Beauty Recovery Room. By Ji Yeo.

"Back home is a culture where men are judged on their financial balance sheet and women by their beauty. The male-dominated media endlessly reinforces its model of the ideal woman."
Ji Yeo

“I have been struck by the clear distinction between the women I photographed in Korea and Westerners who seek surgery. Whereas in America, women often focus on altering their bodies (breast enlargements being the most popular), in Korea most women focus on facial adjustments such as: making their eyes bigger and wider, minimizing their cheekbones and jaw lines, and making their noses higher and narrower. Whereas sexiness is highly emphasized in America, in Korea, notions of childlike femininity and innocence reign supreme. It is this difference that compels me; regardless of geography or body type women are willing to spend thousands of dollars and endure extreme cuts, bruises, and scarring in order to achieve beauty.”
Ji Yeo

Ji Yeo tracked down women undergoing plastic surgery and asked them to sit for her series "Beauty Recovery Room", a series showing them immediately after their procedures, not in their "new, enhanced" state. 

The idea of recording the moment when they look their worst: showing their bloodstained bandages, bruises, surgical guideline marks, and swollen body is not part of the fantasy of transformation.
Ji Yeo

The women who were willing to cooperate with Yeo were women who did not have support from friends or family. Yeo made a deal by guaranteeing that she would take care of them during the period of transformation (drive them to surgery, pick them up, cook for them, go to the pharmacy etc.) and, in treturn, they would sit for a portrait. Yeo was somewhat shocked to see how pleased the women were immediately after the surgeries (via).

During the photo shoots, even though they were in extreme pain, I could feel their excitement, the excitement of hopes realized. They seemed not to have the fears that I had; in fact, most of them were planning other surgeries in the near future. 
Ji Yeo

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