Based in Paris, the Chinese photographer has become a driving force in the fashion world in the space of a few years, through his portraits of rare pictorial beauty and his connection with his cultural roots.
Kiki Xue is one of the emerging names on the photography scene. The native of Chengdu, capital of China's Sichuan province, initially studied mathematics before embarking on his journey into fashion and art photography in 2010. Since then, the thirty-something has been passionately probing and transcending concepts of beauty, nourished by detail and color, imperfection and sensitivity, natural light and aesthetic refinement. Kiki Xue draws her inspiration from the great masters of the Renaissance, from Eastern and Western cultures. But her creations are also driven by her current desires and cultural roots. His delicate portfolio explores emotions right up to the tipping point, sublimating models, nudity, traditional costumes, objects and still lifes. In 2011, he won the PhotoVogue festival prize in Milan, opening the doors to the legendary fashion magazine's Italian, Chinese, Greek and Arabic editions. But also those of Harper᾽s Bazaar in China.
TIMELESS BEAUTY
" For me, portrait photography gives a face to the story in my mind. It's a combination or collision of two stories, producing a sense of beauty or shock," explains the man who moved to Paris in 2014. In this goldsmith's work, Kiki Xue manipulates both digital and film cameras. His body of work escapes the norm, crossing the boundaries of fashion and pictorial art in a play of composition, staging, textures, vibrant colors and movement. " Painting is one of the most important components in my practice: when I want to take photographs, I extract interesting and significant elements from a set of paintings to develop my own works. " In 2022, his delicate artistic approach was the subject of a first book, Kiki Xue: Portraits (éditions Skira), in which journalist and art critic Denise Wendel explores the practice of this photographer who is a must-see.
ACUMEN PRESENTS KIKI XUE: BEYONG BEAUTY
The Chinese photographer never ceases to fascinate the fashion scene with his pictorial portraits, transcending the beauty of his models' bodies and faces to the tipping point. His work is an anthology of emotions and sensibility, in which clothing acts as a catalyst in a play of compositions that transcends the boundaries of fashion and pictorial art.
