| Home / College Guide / The picture of patience | Life & Art | China Daily |
| Posted on Thursday, August 22 @ 00:00:08 PDT |
Earlier this year, photographer Chu Weimin spent a week in the far reaches of the Arctic where he waited for hours to capture the image that would win him the coveted 2019 Travel Photo prize from National Geographic, Li Yingxue reports. Chus award-winning image Winter in Greenland, taken in Upernavik earlier this year. (CHU WEIMIN / FOR CHINA DAILY)
The dusk casts an otherworldly hue over the packed snow and frozen sea ahead. The cold bites through the layers of clothing, driven by an occasional wind so icy, it could cut glass. The weather burrows its way into the heart of the man, standing patiently, silently and staring into middle distance through the clouds formed by his warm breath hitting the frigid air.
This was the third time that landscape photographer Chu Weimin, who also goes by the name of Thomas, had visited Greenland. But this was the first time that the 29-year-old had trained his lens on the remote northwesterly fishing town of Upernavik.
With its population of around 1,000, Chu originally planned to stay just two days, but the lack of flights at that time of year forced him to extend his visit to a week.
Fortune smiled, it seems, because on the last night of his trip, Chu found himself waiting on a slope near the remote conurbations airport which had an expansive view of the colorful houses below.
He found the ideal angle - where the structure, color and mood all aligned - it just needed one more thing. His stoicism was rewarded when a family of three appeared center frame. Click.
Chu named the photo Winter in Greenland .
On June 12, National Geographic unveiled the grand prize winner of its 2019 Travel Photo Contest and among the thousands of entries from around the world, across three categories - nature, cities and people - Chus photo was chosen. Landscape photographer Chu Weimin visits Sichuan in 2018. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
According to the National Geographic website, the photos were judged by a panel of expert photographers and National Geographic staff. As the winner, Chu received US$7,500 and a post on the National Geographic Travels Instagram account.
It felt so harmonious. The whole land was covered by white, cold snow and the blue tint at dusk made it even cooler, but the light from windows, streetlights and the families living there made the world warm again, says Chu.
I love the contrast and mood of this scene. I was busy taking continuous pictures at that time, trying to capture the best moment.
Dutch landscape photographer Max Rive, thinks Winter in Greenland deserved to win, but he is more impressed by Chus nature photos.
Rive, a winner of the 2017 International Landscape Photographer of the Year title and a judge of the same competition a year later - recalls that Chu almost won that prize in 2018, and he finished with more photos in the top 100 than any other photographer.
Greenlands many shades
Nature is unpredictable in how she shows herself, be it through the weather, its colors or animals, and it is also unique physically - every country, every mountain view and every tree is distinctive. This makes it perfect for artists who want to capture this with a camera to come back with a unique shot, says Rive, who is also a frequent visitor to Greenland.
In 2016, Chu saw a selection of photos of Greenland taken by Rive and found the Arctic landscape captivating. A year later, when Rive showed an interest in collaborating with a Chinese photographer, Chu was keen to make contact.
In September 2017, Chu embarked on a 10-day trip to Greenland with Rive, marking his first visit to the place. He then stayed on for six more weeks with a Chinese friend, packrafting along the fjords in south.
During their time there, they each carried a 23-kilogram knapsack and explored many uninhabited islands - they hitched a ride on a fishing boat to an island 80 kilometers away and explored it by paddling their inflatable kayaks around its coast.
To reduce weight, they buried food on the beach and took only what they needed for their excursions. Patagonia in Argentina, South America (2019). (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
We drank filtered water, boiled porridge and ate canned meat and dried vegetables, says Chu.
After nearly two weeks on the island, they called the fisherman via a satellite phone, who took them back to civilization to stock up on supplies before they set off to explore another island in similar fashion.
There was no internet, but we would download maps onto our phones so we could find our way, Chu recalls, noting that the trip gave him a lot of outdoor experience.
Rive thinks that Chu not only displayed his photographic skills on the trip, but also his incredible motivation to achieve his goals. Thomas is incredibly driven, says Rive. Even with the coordinates it wasnt easy to get there. Im sure 99 percent of other landscape photographers wouldnt make the effort.
In the fall of 2018, Chu visited the southern part of Greenland as part of a group. There, he visited a small village named Tasiusaq, which has only around 50 residents, and the local community piqued his interest.
Since the weather in Greenland changes rapidly, Chu is always ready to take photos.
