Patrick Dransfield: Qinghai 2006
This gallery is dedicated to the memory of Tom Leander (1955 – 2016)
When Hong Kong-based photographer Graham Uden said he wanted to make a documentary video for Lifeline Express, the Hong Kong-based eye charity*, I was delighted to make the necessary introduction to founder and chair Dr Nellie Fong, and promised to accompany the video production team to the countryside in Qinghai with my hotchpotch collection of vintage film cameras. But, with only a couple of weeks to go, one vital member of the production team, the journalist Graham had recruited, dropped out: hair-washing week or something. So, rather out of the blue, I rang Tom Leander and told him: “Only two week’s notice, a remote place in China, no money, sharing a One Star hotel room with me– are you in?”
To my surprise, Tom immediately said: “Yes”. As it turned out, he was just that kind of guy: generous, gentle, funny and immensely talented.
So – here are a sample of black and white photographs from the many photographs I took in beautiful Qinghai. And below is the link to the video, ‘A journey into sight’, that Graham shot, directed and produced: the words (and voice) are Tom’s, the Lifeline team included Medea Yu and Annie Kaur, the music was specially composed and performed by the late Matthew Seligman (1955 – 2020), and the still photographs are mine. And so are the memories! I remember especially that Xiao Yang’s father, featured in the video wearing a flat cap, was so grateful that his son had regained his sight that he spent eight hours in the rolling green hills above the village picking wild strawberries as a gift for the production crew. Those strawberries were so delicate and sweet – the most touching of rewards!
*’A journey to regain sight’ – 9 minutes: two village boys in Qinghai go on a journey to cure their blindness from cataracts. Link here: https://youtu.be/lg4GsZ9hHCg
