People always make an impression on me.  I visit a lot of places but it’s always the people that define that place for me.  I’m too much of a people person to not be a portrait photographer at heart.  Don’t get me wrong, but put Mount Everest infront of me and I’m going to be stoked out of my mind to shoot it.  The problem is that I can’t really have a conversation with a chunk of rock, a beautiful view, or an impressive piece of architecture.

Two months ago I was in Nepal finishing up the last three days of our Tibet, Lhasa, Everest Overland Workshop.  The people of Nepal are absolutely beautiful.  One of the most rewarding parts of the tour for me was hearing people tell stories about their images – when someone shows you the picture and then starts in on the conversation they had with the person and how the image was formed through a process of human interaction.

For the most part I vividly remember the stories and conversations behind my portraits.  I love having those conversations because they turn me from a photographer into simply a human being – someone who cares enough to talk to them.  Not to mention that interaction ends up showing favorably in my images.  The images that I know the subjects name, where their from, what we talked about, etc are always my favorite – the ones where I don’t have that interaction mean very little to me.  It’s missing the human component – it’s missing some part of the story.  I get the sense I’m missing out on knowing a part of that persons story and that fact has the capacity to make the image feel hollow for me personally.

This isn’t a rule I always stick to;  some “moral high ground” I’m trying to take and it’s not even possible all the time.  I’m not making a judgement on those who never interact with the subject.  I’m simply saying that the images of people I have interacted with are my most memorable – and why not take a second to value the person just as much as the image, if not more?

Nepal 2011 – Images by Brian Hirschy

“Not all those who wander are lost.” – J.R.R. Tolkien

I have absolutely no apologies for using one of Tolkien’s most overused and bastardized lines.  This quote couldn’t describe more accurately how I feel when I stepped foot into the alleyways of Lhasa.  The advice I often give to people visiting for the first time: “Get lost and love every minute of it!”.  Pilgrims from every corner of the Tibetan plateau, old men sitting around drinking butter tea and playing cards, street vendors selling old trinkets, temples scattered everywhere,  monks and nuns all combine to make the Lhasa alleyways home to some of the most unique and fascinating culture anywhere in Tibet.

Workshop: Lhasa, Everest, Nepal – Day 2 – Images by Brian Hirschy

So I’m jumping the gun a little bit here – but who cares, it’s the holidays right?   If you read my blog the other day you will know that I had a pretty busy December.  I spent a few days in Beijing and TianJin (see here) and then I headed to Chengdu and then finally on to KangDing where I spent about 5 days in one of the coolest towns in all of Western China.  It was my intentions to write about each location and post pictures from each of them, but I got ahead of myself and in the holiday spirit I skipped straight to the most exciting part of the trip – a 4 day car ride over the plateau.

Over the course of 4 days I visited the largest nunnery in Western China, a monastery/school with over 50,000monks and nuns, over a dozen 20,000 foot mountains, 8 monasteries,  and some of the most breathtaking landscape in all of China.  The route we took was just under 4 days of travelling and just over 1,300 miles of driving.  Furthermore, being right in the middle of winter, I’d be a liar if I said it wasn’t seriously cold. Well worth it.

I will post specifically on these locations after New Years for all you people craving details.  Each location by all means deserves it’s own post – heck, each location deserves about a week of shooting time, but I had to make it home before Christmas or my wife would have killed me.  Nonetheless, wait just a few days and I’ll post about each location.  Furthermore, sometime in January Ill be posting all the high res images to my Photoshelter account because viewing these images at 560px wide just doesn’t do them justice in my opinion.

Not a bad way to finish out 2010, right?

From December 8th until December 20th I was on the road.  Though I didn’t leave the country during this marathon trip – it did take me through huge swaths of the diverse cultures that exist in China.  Check out the map here My schedule took me to some of the biggest cities in all of China – Beijing, Tianjin, Chengdu.  It also took me to some of the most remote ‘towns‘ and monasteries in all of the world.  All in all I travelled over 4,500 miles in December alone – 1,200 of which were by car.  This is what happens when you have meetings in the east part of the country and then decide to take a 4 day road trip through Western China with a friend – all in the same month.

After getting back on the 20th I took a well deserved break for 7 days to celebrate Christmas with local friends and do absolutely nothing – but now I’m back.  Over the next 3 days I’ll be posting pictures and details of my trip, so make a point to stay tuned.  In the meantime here are just a few images from the places I was able to visit in December.

Enjoy, and stay tuned!

*Make sure you continue to check out the mobile section of the site.  I’ll be live blogging (as much as possible) from the beginning to the end… just because I figure you guys deserve to know exactly how cold I am.

Tonight at 9:30pm(7:30am CST) I depart for an 9 day 5,000km+ trip from my home in Qinghai to two of China’s largest cities and then crossing through Sichuan and to one of the coolest places in the world – KangDing.  After visiting KangDing for about 3 days I’ll continue overland from Sichuan to Qinghai in time to get back home for Christmas on the plateau.  A little work, some important visa meetings, and some fun.

I anticipate being cold – really cold.  Why’s that? Mostly because China is just kinda cold in the winter…especially the last 4 days of my trip in the Kham regions of Sichuan and Qinghai.  I’m especially excited about the last few days because it’s a good opportunity to see parts of the plateau that I have yet to see – specifically Kangding.

So why is Kangding so cool?  Check it out:

Kangding, known as Dartsendo དར་རྩེ་མདོ། / Dardo དར་མདོ་ in Tibetan, is the capital town of Garnze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture དཀར་མཛེས་ཁུལ་ located in western Sichuan province. Kangding sits at 2,600m and has a population of around 100,000. Part of the traditional Tibetan region of Kham ཁམས་, Kangding has always been the gateway to the Tibetan world. The town itself is roughly 40% Tibetan, 40% Chinese with the remaining 20% being other minorities such as Qiang, Yi and Hui. Everything east of Kangding is inhabited primarily by Han Chinese while everything west of Kangding is predominantly Tibetan.

There are over 20 mountains the rise over 20,000 feet within 40 miles of downtown Kangding.  Dartsendo, known in Chinese as Kangding, sits at 8600 feet above sea level in a very narrow valley with the large Gyeto River flowing down the middle. The town is surrounded by mountains – with the highest, Mt. Dentok, rising to over 17,000 feet.

Check out the mobile section of the site.  I’ll be live blogging (as much as possible) from the beginning to the end… just because I figure you guys deserve to know exactly how cold I am

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