With his tent door half open and his tripod already set up, he leaves his shoelaces half-tied, and sleeps with his jacket on.
In terms of preparedness, a landscape photographer is like a fireman, says Chu. Once I see clouds or polar lights, I just need 30 seconds to get ready and start taking pictures. A view of Upernavik town, which forms the shape of a Christmas tree (2019). (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
In 2019, on his third and most recent trip, Chu decided to eschew Greenlands natural landscapes and instead focus on finding inspiration in its villages and communities, an itch hed been wanting to scratch since his time in Tasiusaq.
Each village has a different level of exposure to outsiders, so I thought I might find different ways of life and measure the impact of foreign influences on local culture, he says.
One of his destinations was Upernavik. There are few photos of this remote outpost on the internet, let alone wintery scenes, so Chu had no idea what to expect before he arrived.
Chu remembers that on the flight, all he could see from the window of his plane was a blanket of white covering the earth below, then, growing larger by the minute, a warm glowing spot hove into view.
The tranquil beauty of the village was beyond my imagination, Chu extols. It was a wow moment.
Set on an island and built on a slope, the village starts from a narrow point at the top, where the airstrip is located, gradually fanning out as it reaches the edge of the frozen sea below. At night, the shape of the village, and its snaking roads, carve out the shape of a Christmas tree, indelibly etched in light on the side of the hill.
Chu lived on the second floor of a red-roofed cafe and he remembers the day he took his prizewinning picture. It was a stormy spring day, with a freezing wind, and he had to find a careful balance between capturing the moment and ensuring the quality of the photo.
I like Greenland because it remains somewhat isolated from the world. Its a treasure for people who like to be alone, observes Chu, a self-confessed introvert. In Ilulissat (2019), which is also in Greenland. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Detailed explanations
Chu, a Chongqing native, has a habit of planning ahead. In order to improve his English for the college entrance exam in 2009, he spent four months reciting an 800-page English dictionary. He studied computer science at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore with a full scholarship for his bachelors degree.
In 2011, Chu bought his first digital single-lens reflex camera. When he was an exchange student at the Technical University of Munich during his sophomore year, he took the opportunity to travel around Europe with his friends, and the beautiful scenery in the Alps triggered his love for both the outdoors and landscape photography.
In 2012, one of Chus photos was selected as an editors choice in the National Geographic Photo Contest, which motivated him to pursue the medium even more avidly.
From the judging panel to previous winning images and their photographers, Chu always takes great care to study the details before he takes part in any competition.
In 2014, he started to work as an engineer in Singapore and a year later, he began to run a Sina Weibo and WeChat account to share his photography skills and experience.
You need to keep updating your social media and interact with fans so that you can be a key opinion leader in the field, which will attract more cooperation opportunities, he says. A fishing boat returns to the harbor of Ilulissat in western Greenland (2019) (Left); Chus shot of Hang Son Doong, the worlds largest cave, captured in Vietnam in 2018. (CHU WEIMIN / FOR CHINA DAILY)
After working for three years, Chu decided to quit his job and become a full-time photographer, and returned to Chongqing.
He says he made ends meet by doing photography-related work, such as running training courses, doing commercial photography, and organizing related trips.
Within a few years, he became an established photographer, publishing a book in 2018 about the postproduction of landscape photos. A decade ago the longest trip he made was the 700 km from Chongqing to Xian in Shaanxi province, but now he has climbed snowy mountains up to 6,000 meters high and explored caves 300 meters underground.
He is open to sharing his experiences and regularly offers tips on his social media accounts. He once recalled a dangerous descent down a Swiss mountain in stormy weather and, in a recent post on WeChat, how he goes about photographing a sunrise or sunset by using a software that can predict the exact times they occur.
Drones are also a tool that Chu employs. Sometimes Ill use a drone to take a photo from an angle that I cannot achieve in person, or to find the right spot from where to take my photos before I start climbing or walking, he says.
Use of color is another area that defines his work, as he believes that colors can represent emotions, and he adjusts the color to match the emotion he wants to convey.
Chu already has made plans to return to Greenland in October and shoot more photos of its far-flung communities and examine the residents relationship with the environment. Besides the polar region, his interests also include the snowy mountains of Pakistan and China.
As a landscape photographer, you always want to capture the shot that nobody has ever seen, he explains, concluding, or find a new angle or way of depicting something thats already well-known.
Contact the writer at
|
|
| |
|
