Steve Barru

Dardo (the Tibetan name is also rendered Dartsedo or Darzêdo) is a city of about 100,000 people in the mountains halfway between Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, and the border of the Tibet Autonomous Region (so-called). In Chinese the city is called Kangding. Dardo is on the unofficial border between the Han Chinese and the Tibetan cultural areas of China. Wikipedia says the city's population is 40% Han, 40% Tibetan and 20% other minority nationalities. While the Chinese government claims otherwise, Dardo is a reminder that China is a multi-cultural territorial empire with the dominant Han majority and numerous minority nationalities uneasily sharing much of the western part of the empire's territory.

Biography
Born and raised in the United States, I have lived in China since 1987, currently in Beijing.

My career here has been varied to say the least. I ran my own consulting business for more than ten years, managed an international chamber of commerce, served on the board of an international school, taught English, dabbled in the real estate industry and... well, it really has been varied.

After experimenting with the family Brownie, my first real camera was a Nikon Ftn, bought in 1968. I still have it. I added a Nikon FM2 in 1972 – an almost indestructible piece of equipment which I used to shoot thousands of images on Tri X, Plus X, Kodachrome, Fujichrome and more. After my FM2 was stolen, I bought a point and shoot digital in 2001 and finally went to a Nikon SLR in 2005. Today I'm using a Nikon D200 with a Sigma 18-200mm lens.

With few exceptions, these days my pictures are about China and Chinese life as I see it. Comments and correspondence are most welcome.