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A PHOTOGRAPHIC AND TEXTUAL PROJECT ON IDENTITY AND IMMIGRATION THROUGH THE LENS OF THE KOREAN DIASPORA THE KYOPO PROJECT FEATURES A SERIES OF OVER 200 STANDARDIZED FULL-BODY PORTRAITS OF KYOPO FROM AROUND THE WORLD. IT SHOWS EACH SUBJECT IN THEIR "ANALOGICAL PLENITUDE", AS ROLAND BARTHES WOULD SAY, AND BETRAYS/DISPLAYS THE INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE PHOTOGRAPHER AND THE SUBJECT. THE INDIVIDUALS ARE POSED FRONTALLY, THEIR EYES RETURNING THE CAMERA'S AND THE VIEWER'S GAZE, AGAINST THE STATIC BACKDROP OF THE PHOTOGRAPHER'S STUDIO. THUS, EACH SUBJECT CONNECTS WITH AND MIRRORS THE OTHERS, WHILE ALSO REFLECTING THEIR INHERENT DIFFERENCES AND AWARENESS OF THEIR SIMULTANEOUS CONTEMPORARY VISIONS AND EXPERIENCES. THE CLEAR AND STANDARDIZED COMPOSITION ALLOWS THE VIEWERS TO FOCUS IN ON AND PROJECT ONTO THE SUBJECTS, ELICITING QUESTIONS ABOUT THEIR BACKGROUNDS AND STORIES. RANGING IN AGE FROM TEEN TO SEPTUAGENARIAN, THE SUBJECTS ARE NOVELISTS, ACTORS, POLITICIANS, COMEDIANS, ATHLETES, EXECUTIVES AND RETIREES - SOME WERE BORN AND RAISED IN THEIR RESPECTIVE COUNTRIES AND SOME ARE MORE RECENT ÉMIGRÉS. THE STRIKING DIVERSITY OF THE GROUP - THE SUBJECTS DO NOT APPEAR TO HAVE MUCH IN COMMON OTHER THAN THEIR KOREAN ANCESTRY - CHALLENGES THE IDEA OF A MONOLITHIC, "AUTHENTIC" KOREAN IDENTITY AND STIMULATES EXPLORATION AND A RENEWED PERCEPTION OF WHAT IT MEANS TO BE KOREAN AND A CITIZEN OF THE WORLD. THE KYOPO PROJECT ALSO POSES THE QUESTION OF HOW KYOPO NEGOTIATE THE SOMETIMES CONFLICTING EXPECTATIONS AND SENSIBILITIES ARISING FROM THEIR INTRINSIC MULTI-CULTURAL IDENTITY. FOREWORD BEING A KYOPO IS BEING PART OF A TRIBE, FOR WE ARE TIED TOGETHER BY OUR EXPERIENCE, RACE, CULTURE AND ETHNICITY IN A SPECIFIC WAY. INDEED, THE INDIVIDUALS WHO APPEAR IN THIS BOOK REPRESENT THE COMPLEX AND RANDOM INTER-WEAVINGS OF THIS TRIBE; TAKEN AS A WHOLE, THIS GROUP IS NOT MEANT TO SUGGEST A REPRESENTATIVE GROUP, BUT SOMETHING MUCH MORE INTERESTING: IT IS A VISUAL AND TEXTUAL EXPRESSION OF AN ORGANIC WEB OF RELATIONAL CONNECTIONS. PUT IN ANOTHER WAY, THE PROJECT BEGAN WITH A SINGLE PERSON BEING PHOTOGRAPHED. THAT PERSON WENT ON TO RECOMMEND OTHERS, WHO WENT ON TO RECOMMEND OTHERS, AND SO FORTH, UNTIL THE ONE BLOOMED INTO MORE THAN TWO HUNDRED SUBJECTS, AND THE INTRICATELY OVERLAPPING AND INTERCONNECTING RELATIONSHIPS OF A CERTAIN KYOPO COMMUNITY IS WHAT THE WORK HAS PRODUCED... IT INCLUDES KYOPOS WHO