ENTRY DESCRIPTION
[New York City, 35mm Film, March 2022]

I moved to NYC in January with a broken ankle and a heart broken in several places. Moving to a big city on crutches in the middle of the snowstorm was no joke. NYC was a tough city for newbies, and my physical and mental state made it even more difficult to navigate. I spent most of the winter bundled up in my room reading. When spring finally came, my legs had somewhat healed and my crutches came off. I wanted to share this joy. I bought a bunch of flowers from the grocery store around the corner and went around giving it away. This tulip was the last remaining, and I wanted to leave a photo of it, taken in my room where I had spent the winter bundled up in pain and loneliness.

Just like the dark background, the world can seem gloomy and unclear, but sometimes it is at these moments of hurt and introspection that you gain the most clarity on yourself.

Around this time, I was going through a drastic change in career paths. There are four darkroom prints are out there, which I gave to those who either launched the thought process to the new career trajectory or helped me throughout the process. There is one more darkroom copy of this conceptual self-portrait, which I hope to one day exhibit along with my other photography.

AUTHOR
Yoonsik (Chico) Park is a South Korean performance and photography artist based in Abu Dhabi, UAE. He grew up in Russia, Greece, Poland, New York, and Serbia before first coming to the UAE. Yoonsik studied Philosophy at New York University Abu Dhabi, where he is currently a Research Fellow.

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