Lídia Vives is a photographer who creates elaborate self-portraits. In these works of art, she wears multiple (metaphorical, and sometimes literal) hats, designing fashion sets that are immersive, that evoke different times and places, and spending hours and days and weeks on her clothes, accessories, and hairstyles.
With more than 125K followers on Facebook (as of January 2025) and nearly 40K Instagram followers, Lídia has a dedicated online following. She has also found success with events, talks, and exhibitions – she is a TEDx speaker, and her work has been exhibited in the Louvre and Saatchi Gallery. Her originals are popular with collectors in Germany, Italy, France, and all over the world!
Pivotal Moments
Lídia started doing artistic photography at age 16, and the first photograph she remembers where she was really able to implement her vision completely was about plastic surgery. It showed her in underwear sitting on a chair, holding scissors, with dotted lines on certain parts of her body representing sutures and incisions. She remembers posting it to Facebook, and it did very well – probably the first of her pieces to go “viral”, even before the concept was defined in terms of online media. She kept posting more photos online, and she has a dedicated fanbase that has grown over the years.
Lídia’s first exhibition happened in 2013; since then, her work has gone from strength to strength. Possibly her proudest moment was when she was invited for her first art fair at the Louvre. It had always been one of her biggest dreams to exhibit there. The experience wasn’t totally tension-free, though; the date coincided with the terror attacks in Paris, and the magnitude of that tragedy overshadowed everything else.
But Lídia’s career really took off during the COVID-19 pandemic. Strangely enough, this second huge milestone was to occur during a second – and even larger, global – tragedy. People spent more time online than ever before, and online sales of her prints and originals skyrocketed. Lídia also noticed that her global sales went up during this time, and people queued up to make their surroundings more beautiful, given that they had to stay at home all day.
The pandemic also saw Lídia create a topical piece that also served as a public safety announcement, reaching and educating millions of people. “Kintsugi-19” is a deeply layered piece, and unpacking everything it has to offer is a treat, while appreciating its impact on educating people – especially those with respiratory issues – to wear masks. Released, as it was, in 2020, when the pandemic was on everyone’s minds, it became very popular very quickly.
“Kintsugi-19” was inspired by Kintsugi, the Japanese technique of taking broken pottery pieces and binding them together using lacquer and silver or gold. It emphasises how fragile we are, and the imagery resonated with the millions of people who saw the photograph at a time in human history when all of us – even those who had always seen themselves as indestructible – realized that we had more cracks in our invincible armor than we realized, that one microscopic virus could make us as fragile as porcelain.
The traditional gold used in Kintsugi art takes on a new and expanded meaning in “Kintsugi-19”. The mask that Lídia wears is golden, and little threads of gold emanate from it, and spread downward till they form the outlines of her lungs, seen through the pottery-textured skin. This simple and yet elegant theme shows that visual storytelling will always trump oceans of words; “Kintsugi-19” makes it clear that masking up can repair the cracks that the virus can take advantage of, and reiterates that people with compromised respiratory systems, especially, should use masks whenever outdoors.
Strength rising out of fragility – that’s what got us out of the worst pandemic in recent memory, and that is what “Kintsugi-19” celebrates.
Artistic Themes and Easter Eggs
The topics that Lídia addresses in her artworks vary widely. From some of the most pressing topics of our time (in “Global WarNing”) to deeply personal life reflections (in “The Signature” series) to cross-cultural time capsules (in “Sakura”), each photograph is a still movie in itself, filled with rich nuggets of information.
Some of the most popular movies and TV shows have high re-watch value, where you can go back multiple times and marvel at how much care has been taken to add detail. Lídia’s photographs are like that as well; the first time, you will be captivated by the artistry of it all, at the excellence of the overall costumes and set design, and the strength and uniqueness of the main concept of each piece. But when you look deeper on a second viewing, you appreciate how hard she’s worked to make the environment feel authentic. And, of course, there are always the Easter Eggs; Lídia hides bees in each of her works of art, and there are also other touches that will make you smile when you discover them, like secrets that only you and the artist know.
