China: The terrible condition of the air in its cities is just one example of how this country, growing at breakneck speed, does not exercise sufficient control over its emissions. Development of this kind must take account of environmental risks, given that in just a few years it has overtaken the United States in terms of tons of CO₂ emitted into the atmosphere.

Top 5 worst countries: http://www.activesustainability.com/top-5-most-polluting-countries

Air Pollution:

• Air pollution is the combination of Carbon dioxide and Methane increasing and so increasing the earth’s temperature.
• It is the most dangerous of all the environmental problems, it kills around 7 million people each year or 1/8 deaths globally.
• Indoor air pollution is the equivalent to smoking two packets of cigarettes a day if you cook and heat your homes using open fires.

What causes it:

• Most of our air pollution is from energy use and the production of it, burning fossil fuels releases gases and chemicals into the air.
• Passenger vehicles is one of the major contributors to our air pollution, they contribute to 75% of our carbon monoxide emissions. In urban areas, it can be up to 50% to 90% of our carbon monoxide emissions.

The effect of Air pollution:

• Carbon monoxide is a odorless, colourless and is poisonous. It is responsible for over 430 deaths a year and the annual death from carbon monoxide for males is 0.22 per 100,000 and for females it is 0.7 per 100,000. 
• Air pollution can induce headaches, nausea and allergic reactions. IT can also aggravate other medical conditions such as Asthma and Emphysema.  
• There are long term effects such as Chronic Respiratory disease, Lung Cancer, Heart disease, and even brain damage. 
• Apart from health effects, Air Pollution can also lead to a variety of environmental effects such as Acid Rain which precipitation containing harmful amounts of nitric and sulfuric acids. 

Smog and Soot:

• Emissions from fossil fuels react with sunlight to produce Smog which is similar to Fog but it thick and stays for days, months or for 365 days a year in places like China.
• Soot, is made up of tine particles of chemicals, soil, smoke, dust or allergens. 

Air Pollution in China in Real Time: http://aqicn.org/city/shenzhen/

December 21 2016: http://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/china-battles-smog-as-worst-air-pollution-of-the-year-hits-beijing-and-other-cities/3645519.html

His blog: http://www.alexhoffordphotography.com/

Alex Hofford is a photojournalist who is based in Hong Kong, he has lived there for over a decade now. He uses the city as a base to cover stories in Greater China. He is also a regional representative for the European Press-photo Agency (EPA). He is British and has now a young family .

Since he arrived in Hong Kong, he has carried out over a hundred editorial assignments across the region as well as having worked in Asia but also in Middle East and Africa.

His works focuses on Environmental issues, he has done many assignments in the Pacific Ocean with Greenpeace, covering the problems of Marine Pollution, shark fining and over-fishing. His work is currently focusing on toxic e-waste, air pollution and solar power problems in China.

My opinion: His project on Air pollution relates to my idea of photographing the stages of pollution using a mouth and nose mask and a gas mask. I like that he focuses on very real issues which are affecting the real world in present time. Not many photographers focus on the environment but rather people instead which i think is boring after a while but nothing changes. People in undeveloped countries will always go through the same cycle of being born, getting ill from bacteria then dying. No amount of images will change the cycle and charities don’t seem to do much anymore. Whereas Alex Hofford photographs issues which the whole population of China and the world can change with simple changes such as walking and taking public transport instead of driving 5 minutes to the shop. The images he creates are different every time, they capture the eye as some are shocking to look at such as the Gas Mask images he created in collaboration with Clean Air Network.

Clean Air Network Website: http://www.hongkongcan.org/hk/

i want to change the world, i want the trees to grow again and the planet return to it’s full health but every government and rich boy is working against every person who wants to make a difference due to money. They ignore the warning signs because their is opportunity to earn 15 million in the next building project. Earthquakes caused by quarry explosions get blamed on tectonic plates when they aren’t even close to that country. Acid rain get’s blamed on air pressure and the increase in volcano explosions, tsunami’s, tornadoes, and hurricanes also get blamed on simply air pressure but what is causing this ‘air pressure’? Well this is due to the constant increase in Carbon Dioxide and Nitrogen, the increase of global warming and the increased amount of oil accidentally spilling into the sea with the government not carrying and talking blankly to the media saying they are doing everything they can. They then return to their 5 million pound home and get waited on hand and food whilst those who care and walking in oil and rescuing animals covered in oil. They wouldn’t dare dirty their handmade suits.

His Images: 

Alex Hofford created this image with a student to protest against the road side pollution caused mainly by buses. This image is really well constructed as the main point of the image is complete focus and the second point which is the bus has motion blur which i think it really effective at drawing our attention towards the student with the gas mask. In china, they do not actually where gas masks, they were mouth and nose masks instead but at the rate the pollution is increasing, within a decade they may have to wear gas masks to protect themselves against carbon dioxide poisoning. The composition of the image is not very good quality, however it is meant to be messy and not perfect like a sunset photo because it is portraying a serious message. That if we do not control our pollution, our future, our children’s futures will be spent in gas masks. However, i think how the sky has been darkened to make the student, bus and buildings more prominent in the photo works really well as it draws our attention into the centre of the photo. Also the outline of the bus acts as a frame for the students head which makes the viewers eyes drawn to her. Another aspect of the image which is quite interesting, is that we cannot see her eyes very clearly and i think that works in Hofford’s favour as it adds tension to the image as we can not see her facial expression which keaves us guessing to what it is. Without any context, you can understand what this image is about but it also leaves many things up to the viewer’s imagination such as who the girl is, why she is standing next to a bus and why the photo is in black and white. This image relates to the Realism Art movement in the 1850s in which realists rejected Romanticisim which dominated French literature. They were against the exotic subject matter and exaggerated emotionalism. Realism’s purpose was to “portray real and typical comtemporary people and situations with truth and accuracy”. Alex Hofford wanted to portray the truth of students protesting against road side pollution with the use of gas masks. He did not set up this image, he wanted only there to capture what was happening in that moment.

