Childhood Virtue - 2019
Inkjet print on matte (digital retouch of a 35mm photography originally taken in 1995), 35inch x 45inch.
Showed in Fort Mason Schafer Gallery, San Francisco, CA
 
The government slogan “잘 살아보세! (Let’s Live Well!)” enflamed passion for success in every middle class household in South Korea during the 1970s. Old thatched houses in rural areas were reconstructed into modern concrete buildings and the first freeway was laid to connect two largest cities in the peninsula. Today the national phrase symbolizes the vigor that rapidly industrialized the country, which is now called the ‘miracle of Han River.’ Childhood Virtue reiterates the desire for well-being my forefathers and mothers have demonstrated in their era. The baby in this photo was born in 1993 in Seoul, as the offspring of the spirited generation. His outfit and the facial expression summarize the legacy he is about to bite.