Park Sung Jin’s black-and-white shots of kids in their school uniforms betray an undercurrent of restlessness and rebelliousness, a certain antisocial energy and imperfect freedom that is both pure and naïve. He sought out this raw, ironic beauty not in the majority of youths who are devoted to their studies and obey the rules, but in those who loiter around the back alleys and vacant lots, smoking cigarettes. Having left Seoul at age seventeen to move to New York, Sung Jin is in a way trying to find his own forgotten roots through these arresting and powerful portraits, fully capturing the youthful charisma and attitude in his subjects’ postures, expressions and eyes.
