In Focus: Xin Lin captures dramatic images

Our featured photographer, Xin Lin.

Growing up in a small town always made me feel trapped. I was a kid with a restless mind and I remember thinking that my hometown was the most boring and dull place that ever existed on this earth. I would scribble little notes with a pencil across the side of my bed about all the great places that was anywhere else but here. 

I still remember the day we went into the camera shop and I picked up this disposable camera with a zebra-printed paper cover from one of the lower shelves. A week later we had the roll developed. Most of them came out horrible, but those were the very first photographs I ever took. Sometimes I wish we kept them. When I was thirteen I got my first own camera, and I’ve been madly in love with photography ever since. 

Whenever I could, I would walk through the lush forest with my camera and tripod in a bag and just shoot. I let my mind run wild and took photos in our backyard, by the lakes and at the docks at midnight. It didn’t really matter where I was. I create and tell and document. Photography has taught me a lot. The ray of light that hits my window sill right before the sun goes down is beautiful. People are beautiful. Imperfections are beautiful. My hometown was never dull. 

I’m a twenty-year-old currently living in Bergen, Norway. And I like to chase light. 

Catch more of her photos on her photo blog > http://xinliphotography.tumblr.com/