'Just Me' project presents 'raw' images of people wearing no make-up
By Jung Da-min
For Jo Yong-jae, who has been taking various photos of people ranging from celebrities for commercial purposes to ordinary people for special occasions, the most fulfilling moment as a professional photographer is when seeing people change their social networking service (SNS) profile photos to those taken by him. Living in Paris from 2003 to 2015 before coming back to Korea, Jo found a special meaning in photography especially through taking snapshots of Korean travelers there, capturing their "precious" moments.
What he felt after coming back to Korea, however, was that many people are too obsessed with "refined" images, those edited through photo programs, even refusing to accept how they look in "raw" photos. Running his own studio in Seoul now, he found that people tend not to like photos of themselves taken by others while liking "selfies" ― those taken by themselves.
"Each person has his or her own imagination of how they look and it often matches well with their reflections they see through mirrors or their selfies," Jo said during a recent interview with The Korea Times in Seoul. "Selfies could easily satisfy people's expectations in terms of their own idealized self image as they can show an even prettier or cooler images of themselves."
Jo said many people these days have a desire to "display" themselves only through such idealized images while denying their "other parts" which could be their real charms once they accept them. He said he wanted others to also realize that their own charms could be found in "undesirable" or "raw" images of themselves.
This was how he launched a project titled "Just Me," a photo taking project of normal people under the themes of "no make-up" and "no Photoshop," where Jo takes photos of applicants wearing no make-up with only adjustment of the background lighting. Photo editing programs are used only to adjust brightness and color of the photos. About 50 people participated in the project conducted from January to March.
Cho did not charge the applicants for the photos but instead got their permission to publicly share the photos through online platforms, including Instagram. In fact, sharing the project photos is an important part of the project as he wanted to challenge people's obsession with refined images, a phenomenon especially rampant on SNS platforms.
"If we focus too much on commercial images where handsome or pretty models pose with nice figures, we could get a wrong idea that we are ugly if we do not have similar looks to them, thinking such commercial images are the right answers," Jo said. "I am not trying to give an answer to people through the project, but I just want to show them that there is no right or wrong and they can discover their own charm by looking into various parts of themselves."
By Jung Da-min
![Photographer Jo Yong-jae. Courtesy of Jo Yong-jae [@studio_ieul]](http://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/newsV2/images/202004/ed3d1490da7a44db9b78b83edf8f9f8a.jpg/dims/resize/740/optimize) |
| Photographer Jo Yong-jae. Courtesy of Jo Yong-jae [@studio_ieul] |
What he felt after coming back to Korea, however, was that many people are too obsessed with "refined" images, those edited through photo programs, even refusing to accept how they look in "raw" photos. Running his own studio in Seoul now, he found that people tend not to like photos of themselves taken by others while liking "selfies" ― those taken by themselves.
"Each person has his or her own imagination of how they look and it often matches well with their reflections they see through mirrors or their selfies," Jo said during a recent interview with The Korea Times in Seoul. "Selfies could easily satisfy people's expectations in terms of their own idealized self image as they can show an even prettier or cooler images of themselves."
Jo said many people these days have a desire to "display" themselves only through such idealized images while denying their "other parts" which could be their real charms once they accept them. He said he wanted others to also realize that their own charms could be found in "undesirable" or "raw" images of themselves.
This was how he launched a project titled "Just Me," a photo taking project of normal people under the themes of "no make-up" and "no Photoshop," where Jo takes photos of applicants wearing no make-up with only adjustment of the background lighting. Photo editing programs are used only to adjust brightness and color of the photos. About 50 people participated in the project conducted from January to March.
![Photographer Jo Yong-jae. Courtesy of Jo Yong-jae [@studio_ieul]](http://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/newsV2/images/202004/9b1cf728e4b14118a16bee4a2a405401.jpg) |
| A photo from photographer Jo Yong-jae's "Just Me" project, where Jo takes photos of people wearing no make-up and does not edit or make changes to the photos other than their brightness and color. Courtesy of Jo Yong-jae(@studio_ieul) |
![Photographer Jo Yong-jae. Courtesy of Jo Yong-jae [@studio_ieul]](http://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/newsV2/images/202004/466018f77a3e479780b7458512197a7e.jpg) |
| Another photo from photographer Jo Yong-jae's "Just Me" project / Courtesy of Jo Yong-jae(@studio_ieul) |
Cho did not charge the applicants for the photos but instead got their permission to publicly share the photos through online platforms, including Instagram. In fact, sharing the project photos is an important part of the project as he wanted to challenge people's obsession with refined images, a phenomenon especially rampant on SNS platforms.
"If we focus too much on commercial images where handsome or pretty models pose with nice figures, we could get a wrong idea that we are ugly if we do not have similar looks to them, thinking such commercial images are the right answers," Jo said. "I am not trying to give an answer to people through the project, but I just want to show them that there is no right or wrong and they can discover their own charm by looking into various parts of themselves."
