TITLE: Withering away

It's part of my personal project < Embrace Aging >, which I use wild plants and my own body as the main subjects to honor the grace of age, to express the evanescent feminine beauty and the built-in female pain, the deep connection between female and nature.

AUTHOR: xidong luo (China)

B. in 1972, X.D. Luo is a self-taught portrait photographer based in southern China. She specializes in using mirrors, fabric, wild plants and other natural elements to honor the grace of age, to celebrate the awe of nature, to express the evanescent feminine beauty and the built-in female pain, the deep connection between female and nature, now and then, life and death…

She has a keen interest and a special eye over withering stuff rather than those fresh ones. For her, a withered rose may carry more meaning than those still in bloom, so do all living creatures aging with seasons’ change. Her creation is deeply influenced by the traditional Chinese philosophy and the Japanese wabi-sabi aesthetics.

With her studio set in a beautiful valley neighboring the beach, most of her “props“ are collected from Mother NATURE, such as broken branches, fallen leaves, seasonal flowers and fruits, stones and shells, etc.,which serve as the primary metaphors in her work.

The inspiration of using a mirror in her creation came from a 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, UNATTAINTABILITY and NOTHINGNESS of life itself. While visually, besides adding more dimensions and drama to the creation, it leads to a disorientation in time and space, now and then, here and there...slightly surreal.

Before starting a career in photography, she worked for IBM for nearly 10 years and gained multicultural experiences through international business trips. However, due to a lack of interest in business management, she resigned and spent years backpacking off-the-beaten-track, which is the crucial cause and the inspiration of her path in photography.
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International Awards/Accomplishments

2023 | Selected for the 40th Annual Exhibition of HCP, Houston, USA

2023 | Accepted for < Poetic Storytelling > Exhibition at Praxis Gallery, USA

2023 | Accepted for < Black & White > Exhibition at Decode Gallery,USA

2023 | Nominee of Fine Art Photography Awards, London

2022 | Honorable Mention of Monochrome Photography Award

2022 | Honorable Mention of Tokyo International Foto Awards, Japan

2022 | 2nd place & Honorable Mention of IPA, USA

2022 | Finalist in 2 Categories of HAMDAN BIN PhotoAwards , Dubai

2019 | Group exhibition in Shenzhen, China

2017~2018 | Jury and Speaker of China Portrait Photography Awards

2015~2016 | Silver Awards of WPPI, USA

2015 | 2nd place & Silver Award of WPPI, USA