The Malaysian-born, London-based photographer discusses psychology, cultural heritage and what sets different places apart.
It’s a strange world we live in. In 2025, we still call the device we carry in our pockets ‘a phone’. But how much do we actually use it to make calls? For most of us, the smartphone is far more important as it’s a kind of mini-computer. Others, meanwhile, primarily see it as a high-end camera.
When it comes to high-end photography, the iPhone has long led the field, but others are now seriously rivalling it. Indeed, speaking to tech journalists at Milan Design Week last month, the broad consensus was that Chinese brand Xiaomi’s 15 Ultra, co-engineered with German camera company Leica, is now the best in town.
So when Xiaomi—which is relatively unknown in the UK but huge in Asia—sent me an invite to their latest event in London, I was keen to attend, particularly because this was not a typical product launch but an exhibition showcasing their latest flagship devices through the creative vision of photographer and Leica Ambassador Alixe Lay.
As someone who’s long admired Alixe’s evocative architectural photography, this opportunity was too intriguing to pass up. I was keen to chat about how she approached this collaboration and how she perceives mobile photography as evolving as an artistic medium.
Spirit of place
Born and raised in Malaysia, Alixe is a self-taught photographer who now lives in London. She first discovered photography as a teenager, documenting her friends and the Malaysian suburbs where she grew up. She went on to obtain a doctorate in Psychology at University College London before venturing into a career in photography.
Known for blending themes of cultural heritage and antiquity with contemporary sensibility, her style brings out the emotional truth of her subjects by using dramatised romantic visual language in documentary storytelling.
Above all, her work is characterised by an ability to capture what she describes as “the spirit of place”. This focus, she explains, didn’t emerge fully formed but has evolved gradually throughout her career.
“In the formative years of my practice, I was simply driven by a strong desire to document, whether it was my travels, the new places I visited, or my then-home, Bath,” she explains. “Over time, I began to recognise a pattern in what I was drawn to: the spirit of place.”
This recognition led to a deeper engagement with cultural heritage in her work. “And in capturing that spirit, I naturally found myself focusing on the cultural heritage of the places I visit, both tangible and intangible,” she continues. “It’s often what sets a place apart; its history permeates everything, from architecture and relics to urban design and how people move and interact within it.”
What makes this work particularly evocative is the emotional quality she brings to her images. “This connection often stirs in me a romantic nostalgia—a longing for an older, less modernised world—something I try to convey subtly through my work,” she shares.
Psychology meets photography
As you might expect, Alixe draws on her psychology background within her creative process. “During my PhD, I focused on how people’s choices and behavioural traces reveal patterns at scale,” she recalls. While it may seem far removed, that research background now informs how I observe and photograph, particularly in the small gestures and human traces that hint at the lives unfolding within spaces.”
This perspective extends to how she approaches composition and visual elements. “My understanding of cognitive processes, especially attention and perception, has helped me become more aware of the kinds of attention I exercise when creating work and how different types of attention can lead to different kinds of images,” she explains. “It’s also deepened my sensitivity to how colour, contrast and visual composition can evoke emotional responses in viewers.”
Photography is a highly subjective medium, and Alixe embraces it keenly. “I’m conscious that no image has a fixed meaning,” she stresses. Every viewer brings their own memories, associations, and lived experiences, and I find it exciting that an image can act like a half-finished canvas, one completed by each person who encounters it.”
Graphic qualities
For her collaboration with Xiaomi, Alixe created a series titled London in Leisure, exploring how people use public spaces in the city. She shares a specific moment from her shoot. “At Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall, the afternoon light was flooding through the huge windows, casting soft, elongated shadows across the floor,” she recalls. “Children were running and playing, and the scene took on this beautifully theatrical quality.”
Here, the technical capabilities of the Xiaomi 15 came in useful. “I was observing from an upper platform, using the telephoto zoom to pick out groups interacting below,” she explains. “I focused on waiting patiently for compositions to come together, and I knew I wanted to play with silhouettes, textures and light. Later in post-production, I accentuated the abstraction by increasing contrast and deepening the shadows, allowing the graphic qualities of the moment to come through.”
For Alixe, smartphones offer unique advantages that complement her approach to capturing authentic moments. “Depending on where you are in the world, people react differently to the device you’re carrying, whether it’s a camera or a smartphone,” she points out. “Often, I prefer to photograph moments as they naturally unfold, without drawing attention to myself, and that’s where a smartphone really shines: it allows moments to live a little longer before being disrupted.”
However, she acknowledges there are trade-offs. “I love the discrete nature of phones and the spontaneity they allow,” she says. “However, when I need to fine-tune settings like adjusting the shutter speed to capture movement, it can sometimes be slower or less intuitive than with a traditional camera.”
Shift in approach
However, technical challenges were only half the story behind this project. Alixe notes that one of her biggest challenges was photographing her home city with fresh eyes.
“When travelling somewhere new, everything is novel, and attention is naturally drawn outward,” she points out. “But you’re when shooting your own city, a place you know intimately, you have to consciously direct your attention, even when nothing is actively calling for it.”
This required a shift in her approach to observation: “Capturing the ‘every day’ required me to shift into a more deliberate, mindful way of seeing, to observe familiar gestures and moments with fresh eyes,” she explains. “It’s more effortful than reacting to novelty, but ultimately, it’s through this kind of attentive seeing that ordinary moments can be transformed into something extraordinary.”