Collectors love works of art that take on new shades of meaning on second and third viewings, that hold secrets and layers that cannot be accessed by the casual fan. A quick visual scan of Lídia’s works will yield a few obvious hidden bees, though some are much more subtle. There are also stylized bee icons as brand tools; for example, if you visit her Instagram page, you can see royal bee icons with crowns as the covers of each highlight collection. And, of course, her logo features a crowned bee positioned between the two words of her name, both written in a classic stylized font.
The search for hidden bees never really ends; a particularly clever example is from the current (as of February 2025) front page of Lídia’s website, which has the words – every mAsterPiece has Its secretS – only four letters are capitalized, and they spell out APIS – the genus to which honeybees belong.
The idea of hiding Easter Eggs in her art came to Lídia after she noticed that people were sharing her photos online without attribution, and that her followers liked her posts almost immediately after she posted them. Even though the latter problem might seem like a boon to many, Lídia isn’t interested in likes for likes’ sake; she wants people to analyze her art deeply, to observe them. It was then that her mother suggested that it might be a good idea to hide something in each of her pictures, and she loved the idea of a secret symbol.
Lídia’s choice of bees was a tribute to her first photograph that gained widespread recognition: “Honey Lips”. This was inspired by an Irving Penn work, and featured a self-portrait with a bee on her mouth. Lídia has always felt a special affection for bees because of how they never initiate attacks, but only defend themselves, leading to a fairly fearsome reputation. As a very serious person, she identifies closely with bees, and she also loves the fact that they are common symbols while talking about climate change, a topic that is very close to her heart. Finally, they were also the icons of the Barberini family, great patrons of the Baroque! Lídia feels very strongly that no animal can represent her better than the bee.
Preparation and Process
Lídia doesn’t just look like the characters she portrays in her photoshoots; she becomes them. She starts with researching the historical and social contexts in which those characters exist; she tries to get their clothes, their accessories, their hairstyles just right. Styling can take weeks.
As an auteur, Lídia is closely involved with every aspect of her creations. Concepting and executing one of her more elaborate photoshoots requires her to perform almost all the tasks that a film production does: at various times, she needs to be a set designer, a historical researcher, a costume designer, a makeup artist, the Director of Photography, a fashion consultant, a photographer, an overall director, a screenplay writer, and a photo editor.
But she loves it all.
Lídia believes that, if someone is creative, they can be creative in every aspect of their work. She does work with teams on some shoots, and that experience is different. For example, she isn’t yet a practiced makeup artist; when she works with an expert, she tends to request elaborate things that she might not try on her own. But working alone, on the self-portraits for which she is most famous, is still what she enjoys most. It’s not just work for Lídia, but also play, and she always has fun. Of course, working closely on every aspect of her self-portraits takes time, and some projects can take months to complete – both because there are many tasks to be done, and because she’s a perfectionist with a clear vision.
Even though Lídia is very serious about her work, and even though she immerses herself fully in any new project, her studio space is often very whimsical. She loves quirky and kitschy items, and some of her favorite studio items include flamingo-patterned wallpaper, one of those lucky Japanese cat figurines, a tiny Jeff Koons sculpture, dolls, a lamp with a golden monkey on it, and dolls of all kinds. Anything goes!
Spreading Climate Change Awareness
With “Global WarNing”, Lídia made several things come together to create magic: her own passion for making a difference in the global fight against the adverse effects of climate change, an innovative painting technique that created her most interactive piece ever, and a message that is crucially important for everyone in the modern world.
The green paint used on the leaves that form the bulk of the backdrop of “Global WarNing” is temperature-sensitive. When the ambient temperature of the mixed-media artwork rises above a certain limit, it turns brown, and the leaves look like they’re crackling, brown, dying. When the temperature goes back down, the leaves turn green again, but the piece really asks us a tough question: what if the things we’re doing to our environment are irreversible?
Art has always been the most powerful way to communicate complex messages that we take for granted, and “Global WarNing” makes the message very simple, by showing us exactly what will happen if humanity does not collectively act before it is too late: apathy and inaction will lead to a dead world.
As soon as the idea came to Lídia, she knew that it was a winner; she was so excited that she immediately started figuring out how to implement it. But that process wasn’t easy at all; it was even nightmarish at times. Finding the paint was relatively easy, but finding the perfect shade was not. The most challenging part was figuring out how to accurately execute the concept that was very clear in her mind.
