Award-winning ‘Man in Mirror’ photo captures true self
KT photographer wins KPPA’s Best Portrait Photo award
Korea Times photographer Shim Hyun-chul’s “The Man in the Mirror” won the Best Portrait Photo of the month award from the Korea Press Photographers’ Association.
In the award-winning work, Shim zoomed in on the plastic surgeon-novelist Kim Youmyung, 50, seen in a mirror in his clinic in Seoul’s affluent southern district of Gangnam.
“The Man in the Mirror” zeros in on the surgeon-novelist’s identity, pointing to what the person is really about. It literally and symbolically reflects a true self that others rarely know. Kim says a person’s face can tell a lot about how they have lived their life. More than being just skin deep, the stories that radiate from a subject’s face tell observers something from deep down in their heart.
Kim explored unbridled human greed in his recent novel, “Face,” published last year.
The medical fiction revolves around a middle-aged plastic surgeon who “fixes” his clients’ fates by changing their looks, with his masterful surgeon’s touch, but he himself is drowning in insurmountable debt, as his overly ambitious hospital business expansion is derailed.
The protagonist is seen by others as a calm, kind surgeon of moderate success, with a stellar academic resume. But this image of him clashes with his true self. Gripped by greed and uncontrolled ambitions, he is jealous of others who are highly successful in their fields. As he plunges into a mid-life crisis, he bites off more than he can chew and his life-ruining mistakes result in his downfall.