Phil Jung

Phil Jung was born and raised in the Lower Hudson Valley of New York. Jung received a BFA in Photography from The San Francisco Art Institute and an MFA in Photography from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. His artwork has been featured in numerous publications including The Boston Globe, Incandescent, The Photo Review, Mossless, and Kiblind Magazine in France. He was a recipient of the TMC Kodak International Film Grant in 2009 and Saint Botoph Foundations Emerging Artist Award in 2013. Jung has participated in exhibitions throughout the United States including The Griffin Museum of Photography in Massachusetts, Houston Center for Photography in Texas and Foley Gallery in NYC. His work is in the permanent collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Phillip Jung currently lives and works in both Honolulu and Boston. He is an Assistant Professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Today we take a look at his series titled, Windscreen.

Time of day color of light

Time of day color of light

Time of day color of light

Time of day color of light

Windscreen

Windscreen is a contemporary look at the American social landscape through the windshields, or windscreens, of parked cars. A car’s interior defines the line between public and private space. Phil Jung’s images of these spaces, often littered with personal articles, describe the way language, religion, economy, government and other cultural phenomena play a role in the owner’s life. He takes on the iconic stature of the automobile by looking through the window of an ever-changing symbol. The gasoline-powered vehicles that were introduced in 1896 represented freedom, hope, exploration and independence—quintessentially American ideals. By 1947, when the photographer Wright Morris made his image of an aging Model T, those early ideals had already begun to deteriorate. Like Morris’s pictures, Jung’s images are about a culture that is disappearing.  The composite of these fascinating spaces reflect who we are, where we come from, and possibly where we are going.

Time of day color of light

Time of day color of light

Time of day color of light

Time of day color of light

Phil_Jung_11

Time of day color of light

Time of day color of light

Time of day color of light

Time of day color of light

Time of day color of light

Time of day color of light

Time of day color of light

Time of day color of light

To view more of Phil’s work please visit his website.