"To live together, To dream alone"

Shin Suejin, Ph. D.(Psychology of Photography)

My life, is it a choice of mine? Or is it given by another entity? We must always ponder this question since we are destined to be with another from the beginning of our lives. Our parents, the Saemaul generation, inherited us the faith in prosperity through healthy life plan. However, the relative prosperity which came with the faith inevitably became the foundation of agony and conflict. In contrast to the "Survival," the effort for the "Better life" has countless choices like a complicated homework. Therefore, today, the Korean mid-generations are bound to be lost in questions about what values and standards that they should follow.

When we encounter a problem that calls for a help, we often look around. We look for people who are similar to us, and alsopeople whom we look up to. Precisely, we observe how our reference groups solve the problem and we accept it. At this time, proximity is the most classical standard for picking out a reference group. In other words, we assimilate with the people close to us and thus reduce the stress of conflicts. This so called group assimilation through residential areas, became a maincharacteristic for the recently fast growing "new cities," which are formed by the overpopulation of metropolises. The key elements which categorize the life of the resident of these "new cities" are not their origins, but that they live there now. Since to these residents, the "new cities"were not given like destiny but the residents themselves made a choice through social, economical, and cultural conditions and desire.

Lee Sun Min's exhibition unravels the stories about young mothers and their daughters who live in the "new cities." On the surface, the pictures describe ordinary middle class Korean housewives. Stereotypical Korean housewives which are overly devoted to their children's education, neatly decorate the house, and diligently mind their appearance. One can assume her devoted care of her house. And importantly, Lee Sun Min captured the scenery of the children in the midst of these harmonies. The expressionless and stiffness of the mother and her children shows no sentiments. However, only the clothes that they are wearing, the decorations, European or Disney-like furniture, and bookshelves full of educational books confirm their existence. The similarities in the installation of furniture around the characters clearly show the Artist intention to portray the characters' postnatal twin ness.

Lee Sun Min installed large size cameras and enough lighting to illustrate the flatness of the room. In addition, she carefully located even the tiniest items to portray herintention to show the balance between both sides. Therefore, Lee created a scheme where the mistress of the house and her other self, her daughter, are only appeared as a part of the house. Additionally, the house delivers unique combination between Korean style floor and Snow White's pink castle, British sofa with Samsung air conditioner. '

Today, the Korea's mid-generation housewives are stuck in between freedom and confinement, consumption and temperance, and family and individual. Lee herself, in late thirties, is also a mother of two children in Bundang, one of the biggest "new cities." She confesses the inner conflicts within her reference groups by their ways of life. As the parents centered nuclear family transformed into children centered family, the housewives were freed from their husbands however, completely restrained by their children. Thus, theeducation of their children is always the most important issue for these housewives. Even though, the convenient and comfortable city environment provides them to be rational and efficient consumers, however, their "efficient" expenditure is somewhat difficult to be truly theirs. It is because to these women, a true spending mostly concerns their children. In these circumstances, they sometimes dream out of their family frame, but it is only a dream. To these housewives, it is too hard to just dream away from this splendid reality.

Photographer Lee Sun Min's "new city families" can be an aspiration to some people. So it is not easy to define their ways of life. Yet, it is clear that nobody wants to be the expressionless, and stiffness character in the photographs. Through these pictures, the Author, with tranquil and indifferent tone, asks us what these families really need to discover the true happiness. So she asks all the family members to sympathize with one another as a human being. And Lee hopes and asks the housewives to find a true face of their children, and indirectly tells them that it is their job to bring true happiness in this truly beautiful house.