August in Xiamen is the height of summer. At the Three Shadows Xiamen Photography Art Centre on the shores of Xinglin Bay, a special exhibition is underway.
Five recent graduates traveled with Hanin instant cameras through Quanzhou in Fujian, Libo in Guizhou, Dalian in Liaoning, Dongting Lake in Hunan, and even as far as Croatia. Along the way, they captured fleeting moments from their graduation journeys—the sea breeze, ancient towns, lakes, fishing villages, and mountain landscapes.
Summer in Our Hands: Hanin Graduation Season, a graduation photography exhibition jointly presented by Three Shadows Xiamen and Hanin, is now on view.
The exhibition invited five young artists to embark on graduation journeys with the Hanin Z6 Pro instant camera. Through their individual perspectives, they transformed encounters, movements, and moments of pause into visual records, preserving a summer still in the making.
Summer in Our Hands: Hanin Graduation Season
Artists: Chen Ziyan, Qiu Qi, Xu Siyuan, Yang Zixi, and Zhang Zhekai
Curator: Xu Jiamin
Co-organizers: Three Shadows Xiamen Photography Art Centre and Hanin
Exhibition dates: August 8–September 13, 2026
Closed on Mondays and Tuesdays
Venue: Three Shadows Xiamen Photography Art Centre
3rd Floor of Building 2, Xinglinwan Business Center, Jimei District, Xiamen
From islands, lakes, and ancient towns to mountain villages, the five artists followed different routes to explore place, local culture, and personal growth. Zhang Zhekai and Yang Zixi traveled to Xiamen for the exhibition, where they shared the creative thinking and memorable experiences behind their graduation journeys to Libo, Guizhou, and Quanzhou, Fujian.
Several participating artists also attended the opening ceremony to discuss the development of their projects.
Zhang Zhekai titled his graduation journey project Nowhere to Dwell. Drawn by an idealized vision of rural life, he traveled to Libo, Guizhou, where he experienced the poetic way of living he had long imagined. Yet near-total retreat from the outside world did not offer the escape he had expected. Instead, it prompted him to reconsider many of life's larger questions.
Yang Zixi carried out her project in Quanzhou, Fujian. She initially set out to discover and document the city's religious traditions and deities. The unexpected highlight of her journey, however, was meeting Hui'an women who preserve the traditional zanhua floral headdress custom while working diligently and supporting one another in local fishing communities.
"The people of Quanzhou are warm and sincere," Yang shared. "With the Hanin instant camera, I could print each photograph immediately and give it to the women who kindly agreed to be photographed."
The young artists who were unable to attend the opening entrusted curator Lin Mochen to share the stories behind their graduation projects.
Qiu Qi's project, Pause, emerged from a transitional period in his life after graduation. In Dalian, he found a resonance between his own state and fishing villages during the seasonal fishing moratorium, documenting their quiet and gentle atmosphere.
Rather than deliberately photographing Croatia's unfamiliar scenery, Xu Siyuan captured subjects that sparked associations in the moment—a deserted street, a stone bench in the sunlight, and other fragments of everyday life. Field Notes from a Machine is a dreamlike work that invites viewers to follow their own associations and imagination.
In Beyond the Sea, a Lake, Chen Ziyan uses the water that has accompanied her since childhood as an emotional thread, connecting the sea in Dalian with South Dongting Lake in her hometown. Between the sea and the lake, she traces the marks and pathways of her own growth.
A selection of works from the Campus Roaming Program, which brought Hanin instant cameras to 12 universities across China, is also being presented in an outdoor display at Three Shadows Xiamen.
For photographers, the image through the lens is never simply a beautiful view. What they capture is also a perspective and an emotion.
Hanin's commitment to supporting young creators is not a one-off initiative. For several consecutive editions, the company has served as an annual strategic partner of the IM Cross-Strait Youth Film Festival, establishing the "Most Creative Work by Hanin" award and providing creative support for emerging filmmakers.
Hanin has also long supported arts education for children and young people. Its initiatives include traveling more than 4,000 kilometers to Chamdo, Tibet, to bring photography experiences to children in mountain communities. The selected-works exhibition of the 2nd Hanin Children's Instant Camera Photography ExhibitionI, jointly presented with the Gulangyu Academy of Fine Arts, is also currently welcoming visitors.
"Bringing People Together, Spreading Hope" has always been at the heart of Hanin's approach to social responsibility. We believe the value of technology lies not only in efficiency and convenience, but also in its ability to help more people express themselves, see the world, and be seen by it.
The exhibition runs through September 13.
If you are in Xiamen, visit the exhibition and discover the graduation projects of these five young artists. You may find that youth has many forms of expression—and that each deserves to be taken seriously.
After all, everyone who experiences the world with intention deserves to have their story recorded.
Three Shadows Photography Art Centre
Three Shadows Photography Art Centre is China's first privately established institution dedicated to contemporary photographic art. Founded in 2007 by renowned Chinese and Japanese contemporary photographic artists RongRong and inri, the Centre is committed to building a premier platform for the exhibition, promotion, and international exchange of contemporary photography in China.
Three Shadows currently operates two locations in Beijing and Xiamen. Its Xiamen space covers more than 3,600 square meters and includes exhibition galleries, +3 Gallery, artist residency spaces, an art library, a photography education department, a digital imaging and production department, an art bookstore, and a café.
The Centre presents at least four major contemporary art exhibitions and 15 themed exhibitions each year, alongside guided tours, workshops, lectures, forums, screenings, performances, markets, and other cultural programs.
In 2015, Three Shadows and Les Rencontres d'Arles jointly launched the Jimei x Arles International Photo Festival in Xiamen.