Korean Americans ‘Un’-Framed

2019-Ongoing

As I was heading into my final year in college,

I felt like I needed to have figured out who I was more than ever.

I became fervent to answer my own existential question,

“Who am I, and what does it mean to be Korean American?”

I was inspired to create this body of work from the book “In My Room” by Adrienne Salinger. Her book consisted of photographs she had taken of teenagers in their bedrooms and in doing so she was questioning how much a room could reflect a persons subconscious thoughts. I took on a similar approach of documenting young collegiate Korean Americans in their private bedroom spaces but extended the capacity of impression by allowing for the subjects to also choose public outdoor spaces based on their level of comfort. Also, I wanted to clearly demarcate the photographs with the sign of the artists touch (interference in the image making) to make a clear reference to the impossibility to ever truly look at and understand anything or anyone without our bias. The photographs are digitally imbedded with their English names and things they have said during my conversations with them. I did this to provide more context to the subjects whilst taking away some credibility from myself as a story teller as it becomes a secondary source through my telling the tale and others having to hear and believe my story and framing.

What can you learn about the person through the contexts available

and how can you be sure of what you know?