2026
Ballerina
Ballerina
This project began in Buam-dong, Seoul, where I worked as a photojournalist moving between disaster sites and cultural events. What I kept noticing in the field was this: people rarely speak of objective facts. They speak of what they want to believe. And often, the way someone presents themselves runs counter to what they carry inside. The overconfident are frequently the most fragile. The openly vulnerable are often the strongest.
I wanted to make that invisible interior visible. Since you cannot split a person in half, I photographed figures holding objects that embody the same duality — sea urchins, kintsugi bowls, ballerinas' pointe shoes. Things that are hard or beautiful on the outside, wounded within.
This project began in Buam-dong, Seoul, where I worked as a photojournalist moving between disaster sites and cultural events. What I kept noticing in the field was this: people rarely speak of objective facts. They speak of what they want to believe. And often, the way someone presents themselves runs counter to what they carry inside. The overconfident are frequently the most fragile. The openly vulnerable are often the strongest.
I wanted to make that invisible interior visible. Since you cannot split a person in half, I photographed figures holding objects that embody the same duality — sea urchins, kintsugi bowls, ballerinas' pointe shoes. Things that are hard or beautiful on the outside, wounded within.
Director & Photography & Art
Director & Photography & Art
Model
Model
DP & Gaffer
DP & Gaffer
Voiceover
Voiceover
Hwawon Ceci Lee
Hwawon Ceci Lee
Hyunji Kim
Hyunji Kim
Seonghoon Eric Park
Seonghoon Eric Park
Hinaki
Hinaki
2026
Buamdong
Buamdong
This project began in Buam-dong, Seoul, where I worked as a photojournalist moving between disaster sites and cultural events. What I kept noticing in the field was this: people rarely speak of objective facts. They speak of what they want to believe. And often, the way someone presents themselves runs counter to what they carry inside. The overconfident are frequently the most fragile. The openly vulnerable are often the strongest.
I wanted to make that invisible interior visible. Since you cannot split a person in half, I photographed figures holding objects that embody the same duality — sea urchins, kintsugi bowls, ballerinas' pointe shoes. Things that are hard or beautiful on the outside, wounded within.
This project began in Buam-dong, Seoul, where I worked as a photojournalist moving between disaster sites and cultural events. What I kept noticing in the field was this: people rarely speak of objective facts. They speak of what they want to believe. And often, the way someone presents themselves runs counter to what they carry inside. The overconfident are frequently the most fragile. The openly vulnerable are often the strongest.
I wanted to make that invisible interior visible. Since you cannot split a person in half, I photographed figures holding objects that embody the same duality — sea urchins, kintsugi bowls, ballerinas' pointe shoes. Things that are hard or beautiful on the outside, wounded within.
Concept & Photography
Concept & Photography
Model
Model
Gaffer
Gaffer
Hwawon Ceci Lee
Hwawon Ceci Lee
Oh Hyeontaek
Oh Hyeontaek
Seonghoon Eric Park
Seonghoon Eric Park
A short collection of footage shot in Sydney during a work trip. Without any deliberate intervention, the approach became something closer to documentary — simply recording. No dialogue, no context. What mattered most was capturing a certain atmosphere. The Sydney evening that was midsummer in the middle of winter. The slight romance of being on a ferry, a mode of transport, cutting through water toward somewhere. The pattern of waves split by the hull, people's gazes, the boundary between harbour and boat.
A short collection of footage shot in Sydney during a work trip. Without any deliberate intervention, the approach became something closer to documentary — simply recording. No dialogue, no context. What mattered most was capturing a certain atmosphere. The Sydney evening that was midsummer in the middle of winter. The slight romance of being on a ferry, a mode of transport, cutting through water toward somewhere. The pattern of waves split by the hull, people's gazes, the boundary between harbour and boat.
Video
Video
Hwawon Ceci Lee
Hwawon Ceci Lee
161
Eskapismus
2022
Berlin Project
A video project in Berlin, the city of art and freedom, with traceur Niklas Mariß and contemporary dancer Hyuntaek Oh.
In their early twenties, the artist and dancers decided to express freedom in the city of art. But our freedom was limited. No matter what we did with our bodies, we could not leave them behind. This resembled our struggle in our early twenties, dreaming of freedom in ideals but unable to achieve it.
Then was there no freedom in those gestures? What can we call those moments when we moved to create meaningful movement even within limits?
The ephemeral Berlin of 2023 and who we were then are now gone, but through this roughly three-minute video, we recorded our youthful concerns with our bodies. How do we define perfect escape? Yet the extraordinary we created. That moment when we danced and leaped on the Friedrichsbrücke bridge at 5 a.m., risking falling into the river below.
Concept & Videography
Model
B Cam Operator
Hwawon Ceci Lee
Niklas Mariß
Oh Hyeontaek
Mathias D.
A video project in Berlin, the city of art and freedom, with traceur Niklas Mariß and contemporary dancer Hyuntaek Oh.
In their early twenties, the artist and dancers decided to express freedom in the city of art. But our freedom was limited. No matter what we did with our bodies, we could not leave them behind. This resembled our struggle in our early twenties, dreaming of freedom in ideals but unable to achieve it.
Then was there no freedom in those gestures? What can we call those moments when we moved to create meaningful movement even within limits?
The ephemeral Berlin of 2023 and who we were then are now gone, but through this roughly three-minute video, we recorded our youthful concerns with our bodies. How do we define perfect escape? Yet the extraordinary we created. That moment when we danced and leaped on the Friedrichsbrücke bridge at 5 a.m., risking falling into the river below.
Concept & Videography
Choerographer
B Cam Operator
Hwawon Ceci Lee
Niklas Mariß
Oh Hyeontaek
Mathias D
2022