The image of the Pitti Bimbo campaign, curated by artistic director Angelo Figus, belongs to the 'The Pink and Blue Project' by South Korean photographer JeongMee Yoon. It explores the conditioning of childhood, also through the chosen color-message combination, while preserving an ironic look.
For Pitti Bimbo, every edition, we are used to taking a series of photos consistent with the event's theme. This year has been different. Everything has been different; we found ourselves facing a digital-only edition and not having any chance to set up a photo shoot. We needed to work in an alternative way, but above all, we felt the need for a new kind of content. Angelo Figus, the artistic director, identified JeongMee Yoon for her ability to give depth to today's questions, while keeping an ironic look. She invites us to observe the world of childhood by changing our perspective and calling our attitude into question, asking us questions.
The image belongs to the larger 'The Pink and Blue Project' work, started a few years ago about gender conditioning.
We had a little conversation with JeongMee Yoon on the subject.
When did you start the 'The Pink and Blue Project' project, and why?
I started when, observing my five-year-old daughter, I found that she only wanted to wear pink clothes, chose pink toys, and found that her attitude was quite common. In the United States, in South Korea, everywhere, girls have a fatal attraction towards everything pink, regardless of their culture, ethnicity, background. Perhaps it is the result of commercial communications that involve children and their parents, knowingly or unknowingly, they wear pink as a way to affirm their feminine identity.
When will this project end?
It's moving forward... at the moment, I'm taking pictures of the same girls in their various stages of growth. It is a work divided into three phases: the first began in 2005, I photographed boys and girls with their pink and blue objects and clothes to investigate conditioning through the culture of consumption. The second phase portrays the same children four years later; and the third, which will be exhibited for the first time in New York, takes stock of the situation ten years later. Children have grown up, become teenagers. Some have remained tied to their tastes and propose the same model; others have changed how they express themselves; others have not accepted to be photographed, embarrassed by the camera, or because they have not found time to do it. Most of them were with me and decided to repeat the experience. While at the beginning I simply took note of the colors offered to children by society, in the third part of the project I follow their path of growth, their changes in physical appearance and tastes in relation to the objects they choose to surround themselves with. My new work goes more in-depth.
What about the photo chosen for Pitti Bimbo? Where was it taken, and who is the child?
The photo was taken in Gyeonggi-do, in South Korea, and the child is the son of a friend of mine. He was portrayed surrounded by his favorite objects and with his favorite costume, Captain America.
What would you like to wish children for their future?
To take care of the environment, preserve it, and try to live in a world without discrimination.