This is a similar photo to the one above taken by Alex Hofford. This photo is of a student activist who is protesting against the high levels of pollution in Hong Kong by wearing a gas mask. She is a symbol of the environmental group Greenpeace. She is standing most likely on a boat in front of Hong Kong who’s sky is thick with smog. The composition of this image is interesting because the background is very dull and boring but she is wearing a bright blue t-shirt and you can tell a flash was used as her face is brighter than it should be when there is no sun in the picture. I think this draws our attention towards her face and the gas mask which is the most crucial part of the image. The only problem with this image is that the skyline is slanted and i think if it was straight the photo would look much more symmetrical. I think the contrast in colour is meant to represent the stand that many Chinese people are taking to try and make people aware of the dangers of smog and the high levels of pollution in the city. The blue of the shirt may represent the colour the water should be but it is grey instead and it represents that the sky should be blue not grey and full of cloud every single day. Hofford attempted to use the rule of three as she is almost in the center but i think the flash on only her face partly ruins the consistency of the image. This image again relates to Realism which is the art movement of rejecting Romanticism which dramatized and over exaggerates emotions in paintings. Realism shows the raw truth of events and use the camera as a tool to portray it. They rarely manipulated images or used Tableaux photography to portray emotion. I think this is Alex Hofford has done, he has captured an image of an activist protesting against the high levels of pollution in Hong Kong and the only manipulation of the image is the flash. However, it has to be used due to the amount of smog making the daytime seem more like late evening.

ENVIRONMENT: When i think about environment, i think about the contrast between real jungles and the urban jungles, in the sense that urbanization is taking over the world and real jungles seem to be disappearing daily. Animals that were here before us, are getting killed for our pleasure and so that our population can grow even though it is clear that if we keep growing, the forests and jungles will decrease and so will our oxygen. Many people forget that we rely on our environment for clean air that we can breath that doesn’t kill us. The less trees, the more carbon dioxide which will lead to carbon dioxide poisoning and so on.

Many people believe that global warming isn’t real or that it isn’t going to effect but sadly it is going to effect the entire world and it already has. The snow gaps are melting as our air warms, this means gallons of water pouring into our oceans daily which is rising our sea level. Soon islands which we used to visit will no longer exist, New York will get permanently flooded but Jersey will be first.

Pollution is one of the biggest problems facing the earth, everything that it destroying our planet stems from pollution. Cars, Planes, Boats, Buses, Motorbikes etc.. all contribute to pollution as well as our electricity, our lights. Light pollution is real, when you look up at the sky and you wonder why you can’t see any stars this is because the light our island omits blocks out the stars. China is one of the primary sources for pollution, they have to wear masks to protect themselves, they do not often get to see blue sky, it is just grey now. Clouds are permanently over China due to the amount of cars and other vehicles on the roads 24/7 and the population of China is overcrowded and is still growing.

The government controls everything in our life and nothing we can do can change their mind on either building new houses and new offices. They will do as they please and do not care about the environment as they live in their luxury houses, waited on hand and foot and drink wine and champagne on a daily basis and they believe nothing can touch them. Well sadly carbon dioxide poisoning can magically bypass walls and windows, global warming doesn’t just effect the population who aren’t part of the government and the privileged. They will listen to no one as they only care about making money and the only way to do that is by destroying our environment and building houses and offices which people and companies will pay a lot of money to live in. However, what happens to the animals? where do they go? Do we have the right to destroy their environment just because we are classed as the superior race? If it weren’t for animals, we wouldn’t be here so we are basically killing our ancestors for money.

My first idea has originated from photographs created by Alex Hofford about Chinese people and the pollution in China. He created images with individuals wearing gas masks in ordinary places. I have been fascinated with the rate of pollution for a while as no matter what people seem to do, it doesn’t go down, this is mostly because the government controls everything and activists will never be able to get their message across to them.

This is why my first idea for my exam is to create a series of images which will be a set of 3 sequenced images going from a vivid image of an individual looking happy in a beautiful place on the island, the next image will be them wearing a white mouth and nose mask and the image will be in black and white but with low contrast so that it is not dark. The final image in the sequence will be the individual wearing a full face gas mask and the image will be very dark in black and white with high contrast and low exposure to add drama and to show the deterioration of our air.

My second idea involves making comparisons between urban and natural environments. Real jungle vs Urban jungle. Creating images using trees then replicating them with the urban environment of Jersey. Which feels more like home to you? I will be creating dramatic images in either black and white or in vivid colour to represent the contrast/ the resemblance between them. I would also like to photograph images of trees cut down or damaged and make a comparison between building sites in the sense that trees are falling down/ being cut down whilst we are building things up. I will visit places in Jersey such as St Catherine’s and look up at trees and create images using the trees then go to town in Jersey and recreate these images using buildings instead of trees.

My third idea came from me seeing an image of a environment with a wine glass in the middle which flipped the environment upside down. I researched this photograph and found a photographer called Steve Brownstein, who created a book called the art of wine, in which he held up a glass filled with wine to different environments which flipped them upside. I think this could symbolizes that we need to look at our environment from a different perspective, the entire world needs to. The roles which humans play need to be flipped upside down as we need to start looking after and re-building our environment instead of destroying it. I could use clear water to represent those who are aware of the effects we have on our environment and blurry water to represent those who’s vision is clouded by money and who do not see the damage we are causing.