HANNAH YOON
You Will Be a Blessing
You Will Be a Blessing explores my upbringing as the child of Korean missionaries to Canada. My parents were two of approximately 22,000 Koreans sent to over 160 countries for “reverse missions,” or missionary work originating from non-western countries. Through vernacular imagery, I highlight the intimacy and the distance of my past and how these conflicting feelings shape my present life. These images stir up feelings of curiosity and nostalgia while providing a glimpse into my family life. Through recent and childhood photographs, I reveal how my experiences as the child of Koreans with new dual identities as immigrants and missionaries formed my past and present self. I attempt to capture my experiences growing up in an intensely religious and purpose-driven household that also dealt with difficulties commonly experienced by immigrant families such as racial discrimination, cultural and generational divisions between parent and child, and isolation. This project reflects my exit from familiar boundaries to self-discovery.
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Hannah Yoon is a freelance photojournalist based in Waterloo, Ontario who seeks to portray and share the truth through her images. This comes through in her editorial and NGO work, as well as her lifestyle photography and personal documentary projects, which have taken her throughout Canada, Korea and the United States. Her work has appeared in various Canadian and American publications. She is a graduate of the photojournalism program at Loyalist College and received her BA with a sociology honours at Wilfrid Laurier University, and was a recipient of the 2014 Tom Hanson Photojournalism Award from the Canadian Press and Canadian Journalism Foundation.
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1.519.635.3356
hanloveyoon@gmail.com
