Siyeon Park’s series reminds one of August Sander’s portraits of the People of the 20th Century, a typological look at school-going girls in Korea. The girls bear an eerie resemblance to each other, blank stares fixated on their faces.
Su-yeon Choi: Who cries all the time over everything
Ji-in Kim: Who hates to wear school uniform
Na-hee un: Who doesn’t know what to do in the future
TOP TO BOTTOM, from (“colorless“)
© Siyeon Park, 2009
From her statement:
When I was young, I couldn’t even have a meal with my family…so I ate at my mother’s car all the time on the way to the academy. I didn’t know that what am I doing here and why should I do this for 19 years. I just did because everyone was doing the same thing…I was like a robot in a factory. This story is not only mine but of all Korean students.
While it contains elements of teenage angst and feelings of being lost in the world, I’m sure it could easily be applied to most people out there. How many of us know our ultimate destination? We’re all just groping around blindly in this world and most times, we have to fit into the mould that society imposes on us.
3 Comments
Beautiful work. Thanks for your excellent blog posts & sharing so many wonderful images & their creators.
I think this is a very strong piece of work. The text below the images really gives it an interesting feel. It’s like reading their thoughts. You could look at the pictures and just see blank stares and not think about the thoughts behind them or just speculate as to what the thoughts are, but adding what the girls really think and feel makes this a very multi-dimensional piece.
Looking at their plain expressions, it’s hard to garner any sort of information as to their true feelings at that present moment. The inclusion of text adds a depth to each piece, as you gain an insight to their inner most feelings and really makes this piece of work stand out.