There are many ways to cope with difficult emotions. One of them is to seek out others who feel the same. Chinese photographer Ziyi Le has taken this a step further—by photographing those kindred spirits.

“Growing up, I spent very little time with my parents. We rarely communicated, and for a long time, I felt distant from them. It left me feeling as though I were in the middle of nowhere,” he recalls. “Whenever family issues came up, my instinct was to escape.”

In March 2020, Le moved to Hangzhou in search of a fresh start. Confronted with a growing sense of spiritual emptiness and disconnection, he decided to face it head-on. He posted an open call on Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter.

More than 40 young people responded. Le photographed each of them, using portraiture to ask: Can emotions be made visible? What can a face reveal about someone’s inner world? And are there shared emotional experiences that resonate across an entire generation?

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