Xidong Luo

Xidong Luo is a self-taught fine art photographer based in Shenzhen, China. She specializes in mirror fantasy featured with a combination of self portrait and still life, expressing the transient feminine beauty, the built-in female pain, and the profound connectedness between women and nature.

Luo’s creation is deeply rooted in the traditional Chinese philosophy Taoism, which claims that “Heaven and earth coexist with me, and all things and I are one (物我合一)”, implying the interconnections & interdependency between all things in the universe.

The inspiration of using mirrors came from the Chinese idiom “镜花水月”. Literally it means "flowers in the mirror and the moon reflected in the water", which is a metaphor of the UNCERTAINTY, UNATTAINABILITY and NOTHINGNESS of life itself. Visually, it adds more dimensions and emotive weights to the creation in a sense of surrealism.

In this “Self-Reflection” process, Luo reconnected to the woman within by observing and re-evaluating her own thoughts, emotions, desires, motivations, and values in a more objective way. She believes that “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”

Before starting with photography, Luo worked for IBM for 10 years and traveled well internationally. However, due to a lack of interest in business management, she quit the job and spent 7 years backpacking off-the-beaten-track in the peripheral Himalayas, which is the pacing factor and the inspiration of her path in photography.