Jean Chung
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Children in Kichanga, Masisi Territory, a few days before the official ceasefire between CNDP (Congré National pour la Defense du Peuple) and Congolese National Army, in March 2009.
Jean Chung is an award-winning photojournalist from South Korea who gained international recognition for her photographic documentations in Afghanistan and Africa. She is a Grand Prix winner of prestigious CARE Humanitaire Reportage in 2007 and the inaugural Pierre & Alexandra Boulat Award in Perpignan, France in 2008; first prize winner of Days Japan Photojournalism Awards and WHO’s Stop Tuberculosis Partnership Award in 2008; second prize winner of Days Japan Photojournalism Awards in 2010; and the Special Jury’s Award of Days Japan in 2011.
Since starting as a full-time freelance photojournalist in 2004, she has been covering an array of news from general news to feature stories that deal with social issues and human conditions in various parts of the world. Most notably, her work on maternal morality in Afghanistan and victims of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have gained international recognition. She hopes to bring awareness to the public with these issues, and tries to deliver the voices of the oppressed citizens of the world in her own visual language.
She is the author of three essays all published in South Korea respectively: “A Photographer in Kabul (2008),” the reportage on DR Congo’s sexual violence, “Tears in the Congo (2008),” and the reportage on Brazil, Congo, Middle East, “Struggling for Hope (2010).”
She was named as an ambassador against MDR-TB (Multi-drug resistant Tuberculosis) on World Tuberculosis Day in Seoul, South Korea, on March 2010, and as one of 15 Asian Women Photographers at Angkor Photo Festival in November 2010. In 2017, she was selected in the Ambassador Program by Canon UK.
Based in Seoul, South Korea, she is a contract photographer for Rest of World, and is working with The New York Times, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Getty Images, and other international media and NGOs.
Categories judged by Jean Chung: COVID-19 / Portraits / Covid Picture Story / Cultural Practices / Photographer of the Year, Asia
Quick links to POY Asia 2022 Judges: Nyimas Laula / Liang-Pin Tsao / Anush Babajanyan / Ikuru Kuwajima / Tanvi Mishra / Samuel He / Jean Chung / Sanjit Das / Maika Elan / Oded Wagenstein
Furaha Fuluko Jeanne, 19, sits in a classroom inside a high school in Kichanga, DRC, 2009. She was raped by two CNDP militiamen and gave birth to a son.
"I think a good photograph in issue reporting photojournalism not only reflects the ‘zeitgeist (spirit of the age),’ but also empathizes with the subject, unless it is a photograph of a villain. A photojournalist should be aware of the issue very well and judge the situation to differentiate between the oppressors and the vulnerable victims. It is important to understand the cause, listen to the oppressed, and try to report the voices of the under-reported."
Jean Chung
Victims of sexual violence from different villages drink warm milk provided by Mama Jeanne, the manager of Kichanga transit center in Masisi Territory, DRC 2009.
An Afghan boy with a mastiff dog for a dog fight in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, Nov. 3, 2006.
A girl with a flat basket walks past a sign of a gym in Kabul, 2006.
Picture series of survivors of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, “Tears in the Congo 2014,” was exhibited as a part of “Women in War” of Daegu Photo Biennale at Daegu Art Power Plant in Daegu, South Korea, September 2014.
