Korea, the “Shifted Original”, and the Aura of the Authentic

ISO 1250 with 1/15 sec. shutter and f7.1, shot at 24mm on a Canon 24–105L lens from ~4m away.

I submit to you that in the age of Hypermodernity, the original you thought had meaning in that it was the first, official, or unadulterated version of something actually means very little, and it is rather the case that today, we don’t even get to the “original” until we get to the digital stage in which the final, disseminated form of the thing is created. If everything occurs in stages and iterations, the moment of finality-in-creation occurs when one presses the “SHARE” button or alternatively, when the surgeon finishes the final cut into the flesh.

The “original” version of the shot, created April 30, 2020 at 9:49:51 PM within a burst of shots that will simply never be used, in which the goal was to find the best of what worked as a simulation of the from-the-hip, spray-and-shoot way real-life paparazzi chase down western stars in private moments and get money for shots of interest (illegal and thereby not a source of income in South Korea). The shutter was “dragged” to create a blurry effect that even normal hand-holding would create, within which a sharp strobe image would create a slice of razor-sharp, flash-frozen slice of time. Especially in this case, the moment of creation (at which the copyright comes automatically, legally into effect) is not the crucial moment of creation. This occurs as exposure correction, cropping, and filters are applied before being uploaded.

Model Somin (@c.somin) walks while looking back at the camera several times within a long, singular photo burst.

Put simply and succinctly, in our hypermodern, hypermediated world in which “no pics, it didn’t happen” actually means “no shared proof, it didn’t happen,” the moment of truth happens when an image, sound, or video finds expression and mediation out into the cyberspace/hyperreality of other users. This is the moment of creation as defined by not only most users of social media but by the terms and conditions of social media platforms. And this is the moment when the “original” take shape in the minds of most creators. As far as I am concerned as a photographer in the digital, hypermodern world of 2020, the top picture — the square-cropped one saved in my iPhone when I upload to Instagram — is the actual “original.” This is the one that contains my final aesthetic expression and what I want to say to the world. This is the sum of all my aesthetic and creative choices regarding this instant, this slice of time. If I were to have an exhibition of my works as a really old man, this image is what I would blow up to display on a wall. From this moment would begin the glow of Walter Benjamin’s “aura,” in which the authenticity of original-ness begins, even more than the instant I pressed the shutter button on April 30, 2020 at 9:49:51 PM to make the original (first) image. That instant merely defines a step in the creative process, in which the legal, chronological “original” is nothing more than an iterative first step, as opposed to the cumulatively significant, crucial final product.

— Walter Benjamin, the “Work of Art in the Age of Technological Reproducibility” (1936)

Benjamin would tell us that this piece of “art in the age of mechanical reproduction” loses the aura of the original — its specialness — in the process of being mechanically reproduced; but the digital experience of our actual hyperreality shows us not only do things such s images gain originality as they advance forward through the creation chain, but also they become new things unto themselves in the instant of their hypermediation. This is when we are dealing with a shifted original, in which the originalness shifts from first step in the creation chain to the iteration that finds finalized alteration frozen into place by pushing the product out into the world. This is the finalization-through-mediation that anyone alive in the age of social media knows as intuitively as tying one’s shoe or pinching one’s fingers on a touchscreen to get a broader view.

An explanatory note: We shot model Somin (@c.somin) as part of a BlackPink-inspired paparazzi concept for use on her Instagram, complete with “album release” posters — from faux-fancy and femme outfit, Somin was a K-POP star on the run, with a paparazzo in hot, photographic pursuit. My work with Instagrammers who want to grow their feeds and followings is part of my participant-practitioner methodology in which I can gain an insider’s access to private and privileged data about site statistics and the inner workings of how the feed was built. I work with the Instagrammer/model to develop concepts that fit their brands and can attract likes and follows, while doing the same for my own feed, which the stronger it is, the more easily I can find higher-quality subject-partner models to accelerate all processes.

Somin’s “album release” posters.

Somin’s requisite K-POP star beauty/profile shot. And yes, Somin is a makeup artist. She’s showing off her skills here as much as I’m flexing my photographic prowess here.

A half-body, profile shot against a cool wall in Itaewon makes the contrast between her princessey K-POP poster aesthetic and the gritty, city, graffiti environs really work well, given the “Itaewon Freedoms” theme. And yeah, the play of whites, reds, and blacks was on purpose.

Another “paparazzi” shot, in which we seem to “catch” our quarry.

Somin will not go quietly into the prying of the light.

Somin, the Original.