Tasmania was lucky enough a few years ago to be visited by President Xi Jinping of China.
I was one of the photographers who was cleared to capture some of the events of that visit. I met a whole new group of lovely people as well as some old friends that I knew from the Tasmanian Chinese community – they really are some of the nicest people you will ever meet.
A great honour was bestowed upon me too. Prior to the visit to Hobart by the Chinese delegation, I had been commissioned to do a set of commercial photography for the Tasmanian Antarctic Division. In the process of capturing some of the extraordinary efforts that the Antarctic Division have done, not only on the southern most continent, but also here in their laboratories and their preparation work in the Hobart port, I captured this photo.
The honour for me was that this humble commercial image, was used as the background for the signing of a deal between The President of China, Xi Jinping, and the Australian/Tasmanian government for a major (at the time) Antarctic deal between our two nations based here in Hobart.
And to make it even sweeter, I had just been doing some aerial photography of Hobart on the featured helicopter – I remember it was a beautiful still day, comfortably warm, with gorgeous skies.
On a personal note, I have been to China twice. It’s an extraordinary place to visit for either work or a holiday. The people are warm and kind and there is so much to see. Please go, it’s amazing