Last February, a female idol group member posted a photo to her Instagram feed. The picture showed a phone case printed with the phrase, “Girls Can Do Anything”. As some men began to post hateful comments about the statement, the photo became a large controversy in and of itself.

 

This situation came as a shock to a number of women, because the reactions of the men seemed so unwarranted yet so extreme. Was the simple statement that “Girls Can Do Anything” really enough cause to warrant such inflammation and anger?

 

▲ "If abortion is a crime, the state is the criminal." Source: Utopia Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/utopia2017

The feminist photojournalists behind “Utopia,” the feminist photography project, all have quite a deep connection with the statement, “Girls Can Do Anything”. In fact, the connection is so much so that my meeting with them was nearly cancelled for it, a story that will be revealed in the interview. Anyhow, it was last Sunday afternoon, at a cafe in Itaewon, that I was able to meet “Utopia” photographers Park I-Hyun and Kim Ji-Hae.

 

“It’s incredibly hard for women to survive in the photo industry”

 

Utopia is currently made up of 8 feminist photographers, and the majority of its members are students. The group was born in the spring of 2017, and has since made a name for itself through photographs posted on social media

 

Park I-Hyun: “I think Ye-In was the one who first suggested that we make a group like this. The four of us – Ji-Hye, Ye-In, Jae-In, and I – were talking about how the photo industry is awful, there are so many issues and no one’s talking about them, and there definitely aren’t enough female photographers or feminists, when we said, ‘Maybe we should just make it ourselves-?’”

 

Kim Ji-Hye: “To find people we could talk to, some sort of group was so necessary, but no matter how hard we looked we couldn’t find anything. That’s why we made it ourselves. At first we had 11 people but after a few members got exhausted and dropped out, we now have 8.”

 

What is happening in the photo industry to make such a group for female photographers so necessary? The second we threw out this question, the two photographers began to rant passionately. The answer was clear: “The photo industry is so very male-centric”.

 

▲ Works by Feminist Photography Project Utopia members. Clockwise from top left: “Black Single Wedding” by Kim Jae-In; “Form [Hyeong]” by Hong San; “Pindle” by Kim Hyo-Won; and “Your Human [Neo-ui Ingan]” by Kim Ha-Yeong.

Kim Ji-Hye: “If you are to do professional photography, the equipment is inevitably important, and there is a prejudice that women can’t carry this equipment. When I talk to friends who go to photography schools, they’ll tell me their schools don’t treat them seriously because they think ‘the girls will splinter off to design or post processing instead of going out into the field anyway’. Given such a position, it’s clear who the schools are backing. Once, I got a call about joining a studio but then heard that only 1 out of the 12 photographers were female. I didn’t go because I could already predict the atmosphere.”

 

The prejudice that women can’t carry heavy photography equipment leads into stereotypes about “feminine equipment” and “feminine cameras”. At photography club meetings, statements like, “Don’t all girls use mirrorless digital cameras since they like cute and small things?” are frequently heard. Despite the lack of difference in the performance of the equipment, these people think that “women use mirrorless cameras, and the real cameras are the ones used by men”.

 

An interesting fact is that there are very many female models despite the scarcity of female photographers in the industry. But do numbers always connote success? There may be many of them, but they also struggle to get by in the photography industry.

 

Park I-Hyun: “As photography gained some popularity as a hobby, there are now a lot more people who take pictures. There are a lot of photographers who started out this way, especially men who want to take pictures of ‘pretty’ female models. A lot of inquiries about model recruiting will pop up on online photography cafés, and problems (such as sexual harassment) that arise through consequent meetings are frequent. Because of this there are quite a few female models who prefer not to work with male photographers, or decline to do so entirely. But then there are men who call this reverse sexism.”

 

Kim Ji-Hye: “Through the #MeToo movement, photographer Rota has been outed for his sexual assault and is under investigation, but there are many more cases out there. There are some that I’ve personally heard of and others that I’ve read about. In all honesty, this kind of problem has been brought up in the past and nothing was done to change it. And after photographers like Rota got famous and popular through works that objectify and hypersexualize women, the number of people who wanted to take pictures like that just grew. Discourse along the lines of ‘what’s wrong with this, shouldn’t we discuss parts of this from an ethical point of view’ ceased to come out.”

 

While I was being shocked by the unanticipated immensity of the issue, these two women rather bucked up and told me with cheer, “That’s why we had to make Utopia!” There is no doubt that they looked like warriors in this moment.

 

What exactly is the issue with “Girls Can Do Anything”?

