Ian Kim has always lived in L.A. And while he spent a lot of time with his Korean grandmother as a young child, he says language and lifestyle separated them.
But then he took her portrait and found a way to reconnect with his family history. His photograph is one of 20 winning submissions by students from across the United States that are on display in the Unshuttered exhibition at the Getty Center.
Launched in 2018, Unshuttered is an app and program that connects youth to photography, inspiring creativity, social justice advocacy, and self-expression through art. This year’s theme was “Reconnecting with…”, asking students to reflect on what they are learning to reconnect with after the isolation and other challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Getty Museum’s education department and the nonprofit design lab Amplifier received over 1,660 entries during the nationwide open call for artists ages 13 to 19 to submit their photographs. Three of the artists who attended the exhibition opening at the Getty Center shared the stories behind their pictures.
Ian Kim, age 16, from Glendale, California
I am a third-generation Korean American living in Los Angeles, which has a sizable Korean population. The photo I submitted was originally part of a 10-photo series that I created of my grandmother during the pandemic. My grandmother immigrated to the United States in 1964, moving frequently throughout the East Coast with her husband and three daughters. Shortly before I was born, she moved to the neighborhood where my parents live in Los Angeles, and as a young child I spent many weekends and afternoons in her house. Even though I saw her often enough, we were separated by language, lifestyle, and technology. The series was my attempt to peer back through the window into my grandmother’s life, through the use of film photography, and in the process discuss the authenticity of documentary photography and the constant evolution of personal culture.
Elodie Hekimian-Brogan, age 18, from Beverly Hills, California
I lost many things during cancer: my hair, time in school, and my right ovary. But there was one attribute I lost first: my teenage innocence. When you are 16, your focus should consist of crushes, essays, and fitting in, but soon after my diagnosis, all of these worries seemed minuscule. Worrying about a test or if my crush liked me back felt like a waste of time given that my worrying was spent on my life and fertility. After treatment, my hair grew back, I resumed my social life, and my health stabilized, but nothing could bring back the naivete a teenager should have.
I wanted to challenge myself in my project by photographing qualities that aren’t inherently physical, making my loss of innocence an obvious choice for my portrait. I brainstormed the traits and moments that cancer stole from me along with the ones I gained. After a disappointing hour of shooting in different locations, I decided to set up my tripod in front of my mother’s bedroom window. I set the self-timer, stood against the window, and three seconds later I felt as if I had struck gold. The light shining through my arms felt heaven-like; I remember saying to myself, “this light is golden.” So I quickly changed into an all-white outfit, adding pearls and gold jewelry. After uploading the photos, I quickly realized the ever-flowing white exuded an innocence that I hadn’t seen in myself since I was diagnosed.
Ava Carson, age 16, from Saint Louis, Missouri
So believe it or not, I didn’t actually choose my subject—she chose me! The image was commissioned by the model (Norah), who needed some portraits of her ballet for her portfolio. At the time, we were just coming out of COVID, so not only had she been restricted in dancing, but I hadn’t been shooting as much either. When we got to our location, I fell in love with the geometry and composure you see in my image. It almost reminded me of a keyhole or portal, and it felt so magical. It quickly became one of my favorite shots, and I knew I wanted to enter it for “Reconnecting with…” because of its meaning and aesthetic.
When I was going to this shoot with Anna and Norah, I wasn’t expecting anything out of the ordinary. We had discussed location and some posing beforehand, and I had a couple of ideas of where I might want to shoot with them in the venue, but I had no idea how beautiful it would be when we got up there. When I saw the geometry of the cement running through the middle of the arch, I knew Norah would love something on pointe right in the middle of it. The shoot went beautifully, but little did I know the real work would come after. Although the pavilion sits on top of a tall hill, there were still trees behind the pavilion that come up to Norah’s knees in the original images. I was so annoyed that I couldn’t perfect it in camera, but when I got home, I spent hours and hours editing this one image to perfect it to what I had in my head (and I’m really stubborn). It was exhausting, and I thought my eyes would fall out of my head if I had to look at the same picture any longer, but it ended up being so worth it in the end. Norah loved it, and to this day it’s one of my favorite pictures.
Read more about the exhibition, on view at the Getty Center through October 23, 2022, and see all the photographs in the online gallery.
