Labeling Lao Xie Xie as a photographer would go against how he perceives himself, as he considers himself much more of an image-maker, as revealed in an interview published by the independent magazine Metal Magazine. With the same honesty that emerges from his shots, Lao admits that he has never regarded the camera as anything more than a tool that allows him to express his ideas and shape a personal perception of reality.

His artistic project comes to life in 2019, when he begins shooting with a film Olympus Zoom 105 given to him by a friend. From that moment on, Lao Xie Xie starts capturing, with the spontaneity of snapshot photography, the Chinese Generation Z in all its disorienting disorder: not a disorder of representation, but a conceptual and perceptual one, capable of offering new ways of reading the image.

At the core of his work lies the theme of sexuality and the freedom that runs through it. The images often flow into eroticism and performance, a language that does not aim to provoke but to capture the viewer’s attention. In a world saturated with images, Lao’s goal is to slow down the gaze, absorbing it into something that escapes the common perception of reality.

With an underground aesthetic inspired by the freedom of Terry Richardson’s photography, Lao does not seek to conceal hidden meanings: his style is direct, raw, and essential, becoming a mirror of his personality. He does not like labels, yet on social media he defines his work as trash photography, a term that reflects an imperfect and instinctive aesthetic, focused on essence rather than detail.

Lao’s creations are as controversial as his identity, which remains unknown. Anonymity is a condition the artist deeply values: the name Lao Xie Xie itself is an invention, born from the combination of “Lao,” a term used to address a respected person, and “xièxiè,” which means “thank you” in Chinese. This choice is also linked to the context in which he operates—China—where content like his would easily be labeled as pornography. Lao prefers to let the images and the ideas they convey speak for themselves, without the need to show his face or reveal his real name.

This article was produced in collaboration with Luigi Falanga and Gaia Forlin, aka @super8otto.