STRANGER

By PAP Magazine Editorial

A vast red raffia hat haloes the frame like a celestial disc, beneath which yellow tear-track makeup and glitter-encrusted lips hold an unflinching stare. The black lace top casts geometric shadows against the crimson backdrop, while lacquered black nails frame the face in a deliberate V. A smartphone screen within the shot mirrors the subject again, collapsing the distance between observer and observed and transforming the portrait into a recursive game of gazes. In a warm orange-lit close-up, navy and brown dots scatter across forehead, cheek, and lip like an alien script colonising the skin. Orange-tipped fingers and blue dots create chromatic collision, evoking curiosity and caution towards the figure marked as other. Realised by Kim Jung Hyeon, Hyun Jae Kim, Eun Ji Kim, and Se Bin Baek, this May 2020 editorial interrogates strangeness through bold colour fields and symbolic beauty gestures that blur self and stranger.