Voices, with Life as Lived in China
Photographers Ami Vitale and John Stanmeyer travel to China to record everyday life. These photos are featured in our materials to help learners of English see their own lives and experiences in the classroom.
Photographers Ami Vitale and John Stanmeyer travel to China to record everyday life. These photos are featured in our materials to help learners of English see their own lives and experiences in the classroom.
AMI VITALE AND JOHN STANMEYER
PHOTOGRAPHERS
[Ami:] My name is Ami Vitale and I'm a photographer and filmmaker with National Geographic.
[John:] Hi, I'm John Stanmeyer and I'm a photographer with National Geographic.
[Ami:] I have been covering stories about the environment, about people, and finding solutions to the challenges that we face today. I think photography and visual storytelling is a very powerful way to communicate and it does transcend languages.
[John:] The narratives that I do cover – not a very wide range, but social issues… primarily issues that bind and connect all of us together as humans. Kindness knows every language and that's photography; photography knows every language that has ever been spoken and that will ever be spoken.
[Ami:] So I'm here for the Life is Lived project in China, and I'm trying to shine a light on all the things that unite and connect us.
[John:] One young girl or one young boy looks at a photograph that took them some place, that inspired them to, you know, feel something about themselves and become curious, and to wonder and go experience it. It's like music! It's a symphony that plays out in our head when we see a whole slide show of the imagination. And now more than ever, this act of communication, photography, film, plays such an important role that binds us all together.
[Ami:] We all have a voice. Human beings have so many similarities. We all want the same things in life. And showing us those things that connect us, I think are really important, and those are the stories I want to find. They're everywhere.
