“Being Korean-American sucks” is a documentary project by Ellie Rha, which tends to emphasise the challenges and difficulties Asian Americans face and to demonstrate what it is like to live with discrimination, stereotypes and even violence.
Concept:
The artist uses her camera towards the Asian American community to capture their real life experiences and emotions.
But this is not only a documentary project. It is also a work of preservation. As the artist states in her mission statement “…Asian Americans deserve to see their curiosity, intersectionality, and beauty in the images they consume” and continues “…I am archiving the worlds at risk of being erased and the places and people, never seen in popular media.”
Ellies describes her take on the complete work as “cinema meets surrealism as a way to retell what coming-of-age means to me now and then. Think Nadia Lee Cohen meets Věra Chytilová’s “Daisies” (1967) in a Korean-American universe.”
Details:
The result of this documentary project is a 128 page paper-over board photography book, with six 16mm vignettes.
It is important to mention that the project is fully funded by the Johns Hopkins University’s Second Decade Society’s Meg Walsh Leadership Award and it has received branded support from Marc Jacobs, Urban Decay, and Sandy Liang.
The artist along with her production team are working with Korean production company Mr.Romance.
One of the main purposes is to empower other Asian-American artists to do the same. Communities in NYC and Seoul have already highlighted the power of the message.
Who is Ellie Rha:
Ellie Rha is a Korean American photographer and filmmaker, based in New York. She creates art and digital experiences that push against false narratives of the Asian American monolith and generations of stereotyping to capture a beauty that has long deserved a place in the spotlight. Her identity has become a grounding space for her reflection on generational and cultural experiences with her intentionally curated community.
She has worked with multiple creative agencies including VMLY&R and imre to produce creative social content and direct video content and is now working with fashion brands like Edie Parker for commercial work.
Her most recent short film “잘먹겠습니다!” (I Will Enjoy This Food), amassed over 8 million views, 1.2 million likes, and 18,000+ subscribers on TikTok.
In 2023, she’s hoping to expand her work to building digital communities with immersive photography work.
Visit her website for more about her work as well as her Instagram and TikTok pages
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