Huang Jing, 25, who started shooting in 2004, has already won impressive prizes in the field, including Best New Artist of Leica Oskar-Barnack in 2011, the first Chinese person to win the prize in 32 years.

He graduated from Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in 2010, by which time he had already held two personal photo exhibitions and published an individual photo selection.

Huang Jing said photography is a kind of art that's easy to get started but difficult to become professional in, but that's the charm of it.

He considers photography as more like a spiritual practice such as yoga. Photographers should balance various factors before pressing the shutter.

He said he is most influenced by Klavdij Sluban from France, Yamamoto Masao from Japan and Zhang Zhaotang from Taiwan. He prefers black and white photography and likes shooting freely.

Huang said he can remember the scenes and exposures of all 130,000 of his pictures because he put his heart into every click.

"A photographer should develop his accomplishment steadily and improve self-cultivation continuously," Huang said. "From simple to pure, I have a long way to go."