Fine Art: Conceptual (PROFESSIONAL) - HONORABLE MENTION
Phantom
Photo © Doh Lee
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Phantoms as the title are people with invisible lives. They are the ones who live without an identity. Despite being here, present, governments or institutions do not validate their presence, so they wander. I took portraits of North Korean refugees living in the UK to capture their Korean heritage and to attempt a form of freeing the captives from political and interpersonal divides.
These portraits are partly my exploration of the experience of defectors as a time of darkness. I am concerned with the limits of their identity, of their belonging, and the possibilities to maintain social or cultural relations. My portraits seek natural parts of their identity, in an effort to understand the material consequence of difference, as a significant mark of individuality. The blur reflects existential fear and anxiety; my inspiration came from surrealist abstraction, and a reflection on the corruption of human spirit.
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Phantoms as the title are people with invisible lives. They are the ones who live without an identity. Despite being here, present, governments or institutions do not validate their presence, so they wander. I took portraits of North Korean refugees living in the UK to capture their Korean heritage and to attempt a form of freeing the captives from political and interpersonal divides.
These portraits are partly my exploration of the experience of defectors as a time of darkness. I am concerned with the limits of their identity, of their belonging, and the possibilities to maintain social or cultural relations. My portraits seek natural parts of their identity, in an effort to understand the material consequence of difference, as a significant mark of individuality. The blur reflects existential fear and anxiety; my inspiration came from surrealist abstraction, and a reflection on the corruption of human spirit.
BACK TO GALLERY
