TITLE: A Soul with a Thousand Suns

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."

AUTHOR: xidong luo (China)

Xidong Luo is a self-taught fine art photographer based in southern China. She specializes in using mirrors, flowers and other natural elements 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, 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 beings aging with seasons’ change. Her creation is deeply influenced by the traditional Chinese philosophy and the Japanese wabi-sabi aesthetics.

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, UNATTAINABILITY 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.

As an amateur dancer, she takes the advantage of her fairly well-shaped body (for her age) by using herself as the medium of expression to accomplish her art projects ever since the COVID-19 lockdown. Yet it's not just about the beauty of a body shape, it’s more about her profound comprehending and cherishing of life through sorrowfully accepting its fleeting nature.

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 nd the inspiration of her path in photography.