[Joseonhee's Frame] If You Want to Go Far, Go Together

Published 07 Sep.2020 14:55(KST)

I have been with Giordano for 20 years. It is not easy for a brand and a photographer to come this far together. Egypt, 2001. (Provided by Joa Joa Studio)

Recently, many people have been telling me how "amazing" I am. In this advertising field where trends and people change rapidly, it’s not easy to maintain your position in the field for 25 years. Moreover, it’s surprising and astonishing that I have continued to have consecutive shoots even during the era of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). They are right, and I am grateful.

Since the digital age, fashion trends including photography have changed faster and become more quickly tiresome. Fashion magazine editors have become younger, while I have grown older. I wanted to shout that just as your youth is not a reward, my aging is not a punishment. Even the will to create a complete work with all the staff united for a single photo shoot, and the recognition that it is my work, seem to have long disappeared. Freelance staff such as photographers and hair and makeup artists are treated as "kkondae" (old-fashioned or bossy) from their early forties, so it has become natural and common for them to be excluded from younger staff. It’s surprising and remarkable that I, who am well past that age, am still actively working.

Of course, it was not easy, and I had many concerns after turning forty. How long could I continue to work actively? I did not want to retire and do something else or only personal work like the seniors who walked ahead of me. I wanted to enjoy the "energy of working together," the tension and the sound of my heartbeat on the morning of a shoot. I thought I had not found a clear answer on how to stay longer in this field.

In the meantime, after a few more years, I realized without noticing it myself... that I had been practicing the African proverb, "If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together." This saying applies to many parts of life, and photographers are no exception. Especially commercial photography is not made alone. Clients, models, art directors or editors, hair artists, makeup artists, stylists, set teams, marketing, and more. Usually, more than 30 to 40 people gather on the set. Each one of them is precious, but in my case, I am greatly influenced by the art director and hair and makeup artists with whom I directly discuss the concept and visual direction. So, in the days when communication was still rough and insufficient, I was often misunderstood by them, but after working together for 10 or 20 years, they and I have come to understand each other and continue to go forward together.

[Joseonhee's Frame] If You Want to Go Far, Go Together

During the past few difficult months when photographers have been going through tough times due to COVID-19, I recalled one by one the people who came to work with me. They were also people with long-standing relationships with me. Those who have worked steadily for over 20 years, those who went to other photographers and came back, those who always push me from behind, those who always walk hand in hand with me. Those who always send me trusting looks?they too are walking far together with me.

A few days ago, after a shoot, while having a simple dinner and a drink, an agency PD who started working with me after about ten years said,

"Your personality has really softened a lot~"

"Is that so? I guess I have been living while gradually realizing that to go far, you have to go together," I laughed.

I want to enjoy working in this field for a long time. I love this work so much, and I always feel alive and breathing when I work. Unlike age, which is just a number, my heart always stays in my thirties, which makes me feel this way even more. Like my longtime idol, the master Richard Avedon, I want to finish my life working on some project with my longtime partners after passing my eighties! Whether you are late or not, my partners, please let’s go far together for a long, long time!