Born in Korea, raised in Kuwait and currently living in New York, photographer Joeun Lee includes both manipulated and untouched images in her body of work to blur the boundaries of ‘what really happened’, ‘what didn’t happen’, and ‘what should have happened’. The photographs do not describe a particular place in the world but rather the world that could have been. It communicates to traumas—physical and emotional—that haunt people and the inability to be fully present in the present.
“This work stems from a diseased place that lives under the flesh. Hints of this state of unhealthiness can be sensed on the exterior but is merely translated as a feeling of ambivalence—nothing close to a concrete diagnosis. The nature acts as a body, a rogue vegetation reflecting the arteries and veins of humans. There is a clear consciousness in the nature within the photographs which becomes almost machine like. My work is about false nature, the rot and the clear cosmetic veil that renders it almost-perfect in a strange futuristic way.”
For more information of Joeun’s work check out her website.