During this period, he experimented with glass, projections and fog machines, then went to Weimar on an exchange, where he finally returned to photography. I wanted to be a travel photographer.” At university he majored in photography but lost interest in the medium for a while, thinking it “passive work” for a time. “I didn’t even think about shooting photos of people. Daewoong grew up in Daejeon, a city in the middle of South Korea, and knew from the age of 17 that he wanted to be a photographer. Going back to the pair’s creative beginnings, neither Bora nor Daewoong could have imagined their careers would go down this route. Known for its combined use of cosmetics, lighting and airbrushing techniques to create an alluring image of the subject, Bora and Daewoong draw on these fundamental essentials, building on them with phenomenal layers of imagination and storytelling. Over the decades, glamour shots became synonymous with pin-up models like Marilyn Monroe in the mid-50s and, as the form grew in popularity, it spilt over to the masses, becoming a popular way to document oneself with a little extra “something something” sprinkled on top. Its first examples are associated with “French postcards”, small vignettes sold by street vendors in France for mostly erotic motives. Emerging out of the latter half of the 20th Century, glamour shot photography was first seen as a genre of erotic photography. Though the original idea was birthed by Napoleon Dynamite, a moment which sparked Bora to ask her partner “can we make these kinds of pictures?”, the work of Glamour Shot (the name for the studio lifted directly from the medium) has long exceeded the cheesy airbrushed lens focussed on Uncle Rico. Their work interrogates east Asian identity and how the West has recklessly homogenised Asian culture in the past, but most importantly, at the heart of every image, the ultimate purpose of Glamour Shot is, Bora tells us, “just for fun.” Established in 2018 by the Seoul-based couple Bora Lee and Daewoong Han, Glamour Shot reimagines the notion of family photography quite unlike anything else. This iconic scene from the 2004 cult movie served as the original inspiration for the photography-cum graphic design studio Glamour Shot, which takes this vintage concept and spins it on its head to create an array of endlessly dazzling results. “This is looking really good,” says Deb, nodding with acknowledgement at the composition. “Turn your head on more of a slant,” she tells Rico, “now take a fist and slowly ease it up underneath your chin.” In an electric blue waistcoat and brown shirt with extended collar, Rico looks enigmatic against the pink star-studded backdrop. Remember that scene in Napoleon Dynamite where Uncle Rico wants to get some portraits taken for his new plastic bowl business? Rico, along with Napoleon’s brother Kip, takes a trip to see Deb who, amongst a variety of other side hustles, takes glamour shots.
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