Initially, the costume had a cloak with a hood, based on one of the visual inspirations for the piece – that of an old thermometer where a painting monk’s arm moved to point at various signs indicating different weather conditions. Lídia initially wanted to recreate that thermometer, but she eventually decided to create something entirely new. “Global WarNing” is still very special to her, and she hopes that people understand its meaning and significance.
“Midsommar”
In “Midsommar”, Lídia started with a unique concept: to create a sleeve of flowers that slowly invaded one side of her body. Always a perfectionist, she wanted the flowers to be real, instead of being added in post-production. It took hours to glue all of them on; plus, since they were to cover one whole hand and arm, she had only one of her hands to work with, and this was after the makeup was done. The final result was impressive; the only difference from her initial concept sketches was that the flowers were prioritized, visually, above all else in the scene.
Lídia has always felt that everything that can be done on set is better. Many artists would have added the flowers in post-production, especially given that the process of gluing them on in real life was so grueling. But for Lídia, Photoshop is just another tool in her inventory, and not the main one. She does not wish to criticize those who might have, in her place, added the flowers or other elements digitally, because that is art as well, and requires skill. She enjoys the process of handcrafting as many of the elements in her photographs as possible, and it’s a personal choice.
The flowers in “Midsommar” were glued on with special makeup adhesive, the kind that only comes off with alcohol. It was incredibly hard to remove all of them, and the smell of alcohol after she finally succeeded was unbearable. It was some consolation, of course, that the end result was one that she was very satisfied with, and the reactions from people all over the world just served to cement Lídia’s happiness.
Lídia has used flowers in her other work – for example, in “Sasha” – and her relationship with flowers is one she describes as strange. They are, of course, a good resource because they always work, but the symbolism she attaches to them is one that isn’t necessarily exactly like that in other works of art by other artists. She feels that they are a great metaphor for beauty, and the fleeting nature of beauty. They don’t last forever, and their moment of maximum splendor is very short. But we all love them.
Research and Accuracy
The backgrounds of Lídia’s photographs feel more like movie sets than like conventional backdrops – each object has meaning, and it is obvious that she has spent much time and energy researching the times and places in which her artworks are set, so that the worlds feel lived in and real. That’s also probably why her art feels so immersive; for a few minutes or a few hours, you live in a different world, an experience that usually only works of literature or film can provide.
For example, “Amber’ transports the viewer to a bygone era of American history, with strong visual callbacks to 50s and 60s American households. Lídia uses her take on the familiar backdrop to subvert expectations. The domestic scene is peaceful on the surface, with several disturbing undercurrents (including a “WANTED” poster, and a distant figure outdoors who matches the suspect’s description). The scene works so well precisely because it is well researched, and because it places you in the cozy suburban setting of old sitcoms without having to tell you. And that comes from an amalgam of influences, placed within the context of Lídia’s original ideas and art.
Many of her works are visually inspired by a cocktail of things she’s seen before and the popular culture that surrounds her. Lídia creates something totally different by bringing her creativity to different sources of inspiration, and being mindful of avoiding even unintentional plagiarism in this manner. For example, when she made “Amber”, she was watching “Desperate Housewives”, the series. Even though the era in which “Amber” is set is totally different, there was linguistic inspiration in that the photograph depicts, quite literally, a housewife who is uncomfortable in many ways beneath a shiny happy exterior.
“The Signature”
A picture might be worth a thousand words, but each of the six elaborate self-portraits that make up “The Signature” series have both a background self-portrait and thousands of smaller doodles and illustrations, together adding up to millions of word-equivalents. Together, they serve as both visual and textual journeys through important periods in Lídia’s life.
The aesthetic of any of the pieces in the collection feels simultaneously relatable and classic. All of us have doodled; some of us have filled journals and diaries and notebooks with columns of intricate drawings that were deliberately laid out to be as beautiful as possible: information and art at the same time. All six pieces in the collection feel like that, and they also feel like love letters to a past that now exists only in memory.
“The Signature” feels like an autobiography in many ways, one of which is its time-spanning ability. As children, we filled notebooks with cute doodles to distract from the boredom of classes. As adults, we doodle as well, but we also make rough notes that are more functional, to help us with work, planning, and life. Each piece in “The Signature” starts off with a black-and-white self portrait, and above that portrait is an extremely detailed layer of doodle-style illustrations in different media, including blue pen ink, marker, and even colored pencils.
