industry to another. If you can film a news clip, chances are you might be useful as a cameraman in motion picture or documentary. So having this tool together is useful when someone is in your office asking for it.

WHAT: Now comes the tricky part — what do you put in your reel? I’ve found this tricky because it really depends on who you are showing it to. In many ways, this creates the possible need for more than one reel. You might have one to show documentary makers and another for a commercial client. Further more, you might need another one to show your ability with motion graphics or post production work. If your video has too much post production, it might reflect negatively if the inquiry is for documentary where the look is supposed to be more natural.

While last year I was doing much more still photography, the product became more of a photography show with small video clips embedded. This year I’ve been much more focused in video production and created the entire film with just video. If you notice, the footage kind of shows a cultural and developing world theme. I tried to add some clips of people from different countries to show a larger demographic of who I work with (westerners, developing world peoples and indigenous peoples). However, does this peg me or ‘type cast’ me? And if it does, am I ok with that since this is the type of work I want to be doing? I’ll ponder those questions and get back to you …

SEQUENCE: If you’ve figured out which content you want to include in your reel, you next need to decide how to order it. Since its mixed footage and in many ways simply eye candy — putting the images in an order that logically makes sense might be different for everyone. I’ve been trying to make mini sequences that flow together from one to the next. However, the logic behind these sequences and the order in which they appear is quite subjective. Trying to find logic in this can be difficult.

SOUND: Music is another tricky part. The song I used this year from Hanggai I personally love. However, its pretty distinct and different than what most chose.

Most of my friends’ reels and reels I see online use relatively ambient electronic music. By doing this you certainly push the focus to your images. For me however, I’m involved in production and photography. So I wanted the music and images to compliment each other in making a self contained visual demo of what type of imagery and films I’m interested in producing.

If one does chose this route, you become a bit a risk of offending someone (musically). While I like Hanggai, I can certainly imagine someone not liking it. So by choosing something more subtle, you might be a little more safe of not offending anyone.

I however, aren’t really trying to be subtile with my images. I prefer high impact images. But, this is certainly a style thing as well as a time-and-place thing.

NEVER ENDING FOOTAGE: Perhaps the most difficult thing is trying to figure out when it is done. I’m always creating new images and therefor, feel like I can always replace images with better images. In many ways, this means — you are never done. The images keep coming. So I think its always a work in progress. The version above is a third draft and I have a fourth draft in the works already.

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If you’re interested — comparing last years reel to this years I think it shows a larger change in my visual direction and a bigger push towards video production. But for a quick look at 2010 – check out this video in still photography form.

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Like so many shooters around the world, I’m a convert.

I come from a still photography background but as my career and technology have advanced I’ve been transported (gladly) into the video journalism world. While initially this was creating two minute feature videos all shot on a stationary tripod that accompanied a print story and photo, today my technological and journalistic world have been spun right-side-up and I’m making independent short films where I feel like I’ve reached a gray area of video journalism that merges into documentary film.

You might ask yourself: What’s the difference between video journalism and documentary film making? A couple years ago you might have talked about production value and venue of dissemination. However today, given the production value you can bring to news video along with the fact that your target audience might likely be web based, the two forms of visual communication have certainly crossed paths.

In the past I always identified myself as a journalist, photojournalist or visual journalist. Recently, I finished a project with journalist Kit Gillet that received some media attention. In newspapers and press releases I was reading things like “… documentary makers Jonah Kessel and Kit Gillet found …” I was like “Wow, now I’m a documentary maker. That’s a bit different.”

We made an interactive package for the Asia Society that included a three-part video series, two still slideshows and a digital tour of our subject. Given that you watch the three films sequentially it does follow more of what we might recognize as documentary film style. While I won’t decide if its a documentary, news clip or something completely different, this gray area is certainly a sign of converging media and the converged journalist. So — now the question is: Why does all this matter? Who cares if you are a documentary film maker, video journalist or a photographer?

In my mind, the answer has three parts.

1. AUDIENCE PERCEPTION OF MEDIA: I think people will perceive things differently if they hit play thinking they are watching a short documentary film vs. a news clip. Perhaps people watch news clip thinking the content is unbiased, or perhaps they watch a documentary knowing that the film makers invested so much time on the subject, they have gained intricate knowledge that a typical journalist on a deadline probably couldn’t get. Regardless of how they receive the information, there is a culture shift in perception, be it a subconscious one.
2. PHOTOGRAPHER’S IDENTITY: This culture shift also effects how we shoot. Does how you identify yourself impact your photography? I believe if you set into a project as a documentarian you might get a different result than if you were a journalist. In the documentary world, its total fine to take an angle (ala Michael Moore) and go with it. You might have a point and then go and (attempt to) prove it where a journalist would go and record what has happened and then let the audience decide what to take away from it. By calling yourself a documentary maker are you taking more control of the audience?
3. SUBJECT, PHOTOGRAPHER COMMUNICATION: You will get different types of interviews and quotes if you approach your subject and tell them you are a journalist rather than a documentary maker. During this project, almost all of our sources were found by walking around talking to strangers over and over. Since we were making the films for the Asia Society, a nonprofit organization — we always made it clear we were working for an educational institute and not a newspaper. However, sometimes we introduced ourselves as journalists (mostly out of habit) and subjects would almost always become more shut off and more apprehensive about their words or talking to us at all. When we introduced ourselves as film makers, they were much more open to talking to us candidly.

