JeongMee Yoon: The Pink and Blue Project

Why do girls love pink toys and boys love blue ones? Seoul-based photographer JeongMee Yoon (born 1969) poses this question in her work, The Pink and Blue Project.

Yoon was inspired to begin this project in 2005 when she began taking note of the ubiquity of pink in her daughter's color choices, and started photographing the bedrooms of Korean and American girls and boys. She continued the project, visiting the children years later and capturing how their favorite colors had changed.

Initially, Yoon was interested in how conventions might change across borders but the gender-specific color schemes quickly established themselves as a phenomenon independent of cultural or ethnic background. The portraits question these gendered color codes and the consumer habits of both parents and children.

Hardcover