Ina Jang was never interested in photography until her 21st birthday, when she unwrapped a gift from her mother and held her first camera, a Lomo LC-A. From that day, the Lomo (with its pre-Instagram dreamy effect) became her inseparable companion. “I was never exposed to any art, photography before,” the South Korean artist, now in her early thirties, told the Cut, “so I started photographing everything that had color and shape. And after taking too many photos of everything — you can only take pictures of so many flowers — I started building stories.” Jang moved to Japan with her younger sister, where she began flexing her fashion-photography muscles by staging impromptu editorials on Tokyo Tower and other locales, dressing her sister up in new outfits they would purchase each day. “My sister was so annoyed,” Jang laughed. “At one point she was crying, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore!’ and I was taking pictures of her crying.I realized then that photography had gotten really intense for me and thought I should pursue it.” Jang moved to New York to attend the School of Visual Arts, where she received her Bachelor’s of Fine Arts and a Master’s in Fashion Photography. Since then, her work, which she describes as “calm, elegant, and playful,” has been featured in New York Times Magazine, Time, Jalouse, and more.
For this edition of Out of the Box, we sent Jang a selection of spring-summer and pre-fall pieces from Hermès, 3.1 Phillip Lim, Reed Krakoff, Michael Kors, Preen, Marni, Miu Miu, and other labels to see her spin on the season’s lightest, breeziest looks. With her sketchbook in one hand and a Canon 5D Mark II in the other, Jang whipped up a series of photos that play with minimalism, fantasy, collage, and color. “I was trying to completely perfect each drawing [from my sketchbook] into real life as a photograph,” she told the Cut. “The whole shoot was about something surreal and artificial.” The overarching story line stringing together all the photographs was summarized with two words she scribbled in her notebook: “Lucid Dream.” And, rightly so, prepare to enter a world awash in pastel colors, mirrors, floating flowers, and random pops of nature (e.g., scallions and rocks). Click ahead to see Jang’s shoot for the Cut and read more about her process.
Market editing by Veronica Gledhill and Diana Tsui.
Models: Cecilia Mendez / Next, Jacqueline Tomlinson; Stylist: Elleser Galleta; Hair & Makeup: Ai Yokomizo using Nars Cosmetics; Makeup Assistant: Arisa Kawamura; Photo Assistant: Michael Hayes
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"The very first image that I had in mind — it was the very first drawing I had sketched and I had to shoot it. [Laughs.] The way I worked was ver... "The very first image that I had in mind — it was the very first drawing I had sketched and I had to shoot it. [Laughs.] The way I worked was very focused on the feeling that I wanted to create, which is a little surreal and unnerving, but still holds a very playful look."
Photo: Ina Jang
"This rock is from when I was in Switzerland in the beginning of May. I didn’t get to see the city because I was working, but I had one afternoon... "This rock is from when I was in Switzerland in the beginning of May. I didn’t get to see the city because I was working, but I had one afternoon when I could go outside. It was a very little town and all I could see were these rocks, so I took a picture of them with my cell phone. For this whole shoot, I wanted to include some nature, but still it looks artificial because it’s in a studio setting."
Photo: Ina Jang
"The model’s holding the mirror, and the image on the right side is the reflection of the mirror. I recently watched Psycho by Hitchcock for the ... "The model’s holding the mirror, and the image on the right side is the reflection of the mirror. I recently watched Psycho by Hitchcock for the first time on a plane ride to Asia. There was just this strikingly beautiful shot of [Anthony Perkins] shot from the bottom of his head. It was tilted and I really loved the shape of the neck and the jawline, so I wanted to create something similar. The only edit was the color; I desaturated her skin color."
Photo: Ina Jang
"For a lot of still life shots, I decided I wanted to print it again and do some collage work. I wanted to create holes in a shoe, but there was ... "For a lot of still life shots, I decided I wanted to print it again and do some collage work. I wanted to create holes in a shoe, but there was no way I could do it, especially with a sample. So that’s how I approached this idea. I used a hole puncher to make the shape of the circle, and then they were just sprinkled on top of the paper. I took a photo of shoe first, shot it on a yellow background, and shot again with paper on top."
Photo: Ina Jang
"I wanted something floating around, but wanted to use a random item, like scallions. I always thought that scallions look so pretty with all thi... "I wanted something floating around, but wanted to use a random item, like scallions. I always thought that scallions look so pretty with all this green, this white, and they sort of look like brushes. I think it also brings a very spring and summer look. The initial approach was to make it look like old Korean or Chinese oriental paintings and since I was using scallions, the hat looked like seaweed to me, so I figured, maybe she should wear this, too, like a food-fashion photo. The whole point was to focus on the skirt, it’s very sheer and beautiful, but I wanted to put something underneath it to exaggerate this material. So she’s sititing on top of the apple boxes and I was so afraid I was going to ruin the skirt, but it ended up okay."
