In this self-portrait series, I position myself as both subject and avatar—using the visual languages of K-pop idol culture and Japanimation to interrogate the evolving terrain of identity, performance and self-representation in the digital age. My intention is two-fold: to celebrate the transformative power of popular culture, and to reveal how that same power mediates our sense of self, social roles and cultural belonging.

Growing up in Korea, I witnessed firsthand how K-pop functions as a global cultural force: meticulously produced, hyper-stylised, endlessly reproduced. The idols are simultaneously individuals and manufactured personas; they perform authenticity while embodying an idealised image, one that is both aspirational and accessible. In parallel, Japanimation (anime) offers a visual ecosystem of exaggerated features, expressive gestures and synthetic worlds — worlds where characters constantly negotiate between their “real” self and the projected self. These two cultural modes guided my visual sensibility: the external gloss of performance, the interior terrain of identity, the gap between image and being.

In the series I adopt and subvert that aesthetic: I pose, stylise, remix. The mirror becomes a stage. My own face is stylised, layered with colour, gesture and costume influences drawn from K-pop choreography and anime character design. But rather than simply imitating, I treat these references as lenses through which I examine the tension between authenticity and artifice. Each image is an attempt to externalise the inward dialogue of self-doubt, ambition, self-construction and cultural hybridity.

From the photographer’s vantage, the camera is not simply a documenter but a transformer. I employ staged lighting, bold colour palettes, dynamic postures reminiscent of idol promotional stills, and compositional cues drawn from anime frames (e.g., exaggerated perspective, isolated figure, heightened emotion). The photographic frame becomes a visual space where identity is performed, edited, filtered—just like the media that surrounds us. In doing so, I ask: when we absorb aesthetic languages of popular culture, to what extent are we assimilating new identities, new selves? And when we produce our self-images—on social media, in portraiture, in the mirror—how much of that is performance, how much is a reflection?

Yet embedded in this playful aesthetic is a deeper social logic. In K-pop and anime there is the promise of transformation: from trainee to idol, from secondary character to hero, from outsider to centre. This can be empowering, especially for young people negotiating globalised identity. But it also reveals pressures: to conform to image, to flatten complexity into spectacle, to subsume self-difference into mass appeal. My self-portrait project asks: how do we navigate the dialectic of empowerment and erasure, of singularity and replication, in a culture conditioned by image-production and consumption?

Moreover, in a Korean context, and by extension an Asian cultural context, the self-portrait becomes a site of cross-cultural dialogue. I reference both the globalised language of K-pop and the transnational appeal of Japanimation to position myself as a cultural hybrid: locally rooted yet globally networked, personally introspective yet publicly performative. I bring the camera’s gaze back onto myself, rewriting the narrative of the visual subject: I am not simply the idol, nor the cartoon character, but the author of these images; I orchestrate my own mise-en-scène.

For the audience of Foam Talent, this work speaks to photography’s capacity to engage with the visual vernacular of our time. It is conceptual but rooted in the formal rigour of portraiture; it engages with popular culture without sacrificing critical reflection. The series leaves open questions rather than prescribing answers: What does it mean to look like an idol? What does it mean to animate oneself? How does culture encode our desire for recognition? How do we reclaim that desire?

In sum: “Pretty Please” is my photographic negotiation of image, identity and culture. It believes in the power of style—but also interrogates its costs. By layering the visual tropes of K-pop and Japanimation onto the self-portrait, I aim to generate a portrait of the emerging photographer in the 2020s: media-aware, culturally fluent, self-reflexive and ready to insert her voice into the global art dialogue. I made this work in the belief that photography today must not only reflect culture—but remix it, question it and propel it onward.