My interest in photography began when I was a teenager, but like many youngsters my photography was constrained by the cost of film processing. It was not until much later when I began working in China as a consultant that I was able to become ‘trigger happy’, sending the best of my photography (and the bill) to corporate clients. This rekindled my interest in photography and led directly to my enrolment as a Masters student in ‘Fine Arts’ at The Elam School of Fine Arts in Auckland, New Zealand.

I went to Paris during my Masters programme and photographed extensively throughout Eastern Europe immediately after the fall of the Berlin Wall. My Masters submission was entitled ‘Windows on Eastern Europe: The Collapse of Communism.’

The Paris sojourn also enabled me to work as a business consultant over a three-year period to The Magnum Photo Agency.

I worked with Magnum in three capacities: I was employed directly by Magnum; I was paid through the European Commission to work for Magnum and I worked freely for Magnum…. It was an emotional roller coaster of elation and despair that eventually ended well, but it was a close call.

During this time I got to know most of the Magnum photographers and became very friendly with Josef Koudelka and Renee Burri in particular. Josef and I would sit for hours at night; eating cheese and bread with a little Vodka; discussing everything but photography. And in this way he taught me much about photography.

After Paris I returned to work in the Pacific and then, at the beginning of the 21st century, I began my doctorate in ‘Fine Arts’, again at Auckland University’s Elam School. My doctorate was carried out in Hong Kong and entitled ‘A Photographic Essay on Water in Hong Kong.’

During 2005 I continued water related projects. In March I photographed extensively along the Mekong River. I began in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam and then went to Jinghong in China before turning south to Laos, Cambodia and Thailand. In mid-year I photographed water resources in Western Australia and Queensland under a Raw Space artist’s residency. But by year’s end I was back in China, this time as an ‘artist in residence’ at Xiamen University taking pictures of the heritage architecture of Gulangyu.

In early 2006, in association with Canterbury University’s Ilam School of Fine Arts, I went to Macao, Hong Kong and Guangzhou to continue recording a selection of heritage architectures.

Howard Scott about to eat a freshly caught Kaikoura crayfish, December 2005.

Photo :: Ying Guo