ZHANG XIAO

The photographs in Zhang Xiao’s work They seek the extraordinary in mundane everyday activities. Eyes wide open, Zhang Xiao scrutinises his closest surroundings and talks to us about others as if he were a stranger in a strange land.

 

The reality of Chongqing, where he lives and works, amazes him as if he were a new Marco Polo discovering China. This series of images was taken using a very peculiar toy camera, the legendary Holga. The Holga’s square format and plastic lens produce deeply saturated colours and light distortion that makes the edges of the image fuzzy. Despite the documentary nature of They, the series presents us with a dreamlike, misty, surreal and sometimes kitsch world full of humour and absurdity.