HAVE LIVED IN COUNTRIES BESIDES AMERICA, INCLUDING ARGENTINA, CANADA, CHINA, DENMARK, FRANCE, INDIA, JAPAN, THE UK, THE PHILIPPINES, CUBA, AND BRAZIL. THERE ARE KYOPOS ADOPTED INTO WHITE FAMILIES, MIXED-RACE KYOPOS, AND A RANGE OF AGES FROM TEEN TO SEPTUAGENARIAN. PROFESSIONS INCLUDE BANKERS, A CHEF, A HAT DESIGNER, TAE KWON DO INSTRUCTORS, A HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYER WHO REPRESENTS THE MUSLIM COMMUNITY, WRITERS, A WELL-KNOWN ACTOR. SOME CAN SPEAK KOREAN, SOME CANNOT, AND SOME SPEAK ONLY A CHILD’S VERSION OF KOREAN EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE ADULTS. SOME HAVE KOREAN FIRST NAMES, SOME HAVE BOTH AMERICAN AND KOREAN NAMES, ONE PERSON, CABIN GOLD KIM, HAS A NAME HIS PARENTS CHARMINGLY MADE UP FOR HIM... KYOPO LIFE, YOU WILL SEE, CONTINUALLY CHANGES AS THE INDIVIDUAL AND ALSO THE WORLD CHANGES.WHAT AT FIRST GLANCE APPEARS TO BE A BOOK ON "KOREANS" AND "KOREAN CULTURE" WILL PROVE TO BE INSTEAD ONE ENCOMPASSING THE WORLD. FOREWORD SEGMENT BY ©MARIE MYUNG-OK LEE. INTRODUCTION SHADOW AND SCALE IN THE KYOPO PROJECT CYJO'S THE KYOPO PROJECT...CONTAINS A SERIES OF PICTURES THAT CAN BE VIEWED SINGLY OR IN A VARIETY OF GRIDS, CONFIGURED FOR PARTICULAR SPACES,YET GRIDS IS NOT QUITE ACCURATE BECAUSE IT SUGGESTS A REGULAR, RECTANGULAR NETWORK OF FRAMES WHILE, WHEN THE KYOPO PICTURES ARE PUT TOGETHER, THERE IS INSTEAD THE ILLUSION OF PEOPLE STANDING IN RANK ON A SUCCESSION OF SINGLE FLOORS, SO THAT EACH STOREY, THE VIEWER SEES A GROUP PORTRAIT. THE EFFECT IS QUITE DIFFERENT FROM A TRADITIONAL SCHOOL OR WORK GROUP PHOTOGRAPH, SINCE THE FIGURES STAND A FORMAL, UNIFORM DISTANCE FROM EACH OTHER (A LITTLE LIKE SOLDIERS AT EASE ON A PARADE GROUND), AND SINCE EACH OF THE SUBJECTS HAVE BEEN PHOTOGRAPHED AS AN INDIVIDUAL AND ONLY LATER ASSEMBLED. THERE IS ONE CURIOUS FEATURE OF THE KYOPO GROUP WHICH MAY STRIKE THE VIEWER, ESPECIALLY IF THEY BRING TO MIND CONVENTIONAL GROUP PHOTOGRAPHS: ALL THE SUBJECTS ARE OF ABOUT THE SAME HEIGHT. LEAVING ASIDE FOR THE MOMENT THE ISSUE OF SUBJECT MATTER, THE PICTURES FIT SNUGLY INTO A WIDESPREAD GENRE IN CONTEMPORARY ART PHOTOGRAPHY TO WORK IN TYPOLOGICAL SERIES, TO PRODUCE PICTURES IN WHICH THE ARTIST SUPPLIES A UNIFORM FRAME, SO ALLOWING VARIATION IN THE SUBJECTS (THEIR CLOTHING, POSE, BODY SHAPE AND FACIAL EXPRESSION) TO COME TO THE FORE. THIS TYPE OF PHOTOGRAPHY HAS A RELATION TO ANTHROPOLOGICAL PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE IMPERIAL PAST IN WHICH