April 21 : 2025
Xidong Luo
Images that beckon you to linger are the rarest of all, and this 1st place winning photograph by Xidong Luo exemplifies that rarity with striking clarity.
by Lily Fierman
“A Soul with a Thousand Suns"
1st Place Winner | Professional
Q:
Can you please tell us more about creating your winning image, “A Soul with a Thousand Suns?”
A:
This work seeks to unravel the paradox of feminine strength—both fragile and unyielding—through a surreal visual lexicon. Centered around a mirror as a liminal threshold, the image layers inner resilience and external reality, positioning the female figure as both architect and inhabitant of her own luminous universe. The flowers, delicate yet tenacious, become a metaphor for the duality of femininity: vulnerability rooted in ferocity. Their circular formation echoes a sun’s corona, declaring the subject as her own radiant nucleus. The linear clusters of chamomile adorning the fabric mimic solar rays, transforming the body into a vessel of kinetic energy—a silhouette both corporeal and celestial.
The gown’s surreal breach of the glass challenges passive observation, asserting that true power emerges when inner light fractures imposed narratives. Adversity is implied, not depicted: chamomile, a flower thriving in harsh soil, embodies perseverance. Its roots—unseen yet vital—mirror the quiet tenacity required to transmute suffering into luminosity.
The creation is an ode to the suns within. Society often demands we mirror external expectations, yet *A Soul with a Thousand Suns* invites you to rewrite the gaze. Let the blossoms veiling the face remind us "What obscures can also crown; What binds can also become wings."
The flowers, delicate yet tenacious, become a metaphor for the duality of femininity: vulnerability rooted in ferocity.
Q:
Your image, at first glance, is very intriguing but upon reading the description carries another layer of nuance. It seems like many of your images also hold the same sense of discovery. What about these themes and processes are you most attracted to?
A:
What I was most attracted to is the ever-changing beauty that the seasons bring into our lives. Much like the cyclical transformations found in nature, our lives flow continuously and evolve ceaselessly. Nothing remains static, and aging is an inescapable part of our journey. Each of us traverses the seasons of life, each season carries its own intrinsic value and purpose. We must remember those times of blossoming and wilting, cherishing the anticipation of new hopes and the surprises life has yet to yield.
In this “Self-Reflection” process, I get reconnected to the woman within by observing and re-evaluating my own thoughts, emotions, desires, motivations, and values in a more objective way. I believe that “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” . The most remarkable journey one can embark upon is self-reflection and self-discovery, a voyage toward our true essence.
Q:
In your bio, you mention you are self-taught. How did you stumble upon photography?
A:
I did not set out to become a photographer until the thought struck me while traveling around Nepal in 2005, and it was immediate. When I saw the expressions on a Nepalese 8-year-old bride's face--her face spoke of innocence, curiosity, helplessness, and predestination--during a ritual, and when she stared at me in the crowd, I felt such a shock and burning in my soul, I wished I could have had a camera to capture her at that moment, and I realized that memorizing life with a camera is something I must do, right away. So, I bought my first DSLR in 2005 and started to learn photography.
Q:
Your bio also says you specialize in mirror fantasy. Can you expand on this?
A:
The inspiration of using mirrors in my creation came from the Chinese idiom "jìng huā shuǐ yuè". Literally it means "flowers in mirror and moon in 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.
Q:
What is a dream subject of yours you hope to one day shoot?
A:
To create mirror fantasy in those remote and desolate landscapes, like deserts, plateau lakes and mountains I traveled to before.
Q:
What photographers, artists, or creatives do you admire?
A:
Georgia O'keeffe, Richard Avedon, Peter Lindbergh, Lee Miller, Man Ray...
Q:
What are you working on next?
A:
Probably the Taiji Yin-Yang fish. The white yang ang the black yin pulse like twin hearts in the chest of existence, their dance echoing Taoist harmony—wu wei’s effortless flow, where struggle softens into balance, and chaos becomes a silent choreography. Their spiral suggests the rhythm of tides and seasons, of breath drawn and released—an ode to the universe’s unbroken cycle of giving and receiving. Gazing into its whorl is to see the self as both flame and shadow, forever incomplete, forever whole.
ARTIST
