Of all photography’s charms, the most enigmatic is how it binds together subject and the spectator—utter strangers in real life—in an intimate relationship through the photographer’s gaze.
In the series Ache, we see that the model is not smiling and has dropped all masks and defenses. Her expression is by turns vacant and estranged. We’ve never met the grief-stricken girl in the photographs, but we can almost touch her pain; when the pictures were taken, she must have felt a deep mental anguish. Jesuuna says the model is a good friend of hers from college, someone who always encouraged her to take the leap and pursue her dreams. When she first moved to Seoul, she stayed with her friend, who was then in a state of deep malaise. “One morning I woke up, saw her curled up on a yoga mat, and was immediately struck by her beauty,” Jesuuna recalls. “I then asked if I could take photos of her, and she obliged. We shot them a few days later on a humid afternoon with no plan in mind.”
摄影最神奇的魅力在于，拍摄对象与作为观者的我们在现实中之于对方原本陌生的存在，通过摄影师的凝视，都能化作一种只因摄影而联系起来的亲密关系。
在《Ache》(《伤痛》) 系列里，我们看到模特儿脸上没有笑容，她脱下一切防备和掩饰，眼神时而空洞、时而疏离。我们不认识照片中这个悲伤的女孩，却仿佛能触碰到她的伤痛，在拍摄这组照片的同时，她饱受精神不适所苦。Jesuuna 说模特儿是她大学时期的好友，也是一直以来鼓励她去勇敢追求梦想的人。“我现在住在韩国，当我在首尔与她同住时，一次早晨醒来看见她蜷缩在瑜珈垫上，当下我觉得她好美。我问能不能拍下这样的她，她答应了。几天后在一个潮湿的下午，我们没有任何计划的拍了这组照片。”
“A week later, when I first viewed the scans from the negatives, I teared up immediately, because I could see the affection I felt for her and the heartache she had suffered through,” she says.
“一个星期后我看到洗出来的底片，我立刻哭了。因为我可以从照片中深深感受到我对她的情感。而她却正在受苦。”
At age eight, Jesuuna was diagnosed with a hearing problem, and since then she’s had to live with hearing aids. As a child she began to search for a different way to experience the world. One day she took her mother’s camera and discovered photography. “The camera became an extension of me,” she says. That’s how Jesuuna describes the medium’s meaning to her. It became a third sense, beyond sight and sound, and ever since that discovery she’s given herself body and soul to photography.
“Most of the time an image or feeling will be very strong and vivid in my mind until I create it. These ideas are uncontrollable, and only by manifesting them can I feel at peace, even if I’m not clear on what the meaning is,” she says. “I hope to create works that stand the test of time, and tell stories that are complex and evoke a myriad of emotions.”
Jesuuna 八岁时被诊断出听力有问题，从此需要戴着助听器生活。不能好好听见，她开始向外寻找另一种感受世界的方式。直到她从妈妈那里偷来一台相机，接触到摄影，Jesuuna 是这么形容摄影对她的意义：“相机就像是我身体的延伸。” 所见所闻之外，摄影成为她的第三个感官，从那时候开始她就全心将自己投入摄影。
“我脑中常常会出现很多生动、强烈到不受控制的画面和感受，我必须找个方法把它们表达出来，心里才能感到平静。虽然有时候连我自己都不清楚这些想法代表什么，但我想唯一不变的是我想做出经得起时间考验的作品——有故事、能引发人们强烈情绪的作品。”
