Hong Kong child photographer gains 800,000 Instagram followers
SingTao · 1 SOURCES1 day ago4 MIN
Summary
Seven-year-old Hong Kong photographer Yumi, whose Chinese name is Lee Tsz-yam (李梓昕), has attracted nearly 800,000 Instagram followers in under 10 months while still attending primary school. Her portraits range from celebrities and visiting footballers to tourists and a 95-year-old flower seller in Yau Ma Tei, with her mother saying the most important thing is preserving the reality of each moment rather than chasing AI-generated perfection
Key Points
- Yumi is a Primary Three pupil at a Band 1 school in Kowloon, and her mother described photography as only one of many packed extracurricular interests
- Her mother first encouraged her to approach strangers in Central at age five to build confidence and practise English, gradually shaping her relaxed street-portrait style
- People Yumi has photographed include Manchester City players visiting Hong Kong, actor Roger Kwok Chun-on, actor Simon Yam Tat-wah, mainland actor Xiao Shunyao, tourists, graduates and elderly residents
- Her equipment progressed from a children's camera to a Fujifilm X-T5, a Ricoh GR IV and a Hasselblad X2DII 100C medium-format mirrorless camera
- Her mother said one especially memorable subject was a 95-year-old flower-selling woman on Saigon Street in Yau Ma Tei, whom Yumi approached after asking about her life
Why It Matters
For Hong Kong readers, Yumi's rise offers a rare social-media story centred on face-to-face contact, observation and empathy rather than viral stunts or heavily edited images. Her mother's comments also speak to a wider debate over AI imagery, arguing that lived experience, consent and imperfect reality still carry value that technology cannot replace