Photographer : Ye Rin MokYe Rin sites : Photography / Tumblr / Twitter / Facebook
Why Ye Rin Mok ? The reason I am going to give you is really instictive. I was looking for new photographers and ended up finding her in a list made by a fellow photographer, Ryan Pfluger. When confronted to a list, instead of going through it starting with the first name I see, I always choose people names that my ears enjoy. And Ye Rin seemed pretty familiar to me as it sounds korean, I wasn't sure of it until I visit her Facebook page where I saw some hangul (korean letters).
I don't know if Ye Rin has been raised in the USA or in South Korea but I do feel something which is not linked with the occidental culture in her aesthetic. I don't think I can't explain it well but I will try. Being really curious about korean culture I digged into its dramas and history, through those two canals I discovered its poetry and literature. I was particularly touched by their poetry where a lot of metaphors and comparisons are used to depict things, feelings, people in the simplest and yet most beautiful way ever. And in my opinion to be able to reach such an aesthetic of simplicity and refinement, contemplation must be part of their culture.
Ye Rin pictures are simple BUT not plain. I have seen a lot photos of flowers, trees, landscapes by her and watching them I had the feeling she was in a state of contemplation when photographing all this. I feel like through her pictures Ye Rin allows us to watch carefully every detail, as if she was slowing down the time for us. This is exactly the same feeling I had while reading korean poetry : time is slown down so that the reader has the time to contemplate everything around. Notice that I didn't say stop but slow down because if you stop it, it means there is no movement, it's dead. That is also why I think Ye Rin pictures are not static but in movement.
What I'm seeing.The lady at the center of the picture is Julie Newmar. I think most of you that are in your twenties must have hardly heard about her. If I were not a big fan of Eartha Kitt I would have never known her. If you ask me why I mentioned Eartha, it is because those two women have one thing in common : Catwoman. Both impersonated the character of this very charming, attractive, purring and yet ambiguous heroine.
Seeing this picture I was really surprised to see Julie Newmar in an other context than the one I used to picture her in, understand here as Catwoman. Sometimes because you are used to see someone in a certain context, you hardly can picture him/her in an other one and that what happened with Julie Newmar when I saw this picture. The fact she has actually aged didn't disturb me, it was just that in my mind even older I still considered her as Catwoman.
This picture just broke this (narrow minded) vision of mine and I am really grateful to Ye Rin to show me Julie Newmar under an other light.
This photograph has something very cinematographic in my opinion. From the angle chosen by Ye Rin I can almost see a movie framing in which the film-maker invites you to enter his character world. Here it is an invitation to discover Julie Newmar world wihich seems to be centered on gardening. I believe I feel this cinematographic approach because of the flowers on the first plan that are blurred, then the more you approach Julie, the neater is the image. Though there is a lot of green, this is not the color I am interested in here, what really attracts my attention are the flowers which have soft shades that are going from white color to a very light red one. If not for this touches of colours, I think Julie Newmar would have looked like one of the leaf componing this garden.The light is still soft, so I guess this shot has been done in the morning (so hope I'm right !). What I like about this light is that it is enough present to make Julie noticeable as the main subject of the picture but also soft enough to make us understand that though she is the main character here, nature is her element and as such it also deserves to be noticed. It is as if nature and Julie were the two main characters of this "movie" captured by Ye Rin.
I appreciate Julie posture which seems to be in contemplation in front of her garden. And while watching her I can't help but think of the work Candide, or Optimism by Voltaire which ends with this sentence : "cultivate [your] garden". For me, here, this sentence means taking time to observe, to contemplate what surrounds you to better understand the world you are living in and finding your own happiness. For Voltaire, this sentence was a metaphora describing the writing process of the Encyclopédie.
And for you what does this sentence means ?
