Sophy Qi

Sophy Qi, 26, is a photographic artist known for her distinctive perspective and experimental approach to media. Her work has captured the attention of the international art world with its quiet tension and emotional clarity.

Originally trained at the Central Academy of Drama in China, she left her formal studies to pursue a more personal path of artistic freedom and belief.

Qi’s visual language often blends cinematic melancholy with documentary realism, using analog formats and delicate materials to explore themes of vulnerability, displacement, and spiritual resilience.

Her exhibitions span from Japan to New Zealand, including:
• 2024 — Where Am I (Photo Book Published)
• 2023 — Kurume Contemporary Art Museum, Japan
• 2023 — Tutu Art Space, New Zealand
• 2022 — Auckland Art Centre, New Zealand
• 2018 — Tutu Art Space, New Zealand

Contemporary Art Review –

“Looking for Qi, Looking for Sophy”: A Quiet Resistance Through Film

Looking for Qi, Looking for Sophy is more than a photo book—it is a durational portrait of selfhood suspended in time, composed across three years during Sophy Qi’s solitary journey through Korea. Shot entirely on Leica film, the work resists speed, perfection, and digital immediacy. Instead, it offers grain, delay, and intimacy.

Qi’s lens does not capture the world—it listens to it. Each frame is a meditation on subtle, internal shifts: the quiet ache of searching, the exhaustion of waiting, the dignity of retreat. Through personal ritual and analog sensitivity, she gives form to the unspoken condition of a generation—adrift, contemplative, and quietly resilient.

In an age saturated with image and narrative, Qi’s refusal to narrate is its own kind of rebellion. Her work does not explain; it resonates. The photographs unfold like memory—imperfect, disjointed, yet deeply sincere. This is an artist who is not documenting a place, but mapping an emotional terrain.

As a contemporary artifact, Looking for Qi, Looking for Sophy stands at the intersection of inner anthropology and poetic realism. It reminds us that art can still whisper in a world that shouts.

Each copy is made entirely by hand, using traditional Japanese washi paper, offering a soft, luminous texture that enhances the photographic imagery. The prints are created with hand-ground German pigments, and bound in a foil-stamped cover, giving the work both intimacy and permanence.

More than a book, it is a collectible art object—a quiet, introspective journey through identity, memory, and inner freedom.
• Handmade with Japanese washi
• Printed with hand-ground German pigments
• Foil-stamped cover, artist-signed and numbered
• Limited edition of 10 copies only
• Price: NZD 2,678

Enquire: hello@artor.nz