Yeondoo Jung brings children drawings to life in seoul

At a time when digital images can be instantly generated without physical effort, South Korean visual artist Yeondoo Jung has taken the opposite path by meticulously bringing children drawings into the physical world. Over a period of four months, Jung gathered 1,200 drawings from children between the ages of five and seven, ultimately selecting 17 to recreate as actual photographs set up in front of a camera in Seoul.

Jung aimed to stay as faithful as possible to the children original sketches, capturing their unconventional logic by utilizing locations, costumes, props, and trampolines. To bring these concepts to life, he chose teenagers to act as the characters, noting that their physical forms resemble adults while their mental perspectives remain closely aligned with the young creators.

Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event

Turning flat two-dimensional drawings into three-dimensional spaces required a collaborative team consisting of fashion designers, prop creators, and makeup artists. These professionals gathered to decode simple sketches and spend hours in serious planning sessions to determine everything from fabric textures to furniture dimensions.

"Fashion designers, prop designers, makeup artists, and teenagers gathered around a 6-year-old’s drawing, holding serious planning meetings for hours."

Yeondoo Jung

Beyond playful imagination, the resulting photographs introduce an unexpected layer of commentary regarding metropolitan realities. What appears to be a whimsical depiction of houses and gifts simultaneously mirrors issues of housing culture and inequality within the bustling urban landscape of Seoul, highlighting heavy societal themes through the innocent lens of childhood art.