Work in the future
- Reflections on how the Better Lives themes might change how you work in the future;
As a student who is studying fashion photography, I was pondering how to apply better lives themes in the future. The easiest theme to apply would be diversity. I have been incorporating diversity in my works since I started taking photographs. My first fashion photography work was a drag queen in Korea, who is also a high school student. And my second work’s theme was a boy with laces, which is about exploring male sexuality by breaking gender boundaries. And for the future work, I’m going to capture the crossdressing scene in Korea and how it’s hidden and tabooed throughout the history of Korea. I believe representing sexual minorities is crucial especially in South Korea since LGBT culture has been disguised. And also, in the future, I am going to work with models with different body shapes and colors. In Korea, having bright skin and a slender body is a beauty standard. And I used to think that to make beautiful photos and portraits, one must use models with slender body types since models with slender body types were all I could notice in the runway. But as I was getting to know more photographers who take models with colors and different body types, I reckoned that representing all types of people in the world could be as beautiful as models with perfect hair, skin and slender bodies.
It might be harder to think about sustainability as a photography student but I thought of a couple of ways to reduce wastes. Instead of buying clothes from Topshop, COS, ZARA, H&M, which are my favorite brands when I work since they are selling clothes at reasonable prices, I would rather borrow clothes from vintages shops or small brands. And the other day, I watched the Netflix show called, Next in Fashion, and Daniel W fletcher, a menswear designer, used logos to alert world pollution. Likewise, I could include logos and words in my photographs to make a strong and direct political statement. Furthermore, using digital rather than using films would be a better way to reduce waste. But if I want to use films, I could take photos consciously to reduce film waste and reuse some darkroom materials and liquids. And when I print photos, I could use recycled papers instead of coated papers.
Lastly, I thought about ways to include my cultural background in my works in the future. I took inspiration from a photographer minhyunwoo, who is a Korean fashion photographer. He uses traditional Korean costumes and makeups and he takes photos in rural areas of South Korea. It might seem tacky but he uniquely incorporates traditional Korean culture and show the world how Korean cultures could be as alluring as other Asian cultures. In the future, I will devise the ways to show Korean culture and heritage.