Drawing closer to human connection

In a quiet corner of a Shanghai library, photographer Le Ziyi has placed pictures of young people taken by his lens at a distance where one must step closer to see them clearly.

More than 20 portraits, deliberately scaled down and suspended on wide, white-matted cards, resemble cautious glimpses into the urban sea of faces.

"I wanted everyone to come a little closer to look at this exhibition," says the photographer in his 30s from eastern Fujian province.

Unlike his previous presentations at major exhibitions, such as the Jimei X Arles International Photo Festival in Xiamen city of Fujian, where large-format prints on aluminum composite panels were the norm, this show held in a cramped library space became a more powerful narrative strategy.

"It's like when you walk through the city every day, you see so many strangers passing by," he explains.

"But you have no idea what's behind them, what experiences they've actually been through."

So, he brings the viewer nearer. Here, one can see a young woman curled up on a bed in a rented room, scrolling through her phone illuminated only by a desk lamp. In another photo, a Chinese woman who grew up in Italy sits in a pavilion by West Lake in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. The bustling crowd around her contrasts sharply with the alienation written on her familiar features.

Le has developed a "connection "with each one of those strangers through his photographic work. He still remembers the encounter with his first subject, a young woman playing with her phone on the bed.

She was under 20 and was a webcaster whose savings had been wiped out by an online scam. After being scolded by her family, she fled alone to Hangzhou, temporarily staying in a shared apartment with a male netizen she had never met before.

Le recalls he met her at a subway station. "It was very awkward at first. I carried my camera, and for about half an hour, we were both very unnatural."

The turning point came when he set aside his role as a photographer and chose to share his own story first, intending to break the ice.

"As we spent the day together, wandering the city, eating together, and listening to each other's stories and experiences, she gradually let down her guard," Le recalls.

It wasn't until 9 pm that she took him to her "home".

"The guy was sleeping on a floor mat. As soon as she got back, she lay on the bed playing with her phone under the desk lamp. That scene resonated with me deeply — it was as if they didn't live together, yet, this was happening in the real world."

Under his lens, the individuals suspended in the torrent of the times, and their confusion, struggles, courage and small victories are all documented.

These images together form a vast mirror, allowing Le not only to see himself clearly, but also to draw solace and strength to move forward, he says.

This photography project, named "New Comer", began in 2020 out of Le's urge to escape his life.