Collage, Happy Together [Photo by Wing Shya/Provided to China Daily]

Photographer Wing Shya has been at the leading edge of Hong Kong's cultural and aesthetic landscape for the last two decades and helped to define it. He's the go-to image-maker for film studios, magazines, celebrities and numerous campaigns for clothing labels at the intersection of high and low fashion, as well as being the father of two daughters. Currently his solo exhibition Wing Shya: Acting Out, 25 Years Behind the Camera, is showing at the Shanghai Center of Photography until January 10, 2018, complemented by a new book featuring more than 300 exclusive images from his quarter-century career.

Far from being the self-promotional artistic type, Shya comes across as being humble and inclusive, authentic and discrete - preferring to spend time with friends over drinks after a shooting rather than analysing his work. CDLP got to spend time at the photographer's studio - where he shared his little-known more philosophical, reflective side, and his normally elusive thoughts about his work.

The book project was initiated by my friend Shelly Verthime. The whole project took two-and-a-half years. I gave her all my work on a hard disk and thought it was so inconsistent. "Good luck to her!" I was touched by how she's compiled everything. I didn't change anything.