“The Signature” also invites reflections on how almost anything can be a personal diary. We are used to thinking of diaries and journals as notebooks in which we write things every day. But, before paper was even invented, scrawled drawings on cave walls left their secrets for future generations to decipher, and Lídia uses portraits and illustrations to create a different kind of diary, one that is rich and layered and nostalgic, as are all the best personal accounts.
When you look at one of the pieces that make up “The Signature”, you notice new features with each repeat viewing. The color scheme of each artwork is different, and when they’re seen together, they feel like classic stamps from a collection. The signature bee is still present, and is definitely not as easy to find as in some of her other works. The art styles of the illustrations on Lídia’s body are also carefully chosen, a pastiche of some of her favorite tattoo aesthetics and other art styles.
Other Art Forms
Though social media knows Lídia best for her elaborate fine art and fashion photography self-portraits, she also creates photo series featuring herself and other models, and writes detailed synopses to go with these series. These have her trademark features – a big concept that hits you when you see it, and that you can keep coming back to, appreciating the little nuances. But the words add even more to the images, and they function as a second art form to accentuate the viewing experience.
For example, “The Stages of a Heartbreak” feels like all of us have felt after a relationship ends. It simultaneously feels like Lídia speaks to our experiences while navigating the tunnels of self-doubt, sadness, and dread that we fumble around in during the first hours and days and months after the breakup, and the words she wrote to accompany the series of photographs speak to our souls. But there is also affirmation and hope; while her words add detail to every brick of the dark tunnel, there is also the looking forward and beyond to the light that fills its terminus.
Lídia Vives: Solo Exhibitions
Lídia has exhibited – in solo and group formats – in multiple countries, and these have often become cultural events, with their impact extending beyond just visual art. For example, her first solo exhibition abroad (in Sweden) happened in May 2023. In a happy coincidence, one of her Swedish collectors recommended her name to UpOnWalls gallery, and they got in touch. Lídia feels that this is probably the best way to land an exhibition.
The show went really well, a memorable way to celebrate Lídia’s first exhibition abroad. UpOnWalls did multiple things well – printing her photographs as large as possible, offering Catalan cava to the attendees, and publicizing the event well, ensuring that a lot of interested people attended. Lídia interacted in person with her appreciative fans from Sweden, and she still looks back on the event very fondly to this day. It also had a long-lasting impact – she gained new collectors, set up new projects, and it was undoubtedly a great opportunity.
When Lídia sees her works traveling to countries she hasn’t even visited, or when new owners send her photos of how they look framed in their new homes, it feels fantastic. She loves seeing that someone values her art enough to want to see it constantly…the feeling is indescribable.
A Community of Art Enthusiasts
Lídia has legions of supportive followers across platforms, with hundreds of thousands of people engaging across her active Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn pages. The vast majority of comments talk about how visually striking the photographs are, about how people identify with different aspects of the pictures, about how they enjoy the rich color schemes and sometimes even the slightly unsettling natures of the worlds that she creates. It is also a supportive community, with people all over the world coming together to celebrate her many successes.
Of course, as with everything else on the internet, there are always a few trolls who crawl out of the woodwork to insinuate that millions of people only love Lídia’s art because of her external attractiveness, and not because of the artistry. She doesn’t give them the time of day, though. Some people think that only pretty people can do self-portraits, but that is very superficial, and minimizes the vast majority of the merit behind her art. Lídia recognizes that, sooner or later, beauty fades…her talent is something she has been honing every day. After a lifetime spent studying and working, she has learned to ignore the haters.
Lídia would like to thank…
…Pentax and Sigma, the first brands to trust in her work. She is also grateful to her first gallery, Fifty Dots, in addition to the many others that have hosted her artworks and exhibitions – the full list could be endless! She feels fortunate that so many have trusted her and admired her work, and she owes them everything.
She is also grateful to the artists whom she has always looked up to – for example, Miles Aldridge. She also loves the work of Annie Leibovitz, Tim Walker, and Steven Klein.
Links
Lídia Vives: Website: https://www.lidiavives.com/.
Lídia Vives: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lidia.vives/.
Lídia Vives: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lidiavivesphotography/.
Lídia Vives: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lidia_vives.