Issue 21 – In Conversation with .. 10!

Transitioning from digital photography to
a printed book is a big step. What were some
challenges you faced during this process and how
did you overcome them?
Finishing it. When you sit on a project for too long,
you lose interest and you’re unable to make an
objective judgments. I felt like it wasn’t worth putting
out, I was going to scratch the whole thing.
I wasn’t in the right headspace either. My state of
mind didn’t reflect the messages I wanted to convey
in “Love Letters,” it didn’t feel authentic anymore,
and I couldn’t get myself to continue writing or
editing. My advice: Take a break. Put it in a drawer
and lock it away. Read books on spirituality and
creativity. Remind yourself of its purpose. Come
back to it when you’re ready. Except when you
don’t feel ready because fear is getting in the way.
Then smash the fear.
Releasing a physical product is… scary, as are most
things in life. But that’s a topic for another day.
You opted to print your book in Berlin. Why was it
important for you to produce “Love Letters” locally,
and how do you think this choice adds to its value?
There’s a story here. Back in Seoul, I went to this
small independent art bookstore.
I was browsing the photography book section when
I found this photo book with a German title. I don’t
recall the title, but it mentioned some southern
German town unknown to me. I found it fascinating
that this person went to a small German town and
made a physical visual diary documenting
a memorable period in their life. I’m from
a rural small town in Germany myself, yet I never
considered those places half as exciting and
meaningful as the author of the book I was holding
in my hands. We lived in similar places, but our
perspectives and interpretations were entirely
different.
Long story short, that’s what inspired me to make
a photo book/visual diary, one that I would print
and publish in Germany. “Love Letters” is seen and
told from a foreigner’s perspective – a perspective
that becomes blurry and tends to go unnoticed
when it’s part of your everyday life for as long as
you can remember. Perhaps what gives the book
meaning is the distance from what it depicts.
How did collaborating with Alex Bosserman on the
cover design influence the final look of the book?
Alex is a dear friend of mine and I trust his artistic
taste, especially in terms of visuals. He understood
my vision and helped me with the selection of the
cover photos and the design.
We kept the cover design simple yet with a certain
sense of nostalgic subtext. The title is in yellow
because it reminded him of subtitles in foreign films.
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And “Love Letters” is about our time in a foreign
country (we met in Seoul) where language and
meaning get lost in translation (which is our
favourite film).