November 29, 2023
Xinyi Qin: Beauty Beneath the Surface
STORY BY Katya Mirsky / edited by emily trage
Xinyi (Dona) Qin (‘25) is a photographer from Shanghai, China. Through her photography, she strives to portray the world around her in an intimate, authentic manner and to share stories that were previously untold. At Ithaca College, Dona is a Documentary Studies and Production major and an assistant photo editor and photojournalist for The Ithacan. She also worked on the set of the 2023 Coca-Cola Refreshing Films Project, taking pictures behind the scenes.
Katya Mirsky sat down with Xinyi (Dona) Qin to discuss how she fell in love with photography and what her journey has taught her about both herself and her art.
KM: How did you first become involved with photography?
XQ: So, I think it was around sixth grade. My dad had a little Sony camera that he let me borrow. My teacher asked if there was anyone in our class who could take photos for some of the sports games and events, and I volunteered and took my dad’s camera. I think those were the earliest photos I took, and then I just started to be obsessed with photography.
KM: Did you continue just taking photos of sports for a while or did you evolve to other subjects?
XQ: I did evolve to other subjects. Actually, I’m still taking sports photos right now, but I did start to explore more with photojournalism, news, and other events.
KM: What do you like most about sports photography? Why have you continued to pursue that?
XQ: It’s just a moment you can’t duplicate, a moment you can’t stage. That’s what attracts me. I think it’s because I was a setter on the volleyball team when I was in high school, and I would always just imagine capturing the moment they spike the ball. From my setter’s position, it’s just so cool, that moment is so cool to me. I like to document that.
KM: Yeah, that is super cool, even from an outside perspective. Do you have a favorite photo or set of photos that you’ve worked on?
XQ: Oh...It’s really hard to choose. Whatever the latest photos I’ve taken are, those are my favorites. It keeps changing. I think my favorite ones right now are definitely the Coca-Cola photos I’ve taken. And then my second favorite set was for my Intro to Photography final assignment. I took nine portraits of a local artist, his name is Jim Sherpa. You know that giant lion sculpture? That was him. So, I went to take photos in his house in nine different places. His house is so magical, it’s like a maze. And then there’s one other one, a photo I took of our president, La Jerne. She was recognized for something last year around this time, and when the confetti fell on the stage, I took the photo. She was about to cry at that moment. I just really love that one.
KM: Wow, that’s cool that you got to do that! Did you take that photo for a project or for the school?
XQ: Yeah, it was for The Ithacan. I didn’t want to go because it was like 9 a.m. in the morning on a Sunday or a Saturday, but I was like, okay, I gotta go, and I ended up with this amazing photo.
KM: Is there a certain emotion you usually try to capture or convey through your photography?
XQ: That’s something I’ve been trying to explore throughout my photography journey. In the past, I didn’t have any passion or specific meaning I wanted to convey through my photos, I just wanted to take them and send them to my family and friends. You know, they’d receive them, they were happy with them. I was just documenting moments in life in the past. Now, I’m thinking about trying to connect my photos with society more––not to change society, but to give voices to vulnerable or minority groups.
KM: That’s definitely an admirable thing to try to do. Have you ever submitted photos to external organizations or entered any contests to try and promote your work more?
XQ: I did enter some contests in the past, but I really didn’t like the concept of the contest or competing against other people to win awards. I just don’t want my photos to have monetary value or to be judged like that.
KM: You mentioned that you started out using a Sony camera. What kind of camera and lens do you use now?
XQ: Right now I’m using a Canon camera, Canon 6D Mark II with a lens of 24 to 105mm. It’s really multifunctional. It can take sports photos. Sports usually use a 200 or 400mm lens, but this is a really good lens that can take coverage of most things like portraits, events, and outdoor stuff.
KM: How extensive is your editing process after you’ve taken the photos? Do you enjoy editing your own photos or is it something you don’t spend a lot of time on?
XQ: To be honest, before the Intro to Photography class, I’d never edit my photos, I’d just throw them into different filters. The filters would generate different colors and I’d just choose the best one. After the Intro to Photo class, I realized that there are so many elements of the photo that I can edit, like the lighting and the exposure. Fixing the exposure and editing for printing is really important. So from then on, I started to care more about editing. For the Coca-Cola film I had like 4,000 photos, and I think I picked 800 of them and gave them all at least the correct color balance, lighting, and exposure.
KM: How long did it take for you to edit all 800 pictures?
XQ: Actually, you can copy and paste the settings, so not too long.
KM: Oh, that’s a great feature, I was thinking you edited each picture individually!
XQ: Oh, no, no!
KM: Where do you want to take your photography in the future? I know you’ve talked about working on film sets like the Coca-Cola production and stuff like that, do you want to continue to do that in the future or go in a different direction?
XQ: I want to take my photography or at least my sense of beauty and my sense of aesthetics more in the direction of cinematography. I’m actually gonna be a DP [director of photography] for a student’s thesis film next year.
KM: Wow, that’s pretty impressive!
XQ: Yeah, I was surprised that he actually invited me to be a DP. And then I want to get into being a documentary DP as well. I really just want to get inspired from my own photos and take them from the static into the active and into emotion.
