Yeondoo Jung

Photographer born in Jinju (South Corea) in 1969, Yeondoo Jung transforms photography into a magical wand that, with the wave of his hand, casts a magic spell. His photos recreate the dreams of adolescents that he has met in cities around the world. His own world is made up of children’s fantasies scribbled on drawing paper — not a world of reality, but of faded dreams. His photosare careful, imaginative re-creations that bring to life the fragmented stories of people that come his way and tickle his ear and eye.

Jung’s new series of photos, “Wonderland” (2004), presents costumed adolescents posing in sets based as closely as possible on children’s drawings. He collaborates with many people to bring to life the boundless imagination in the drawings. For four months, Jung oversaw art classes in four kindergartens in Seoul and collected 1,200 drawings by children between the ages of five and seven. After pouring through them, he carefully selected 17 drawings and interpreted their meanings. Then he recruited 60 high school students by passing out handbills at their schools in which he invited them to act out the scenarios in the children’s drawings. In order to recreate faithfully drawing details such as dresses with uneven sleeves or buttons of different sizes, he convinced five fashion designers to custom make the clothing for the photo shoot. He also made props unlike any scale found in reality but similar to those in the drawings.

“Wonderland” changes fantasy into photographic reality without the aid of computer-generated graphics. The works, entirely made by hand, are a tremendous group effort similar to a stage production that captures the sudden changes in the actors’ forms, in the midst of people going about their lives against the backdrop of the city.