Album of memories

 

Wenzhou is a coastal city in China, a port from which whole generations have taken off to new worlds. Stories of migration that are sometimes reversed, like the one of Xiaoxiao Xu, Chinese photographer now living in Holland, who has returned to her hometown with a desire to embrice her memories of childhood. Although mature, her gaze preserves poetry, innocence, and curiosity. Maybe we like her work because of it. Because she returns compassionate as much as gentle images, full of memories, never critical. It is the eye of a romantic girl that in a imprudent but patient way reveals emotions, lingering on the details, on the small signs of everyday life, on quiet gestures and faces embellished by a deep dignity. Bringing emotions, reveal the beauty as only children can do, find the places of a past that will never be far away if we really want it. There is a subtle need to dialogue with the nature. Almost as if plants were the most faithful guardians of the memories and of the most intimate truth. Xiaoxiao Xu thus pushes us inside solitary courtyards, rooms, unusual paths, and domestic perspectives. That of nature appears as presence often discreet and modest, but indissolubly necessary to live in the city.

 

 

Photo:

© Courtesy of Xiaoxiao Xu

www.xiaoxiaoxu.com

(click on the image at right for more pictures)