In Korean society, the university represents more than just an educational institution.
After surviving the endless competition of college entrance exams, students arrive at this place—once considered the starting point for carving out a personal space within society, and a time for rest, reflection, and self-discovery.

There was a time when universities served as spaces of rebellion against injustice, where young people explored identity through philosophy and ideology.
That intensity was often released in healthy ways, contributing to the larger balance of society.

But today’s universities no longer serve that role.
The dominance of capital over the spirit of our age has reshaped both the structure and values of higher education.
Students are once again thrown into competition—this time for survival in the job market.
Efficiency and practicality have replaced knowledge and liberal education as priorities.
Poverty and class disparity further distort this competition, isolating and exhausting Korea’s university students.
At this moment, they may be one of the most silently suffering groups in our society.

University campuses have become department stores of societal dysfunction—showrooms for all the structural problems we face.
Rather than documenting this reality in a straightforward way, I chose to portray it through an almost excessively serious form of humor.
By borrowing the techniques of commercial photography—artificial lighting, exaggerated styling, and extreme post-production—I aimed to create a visual world that feels both familiar and alien.
This is more than satire; it’s an attempt to expose the structural contradictions and emotional fractures we tend to overlook.

The lives of university students in Korea reveal, more honestly than anything else, where our society is headed.
This project is a window through which we can examine how far off balance we’ve already become.

Spring 2015,
Hakbong Kwon