One of his goals for the future is to visit outer space. And he’s convinced he will. That determination is something that stands out from this Korean creative, who works both on personal projects and fashion photography. Ahn Yeonhoo discovered photography at the age of seventeen, and has been doing images surrounded by a halo of surrealism and no-sense that made us fall in love with his work.
Hi Ahn, tell us more about yourself and your background.
My name is YeonHho Ahn. I am a fashion photographer based in Seoul (Korea).
How and when did you know you wanted to be a photographer? Is that something you dreamt of as a child?
I started taking photographs for the first time when I was seventeen and I wanted to become a photographer since then. Once I graduated from college, I worked as an assistant for a photographer for several years. After I gained enough experience, I started working as a fashion photographer by myself.
How was the learning process and what was the hardest thing to handle?
I learned about photography when I was seventeen and I also majored in photography in college. I enjoyed everything about it. It was all new and fun to me.
What made you get into fashion photography? Any other photographers that you love? What else inspired/inspires you on a daily basis?
When I was a junior in college, I had options to choose between advertisement, fine arts, documentary, and film. I chose advertisement and I was especially into portraits. I usually get inspired by other photographs, pictures, spaces and so on, mostly in terms of colours.
As you just said, you’re into portraits. What does attract you from someone’s face?
I find each person's eyes very attractive. People can look similar but their eyes are all different. I think that is really powerful.
Your personal work looks kind of different from the one you do related to fashion. How would you explain such a difference between two fields that should describe both you and your style?
If you are referring to my series work called Room, they were not that serious works. I did not really plan to take those photos. I just randomly thought about people being alone in their own room and doing unnecessary things like singing, dancing, or screaming. I placed a subject to be in a most comfortable space but in an unusual situation and that was the start of this series work. The only difference between these private works and the fashion ones would be that the former is taken just by myself and the latter created by more people than just me.
By the way how would you describe your photography style? According to you, what makes you different from others?
I cannot say that this is a hundred percent my style. I am still developing my own style. There are photos that satisfy me, and others that do not but that satisfy others.
As I said before, your personal work looks kind of different from what you do through fashion photography. To me, the first one is more intimate, right? What is the message you would like to communicate through that kind of images?
I don’t think which way is more intimate. I just take photos of what I want to whenever I want to. Fashion photography is a bit more limited. That is the only difference, I would say. Also, the subject is different, so it must feel different because of that. I don't really want to separate them into different fields.
Regarding the message, this is a question I’m a bit tired of. I just want to say 'think yourself'. I just did it because I had fun working on it with my friends. Is there a reason why you want to be happy or why you want to fly? This work was not to show my identity to the world or anything serious like that.
Regarding the message, this is a question I’m a bit tired of. I just want to say 'think yourself'. I just did it because I had fun working on it with my friends. Is there a reason why you want to be happy or why you want to fly? This work was not to show my identity to the world or anything serious like that.
Could you please speak about a typical day at your studio and also about your creative process? How do you manage your shoots? And how do you share your personal ideas and style while working with a brand?
Clients or editors contact me with certain idea and go with it if they are sure about it, or sometimes I add my own ideas during the meeting. After the photoshoot, I send a few selects to the magazine for the first round and then the editor picks the final selects for retouching and extra works.
What does interest you so much in craziness, absurdity and surrealism?
I like those things. If someone asks me why I like photography, one of the reasons is because I can represent what I imagine in the most realistic way as if it is real. One of my goals is to go to outer space – I really want to go and I believe I will.
What are your challenges and goals? How do you want your photography to be perceived?
Nothing special. I just want to take a perfect photo without any doubt. I believe that it will naturally happen once I get older and become more mature, so I do not want to rush into anything as long as I keep developing myself.
Any new project you would like to share with us?
I do have new projects, but I have not started them yet.