Photo: Ina Jang
"The idea was, maybe I’ll have a bag behind the flowers, as if the bag was in a flower garden. But we didn’t have a bag, so I was just setting it... "The idea was, maybe I’ll have a bag behind the flowers, as if the bag was in a flower garden. But we didn’t have a bag, so I was just setting it up and thought to shoot it by itself. I like the blue flowers, you don’t get to see that in Asia much. Growing up, I’d never seen a blue flower."
Photo: Ina Jang
"I was focusing on the shape of this dress, which has a very elegant shape. It had a different flower against it when I started, but I decided to... "I was focusing on the shape of this dress, which has a very elegant shape. It had a different flower against it when I started, but I decided to use this plant branch instead. For this one, I was focusing on the shape of her body, her perfect hair, everything had to look very calm, quiet."
Photo: Ina Jang
"The first day I shot it with the dress on her, but I wanted to focus on the dress itself rather than the girl. When I returned home, I was think... "The first day I shot it with the dress on her, but I wanted to focus on the dress itself rather than the girl. When I returned home, I was thinking about the dress more and thought it’d be interesting to make this wavy shape with it. So I reshot it the next morning."
Photo: Ina Jang
"We were calling it a skirt and we were calling it a belt because it was really tiny and everyone tried to wear it and it was just covering their... "We were calling it a skirt and we were calling it a belt because it was really tiny and everyone tried to wear it and it was just covering their butts barely. [Laughs.] It kind of reminds me of that collar dogs have to wear when they have [surgery]. I feel bad saying that about this beautiful item."
Photo: Ina Jang
"The whole idea was to have a really simple image with this mirror covering and there was actually another girl reflected in the mirror — but wha... "The whole idea was to have a really simple image with this mirror covering and there was actually another girl reflected in the mirror — but what’s wrong with my initial approach is that, when someone is reflected in the mirror, it looks farther than it actually is. So I actually had this shot of her, with just one eye showing, and flipped it to make it look like a reflection of her face."
Photo: Ina Jang
"This was a different take on a personal project where I have a quarter of the images obscured by a paper. I was thinking of the Marni skirt as a... "This was a different take on a personal project where I have a quarter of the images obscured by a paper. I was thinking of the Marni skirt as a block, obscuring the image instead of focusing on the skirt itself."
Photo: Ina Jang
"I wanted the girl to look like she’s fallen from somewhere, but it ended up looking like, I don’t know, maybe like she’s crying? [Laughs.] She’s... "I wanted the girl to look like she’s fallen from somewhere, but it ended up looking like, I don’t know, maybe like she’s crying? [Laughs.] She’s on a mirror and I wanted to shoot from the top view. I first shot it without any flowers around her and it looked too empty. Then I shot her and I printed again and I put more flowers on top of the print. If you look more closely, you’ll be able to tell which ones are in the first shoot and which were shot after."
Photo: Ina Jang
"I built a set on a corner with blue paper first and then I shot the shoe, printed the image, and then put some green peas on it. Again, it’s abo... "I built a set on a corner with blue paper first and then I shot the shoe, printed the image, and then put some green peas on it. Again, it’s about the illusion."
Photo: Ina Jang
"For my personal work, I shot this girl wearing a polka dot dress and blue paper is covering a quarter of the image. I wanted to do something sim... "For my personal work, I shot this girl wearing a polka dot dress and blue paper is covering a quarter of the image. I wanted to do something similar, but instead of paper, I was using a mirror. Again, it was my miscalculation thinking it would be the same scale. She was too far away from the mirror, so I decided to get rid of the second girl and I just had the paper reflected to the mirror and it created the shape against the model. It looks very Willy Wonka."
Photo: Ina Jang
"Also a print. I always wanted to create this wave with paper. I shot the girl first, and I thought the shape of the dress would go very well, [s... "Also a print. I always wanted to create this wave with paper. I shot the girl first, and I thought the shape of the dress would go very well, [so] I warped the paper, curved it, and shot it."
Photo: Ina Jang
"I like to put things on the shoulder, knees, or head, and I thought it would be fun to have the shoe as some kind of shoulderpiece. I liked the ... "I like to put things on the shoulder, knees, or head, and I thought it would be fun to have the shoe as some kind of shoulderpiece. I liked the top as well. There’s more detail in the front, but I didn’t want too much detail in the shot, so I made her wear it backwards. Maybe that’s not good for Kenzo, I don’t know, but that’s okay."
Photo: Ina Jang
"I've been into cartoons recently so I wanted to create an image that looked like [them]. On the reflection on the ball, you can kind of see the ... "I've been into cartoons recently so I wanted to create an image that looked like [them]. On the reflection on the ball, you can kind of see the shape of me, but I tried to make it look cartoonish, with the whole color scheme and the girl."
Photo: Ina Jang
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