DAY 18

PHOTOGRAPHIC CURIOSITIES

A Child’s Dream Comes to Life

DRAWING FROM THE WELL OF YOUTHFUL IMAGINATION

For all who find themselves exasperated with the faceless mechanization of modern society, photographer Yeondoo Jung suggests a refreshingly human return to childlike innocence.

The Korean photographer collected several drawings created by kindergarteners in Seoul for the 2005 series, Wonderland. He then staged real-life reenactments of the drawings, creating live photographs of each child’s fantasy. The scenes were recreated right down to the smallest detail (tailors were even hired to create costumes that mirrored the often mismatched clothing depicted in the children’s drawings).

By exploring the fantasies, dreams, and wishes of children and adolescents, the photographer seeks to counteract the modern forces that threaten to hammer down the human soul into flat uniformity.

A similar vein of inspiration lies behind Jung’s series, Bewitched. The photographer asked adolescents to tell him what their dream was, no matter how seemingly unattainable; he then used props, creative costumes, and scenery to create these scenes around their authors. One high-school student who longed to visit the South Pole was shot wearing fur clothing next to a papier-mâché igloo and two live husky dogs. On at least one occasion, Jung’s work bled across the boundary between fantasy and reality—after one young boy from Istanbul was photographed in a portrayal of his dream job as a future math teacher, a local bank donated a grant for the student to attend college.¹ —DJS