@siaane11 excellent photos by the way!! they dont look staged, i can feel marylin's character in them without even knowing her, and thats wonderful. this is exactly what I expect from a good photographer - look at the photos and feel smth
I have an issue with art that make destruction and pain fashionable. They romanticize suffering, put a glossy cover on it, and call it profound art or rebellion. That's straight-up hypocrisy.
He completely ignored Taemin's personality and stuffed him into his generic commercial stamp just to fill his portfolio. I don't know why people defend him so fiercely like he's paying them all percentages.
@siaane11 thats debatable
making suffering look glamorous is fashion
calling staged image raw emotion is artistry shooting celebs is commercial
raw shots don't happen in studios they’re in the streets, hospices, rehabs, and war zones
why not be honest until the very end?
This isn’t rebellion. It’s just exploiting an image.
People who call it “cliché and outdated” are right in their own way. I think they’re simply tired of celebrities who openly do drugs, get photographed drunk, have multiple partners, and treat others badly. That’s why this kind of photoshoot feels gross to them.
But the Western industry keeps pushing this destructive image as the only real “freedom”. They want artists from other countries to follow the same pattern and don’t respect their own culture and values.
This is just another example of western people still thinking in a colonial way and telling everyone else what “normal” should look like.
So, I replied to all the nice and polite people in the comments. If you want to discuss anything, feel free to DM me.
As for the threats and insults, I’ll read them someday over a cup of tea when I’m feeling sad 😌
I noticed one thing, many of you complained about idols being harassed, but when fans harass each other, it’s often treated as something normal.
If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make a chaeenge~
@lobotaemin why would i gaslight you? you're putting words in my mouth that i never said. i'm a kind well-mannered person, who won't snap at strangers... i don't know what y're going through to act like you were raised by jackals
Don't need no permission
I'm gonna do what I want when I wanna
오려 네 이름 (Ooh)
빈틈 속에 핀 꿈 (Ooh)
Don't need no permission (Ooh)
I'm gonna do what I want when I wanna
//боже, дразнить тимейтов так весело
@goodn8moon Please quit SHINee and stay away from Kpop or any Pop if you're allergic to "photographers and art directors exploiting an image" to make a statement.
On your way out, please purify your soul from every impure SHINee member image you've collected over the years.
thank you, interesting take. it seems everyone interpreted my post the way they wanted to, as it usually happens. kkk
what i was trying to convey: op contrasts one extreme - the western model of “freedom” that goes hand in hand with self-destruction with another extreme, the culture of the polished idol image with all its restrictions. and in the end op concludes that “your restrictions are bad, let’s do it like us.” so it turns out our model of freedom is better than yours, while completely ignoring that k-pop is a product of a specific cultural and social system. this was kinda dismissive to me.
freedom is good, but showing rebellion and maturity can be done in many ways without necessarily copying the western template. but i see this mainly as a strategy for entering the western market.
as for the “western-centric view” remark.. that’s an interesting point. i thought about it! the cigarette itself isn’t the main thing. i grew up on western music like grunge, alternative, britpop, rock etc.. and those rebellious, “gritty” images are very familiar to me, so they immediately stand out.
Sure, I'll explain why I thought that way. When he commented on Taemin’s post and wrote “and straight to my studio,” it was an immediate red flag for me "he’s just chasing hype."
I hoped to see something special in his portfolio that would justify this attitude, but I only found the same style repeated over and over, just with different celebrities’ faces.
Isn’t a good photographer supposed to see the person in front of the camera? Instead, he just put Taemin into his usual conveyor look. That’s what I meant when I said he forced his own image on him.
This might work well for the western market, I think, if that’s a strategy thing. But overall, I don’t think this collaboration was successful. I have my own standards based on experience, and they’re pretty high.
just as I expected, instead of showing taemin’s true personality through the photos, he simply forced his own image onto him. my first impression was right.
@lobotaemin I'm sorry, but that's not true. I never claimed that he promotes smoking. I was quoting the OP, who said something like "some people call it cliché because it's normal in some circles," and then shared my own thoughts on it. Maybe you imagining things.