 

Utopia may be the product of women’s resilience and strength, but the process of forming it has been anything but easy. The group was not made to promote friendship between its members, but rather  to realize the goal of staging an exhibition on the topic of feminism. This has warranted consistent work in the academic and personal lives of all of its participants. Although its members felt pressured at times, the determination to realize Utopia kept these worries at bay.

 

▲ “Girls Can Do Anything” photo by Utopia. ©Photographer Park I-Hyeon

In the midst of such efforts last February, Utopia joined forces with “Project Pyoram,” a two-woman team that had just created the “Girls Can Do Anything” T-shirt. Utopia was to create the promotional photographs. And thus began the Tumblbug crowdfunding page, while a few days later, the photos Utopia had taken were reposted on certain Facebook pages by others. Soon enough, countless comments denouncing the project and models were posted.

 

Park I-Hyun: “Most of them were about looks. Mostly things like ‘You’re ugly, you’re fat. You won’t meet a guy.’ but some were comments about our character as well. We reported the respective pages, and asked our followers to report them too through our Facebook and Twitter accounts. But the reply that came the following day read, ‘This page does not violate our terms of use.’ In fact, the other side had reported us for explicit nudity (although none of our photos contained breasts or genitals), and it was our page that was deleted in less than a day.”

 

During this time, I had been scheduling the interview with Utopia through Facebook Messenger and was shocked to see the unannounced deletion of the Utopia page. At our meeting, I asked the two women how they took this unusual happening.

 

Kim Ji-Hye: “Of course it was a shock. And it was impossible for spirits to stay high in the team. It was depressing. In truth, we had known that there were people who didn’t like us and slandered us, especially male photographers. I’d even heard that an older male photographer whom I’d considered a close friend had gone around saying harsh things about me, calling me “that feminist". So we’d thought that we had grown somewhat resilient to such responses, but when our page got deleted… how would you feel if your year-long graduation thesis went up in flames in front of you? We felt like that.”

 

Park I-Hyun: “But the relief was that so many people cheered us on. They raged with us and acted with us, and when the page was recently restored, we were shocked by the countless people who started following us. Shall I say that it was even more empowering than before? (Laughs) It was such a recharge.”

 

▲ Works by Feminist Photography Project Utopia members. Clockwise from top left: “Women [Yeojadeul]” by Kwak Ye-In; “on my own” by Kim Bun-Hong; “About body” by Kim Ji-Hye; and “Girls can do anything” by Park I-Hyun.

The utopia that Utopia dreams of

 

Like the saying that a girl doesn’t remain a girl but instead grows into a stronger woman, Utopia has become all the stronger for its struggles. In March, Kim Ji-Hye, in collaboration with Kwak Ye-In, held an exhibit entitled “Normal World" at the feminist busineess Café Doing, and Hong San also held her exhibit “Talk With Your Body" at the SangSoo gallery café.

 

Utopia is also planning exhibits for the coming summer. The team has stated, “All of our members have different styles and tastes but we think that diversity is what makes us more interesting.” They’ve also let us in on the plan that their team exhibition will reveal their in-progress “100 Feminists” project.

 

When I carefully asked what else they had on their minds, they laid out the following with twinkling eyes: “We want to take pictures at Seoul Queer Parade! If we can, we want to open a booth there, too! We want to collaborate with other arts organizations! We want to host a digital and photographic feminism seminar!”

 

In fact, Kim Ji-Hye has actually created another group, called “Studio Bagdad,” that is less centered on exhibits. It has plans to “facilitate networking between female photographers, and hold feminism lectures and seminars”.

 

“In truth it takes a lot of money to hold an exhibition. The rent is expensive, and there aren’t a lot of places like Café Doing that give so much help in setting up the show. So in some ways we have to do exhibits together to bear the costs.” With this remark, Kim also voiced her hopes that the future will become an environment where people can earn sufficient wages through photography.

 

The time conversing with feminist photographers who want to do a lot and say a lot flew by. As the interview came to a close, I asked each woman what these activities meant for them personally, and how running Utopia has influenced them.

 

Kim Ji-Hye: “I can feel that the number of supporters of Utopia is growing. There are people who post comments and feedback on our photos, and I feel proud every time we are mentioned in the “femi” sphere.”

 

Park I-Hyun: “I tend to tell stories through my photos, so when people can relate to my work or say, ‘Oh, I experienced that too,’ I always feel stronger. It means that I’m not feeling this way alone, and that we’re building understanding and solidarity together.”

 

The time spent with these feminists who are not only dreaming of but creating their utopia was delightful. I hope that more and more people will get a taste of this utopia. [Translated by Susan Lee]

 

*Original article: http://ildaro.com/8170 Published April 6, 2018

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