THE SUBJECTS, WHO WERE CLEARLY SEPARATED BY RACE OR CLASS FROM THE INTENDED VIEWERS, WERE COERCED OR INDUCED TO BE PHOTOGRAPHED, AND WHERE THE INTEREST WAS IN CLASSIFICATION AND MEASUREMENT OF TYPICAL SPECIMENS. IN MUCH TYPOLOGICAL CONTEMPORARY ART PHOTOGRAPHY, THERE IS NO CLEAR SEPARATION OF THE VIEWER FROM THE SUBJECT, AND THE PICTURES MAY ENCOURAGE VIEWERS TO THINK ABOUT HOW PEOPLE PRESENT THEMSELVES , ESPECIALLY BEFORE A LENS, MEANS, HOW AWARENESS OF ONE’S SELF-IMAGE MAY BECOME A TRAP, AND HOW ARTISTIC VIEWERS (AND THE CREATOR OF THE PHOTOGRAPHS ) MAY APPARENTLY ESCAPE IT IN MOMENTS OF HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS. INTRO SEGMENT BY ©JULIAN STALLABRASS. BIOGRAPHIES PHOTOS AND TEXT BY CYJO: CYJO IS A KOREAN AMERICAN WHO IMMIGRATED TO THE US IN 1975, ONE OF THE 2.3 MILLION KOREAN AMERICANS HERE. CYJO’S WORK HAS BEEN EXHIBITED NATIONALLY AND INTERNATIONALLY AT THE SMITHSONIAN’S NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, WASHINGTON, D.C., T. ART CENTER, BEIJING AND THE KOREA SOCIETY, NEW YORK. HER WORK HAS BEEN FEATURED IN NUMEROUS PUBLICATIONS AND BROADCASTS INCLUDING A+A MAGAZINE, ELLE KOREA, ELOQUENCE MAGAZINE, GLOBAL TIMES, LA LETTRE DE LA PHOTOGRAPHIE, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, THE WASHINGTON POST, CBS NEWS AND PBS SUNDAY ARTS NEWS. SHE HAS LECTURED AT THE KACC, THE 3RD ASIAN AMERICAN CONFERENCE, THE KOREA SOCIETY, MIAMI UNIVERSITY, THE NEW YORK LIFE COMPANY, NYU APA, OVERSEAS KOREAN FOUNDATION, AND THE RUBIN MUSEUM OF ART. FOREWORD BY MARIE MYUNG-OK LEE: MARIE TEACHES AT THE CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF RACE & ETHNICITY IN AMERICA AT BROWN UNIVERSITY. FOUNDER AND FORMER BOARD PRESIDENT OF THE ASIAN AMERICAN WRITERS’ WORKSHOP, SHE IS THE AUTHOR OF THE NOVEL SOMEBODY’S DAUGHTER. ESSAYS AND REPORTING HAVE APPEARED IN THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE, NEWSWEEK, THE WASHINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE ATLANTIC AND SLATE. INTRODUCTION BY JULIAN STALLABRASS: JULIAN IS A WRITER, CURATOR, PHOTOGRAPHER AND PROFESSOR IN ART HISTORY AT THE COURTAULD INSTITUTE OF ART. AUTHOR OF ART INCORPORATED, INTERNET ART, PARIS PICTURED, AND GARGANTUA, STALLABRASS WRITES REGULARLY FOR PUBLICATIONS INCLUDING TATE, ART MONTHLY AND THE NEW STATESMAN. A BOARD MEMBER OF ART HISTORY, NEW LEFT REVIEW AND THIRD TEXT. HE CURATED THE 2008 BRIGHTON PHOTO BIENNIAL, MEMORY OF FIRE: IMAGES OF WAR AND THE WAR OF IMAGES. TESTIMONIALS |