When photographer Michael Geissenger was a kid, he used to dig holes in the back yard.
“My mother would tell me, ‘if you keep digging, you’ll get to China,’” said Geissenger.
As a kid, that stuck with him, along with the mystery of a country shrouded by Communism. He longed to go there.
He studied photography and earned a degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology and became director of photography at Virginia Tech. He returned to his alma mater to teach photojournalism. His students have gone on to become successful photographers and five have won Pulitzer Prizes.
Then, in 1985, Geissenger’s dream of traveling to China….
