ENTRY DESCRIPTION
This is my personal interpretation of Baridegi, expressed through photography. Taken on this summer in studio.

Baridegi is a Korean narative shamanic song about the ancestral shaman goddess in Korea. Even today, some Koreans who still adhere to shamanism hold a death ritual called Saryeongje, where they call a shaman to sing the story of Baridegi, comforting and guiding the spirit of the deceased.

The lyrics can be summarized as follows:

King and queen married and they gave birth to 7children. Upon discovering their seventh child was also a daughter, they disappointed that all their offspring were female, ordered her to be cast aside, declaring her sight unbearable.

Princess Bari was abandoned without a name and was called "Baridegi" by the people, meaning 'the forsaken girl'.

When her parents later fall fatally ill, only Baridegi agrees to undertake a perilous journey to the underworld to find the miraculous cure. Her devotion saves her parents and, in honor of her ultimate filial piety, she is reborn as the ancestral shaman goddess, guiding the dead to the afterlife.

Her epic life story is a rare narrative in traditional Korean literature, depicting a woman who resurrects a king, firmly establishes the nation's foundation, earns collective reverence as a national hero, and furthermore, becomes a god of the underworld—an enduring object of worship.

Although the various hardships Princess Bari endures in the tale, stemming from a historical preference for sons over daughters, reflect the poor state of women's rights in the past, the narrative also expresses a desire and struggle to break free from death.

AUTHOR
I'm a photographer based in South Korea. I was born here, but I lived in China for over 10 years due to my parents' business. I majored in business administration in university, but my passion for photography led me to start it as my main profession around graduation. After graduating and completing my military service, I assisted Photographer Heo Joonsung for one year and Photographer Ahn Jooyoung for four years. Currently, I started my own commercial studio.

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