If our work ends up in this gray area it also transplants us as photographers into a gray area with clear costs and benefits. As DSLR shooters we can end up here pretty easily and a lot of it has to do with the technology we use. These films were shot with (what I would call) a very, very basic kit:

• Canon EOS 5D Mark II
• Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM
• Canon EF 24mm f/1.4L II USM
• Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM
• Canon EF 14mm f/2.8L II USM
• Rode VideoMic: On Camera Directional Video Condenser Microphone
• 3 meter nameless Chinese jib
• HDV-Z96 LED light

With this small kit and a laptop you can produce a feature film or a 2-minute news clip using the same technology. And in this case our product was a (combined) 18-minute feature, or 3-part Web video series. This project started ages ago, with a single photograph I took of a friend’s former neighborhood after it had been half-demolished. From a photograph, to a photo series, to some video clips, to a video, to a video series, to an interactive package — the content developed over the course of a year. It was just a project in my back pocket for a long time. When the Asia Society jumped on board I grabbed friend and journalist Kit Gillet and we began forming content into what you are seeing here.

It’s obviously ok to be both a journalist and a documentary film maker. Or for that matter a photographer, videographer and a sword-swallowing-carnie: but given technologie’s impact on what we do, I think it’s worth a thought early in the process — it might change what you create.

– To see the greater project “The Fate of Old Beijing: The Vanishing Hutongs” click here.

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After some long delays, I now present to you — The Fate of Old Beijing: The Vanishing Hutongs. About the movies:

In the face of China’s rapid modernization, the world’s most populous country is struggling to preserve its cultural heritage, and nowhere is this more visible than in the ancient alleyways and courtyards of Beijing.

Once a ubiquitous feature of Beijing, the hutongs are more than simply housing; they are actually a way of life. Entire families live in single, crowded courtyards, often with no bathrooms. Yet despite the lack of modern amenities, the communal aspect to life within the hutongs means that few want to leave – even as their neighbourhoods are being demolished and redeveloped. UNESCO estimates that more than 88 percent of the city’s old residential quarters are already gone, most torn down in the last three decades.

In a three-part series, filmmakers Jonah Kessel and Kit Gillet explore the vanishing world of Beijing’s hutongs, the realities of life within the narrow streets, and the future for these culturally-irreplaceable areas of China’s capital.

Now, for those interested — some backstory:

This project started ages ago (first mentioned on this blog, May 2, 2010), with a single photograph I took of a friend’s former neighborhood after it had been half-demolished. From a photograph, to a photo series, to some video clips, to a video, to a video series, to an interactive package the content developed over the course of a year and grew like a snowball falling down a hill. While Coverage of the hutong issue had been widespread in the East and the West, I was often offended at the quality of some of the journalism I was seeing. Especially since these stories were about the area where I have been living in for almost two years. I saw things in Western newspapers that said things like “The Chinese government wants to Disney-fy Gulou.” I was like … well, that type of editorializing doesn’t help tell people what’s going on. However, particularly the multimedia I had seen produced in a bilingual format seemed to be leaving out the most important part of the story – the residents.

I wanted to give them a voice — but I also wanted to give the voice of their reality. The area of concern here has tremendous cultural value; however, the living conditions of the area are not that of a modern society. The real question is: how can you modernize at such a rapid pace and preserve your culture. In answering that question there are a couple agendas that you can see:

• You have the developers and the officials who seem to be holding hands down the aisle — they have a clear agenda to create revenue – quickly. However, the government does invest millions of RMB ever year into the old city. But how that money is spent is an elusive and questionable topic.
• Then you have the residents. Most of their agendas are to have better living conditions. They want hot water, kitchens and indoor toilets. They want access to emergency vehicles. They want homes which contain heat so they don’t have to rely on coal throughout Beijing’s harsh winters. However, they do hold dear the communal atmosphere of the hutongs.
• Then you have conservationists, whose agenda is to keep old Beijing — real. However, they do understand the reality of the residents. Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Agency’s (CHP) approach to educate the population on the value of the culturally significant area has been very effective. They have gained media attention on the subject which puts more pressure on the government, developers and officials to think twice before gentrifying Gulou.

So I began shooting and filming attempting to give all parties involved a voice, while keeping my opinion out. We talked to current residents, past hutong residents, city planners, professors, activists, NGOs – even lawayers who deal with displacement cases.

As a foreigner living in China, it can be hard to really understand how complex issues can be, especially with such an enormous population. And I think over population is the real key to this problem. There isn’t enough space. For example, if you want to have an indoor toilet in your house, someone will have to move out. And for most of the residents living there, moving isn’t financially feasible.

The hutong issue goes far beyond Beijing. How Beijing deals with the problem will be a model for other cities in China. This problem exists throughout the country and the developing world. When you think about how to deal with the problem, a couple options jump out right away:

Should the government Renovate, Redevelop or gentrify? We found almost all Beijingers were against gentrification. Person after person told us how much they disliked fake hutongs and particularly the Qianmen area. Residents were also against redevelopment, but at the same time don’t have money to renovate. Many felt economically trapped in the hutongs. They want better living conditions but feel powerless unless the government relocates and compensates them.

Compensation was another big issue. With rising real estate prices, the compensation isn’t enough and residents are often forced to move to areas far outside the city center. Ten years ago, the money was enough, but now residents feel cheated.

This project was a large collaboration and the community really got behind it. Journalist Kit Gillet and myself spent hundreds of hours trying to piece this together along with the Asia Society who financed and coproduced the project with us. However, without the help of others it wouldn’t have been possible — including music by the unfathomably talented composer and guzheng player Wu Fei, historic imagery from Beijing Postcards, audio post production work by Jules Ambroisine and countless hours of translation work by Ami Li and Xiaoming Wei. Beyond this tremendous support from the Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center (CHP) and Beijingers of all kinds, sizes and sorts made this possible.

The greater project includes three videos, a digital hutong tour, two slideshows and an interactive package that can be viewed here.