Superman never made any money saving the world from Solomon Grundy, and sometimes I despair the world will never see another man like him. [1]

The double life of a superhero is not something to be envied. Clark Kent always having to ham it up, forever playing the role of feeble be-spectacled newspaper geek. Bruce Banner, hitch-hiking his way across the US, tortured patsy in his desperate avoidance of conflict. Bruce Wayne, lonely and isolated in his millionaire's philanthropy, not a friend in the world but a butler on payroll and a teenage circus runaway. Sure Peter Parker enjoys a more interesting sex life than most, but the psychological trauma of being half-man half-spider has had its effects. It's the price they pay for greatness. Their flawed alter-egos are the things we love most about them; it's what makes them one of us. The thing we admire most is their imperfection.

Somewhere in Korea is a quiet unassuming guy. He's a photographer, and sometimes teaches English though his own isn't quite perfect. He's got a beautiful wife, and a wee son. In his spare time he likes to cook (his specialty is Spam soup). He also takes dancing lessons, and goes mountain climbing. Just a regular bloke : friendly, honest, gentle sense of humour. On the surface of things he's just like everyone else. Slipping past the notice of the bustling masses, melting seamlessly into the crowd, Yeondoo Jung draws his powers from being just a regular Joe ; no one would ever suspect he's Mr. Wonderful.

The heroism of inadequacy is often underrated. Value is placed on tangible commodity : good looks, prestigious job, noted accomplishments. Nobody ever celebrates things which didn't pan out. Success is as easy as it is unfulfilling; no one is perfect. Failure is far more courageous: the moral wealth of the under paid, the inner beauty of the ugly, the warm generosity of the lonely, the closet adventures of the boring. Dreaming their dreams of a brighter future, living vicariously in the what-might-be. They're the secret envy of the world, epically heroic in just being themselves; their double lives guarded as closely as Atlantis. [3]

In the real world there's no kryptonite or Lex Luther, only repetition, banality, and isolation ; the constant malevolent threat of losing faith in humanity, succumbing to the forces of cynicism.

Becoming a super-hero, for Jung, is more than his dream. It is his motivation : He sees a world that needs him. By most superhero standards, Jung's a rank amateur. An armchair crusader born of his own imagination. Armed only with positivism and simple acts of kindness Mr. Wonderful is doing his best to champion Good and save Mankind. You see, Jung reckons imagination can become reality.

Controversial, maybe. Delusional, perhaps. Yeondoo Jung might be our greatest urban legend. OK, he's not perfect, but he's the best he can be. And if you believe, I mean really believe, some of his magic might rub off on you. With just a little effort, there's a chance that you could be wonderful too.
Super Rule #1: Try to make a difference, no matter how small.

Every superhero has a secret weapon. For Yeondoo Jung it's his camera. The splendour of Jung's work lies in the very concept of photography. The snap of a button forever capturing the victory of the micro over the macro, focussing on and immortalising the positive, his view-finder selectively cropping out evil. Each film frame contains an inalterable parallel universe, defended from the hazards of time and space. His photographs are untouchable alternate realities : where wrongs become rights, flaws become fortunes, and the everyday takes the form of ambrosiac reverie. Through photography, anything becomes possible.

The amazing thing about superheroes is they turn up unexpectedly, always at the most opportune moment of crisis. Evergreen Tower is a high-rise bastion of urban anonymity. Concrete symbol of cold-hearted modernity, one of a million the same. A human ant colony of suited office workers and 2.5 children, on the verge slipping into 21st century obscurity. Seoul is Jung's adopted Gotham City. Within its austere walls, he crusades for a way of life to be cherished and protected.

Jung uses photography like some kind of x-ray vision, slicing through the jaded veneer of reality, not to expose what's underneath, but rather what was there on the surface all the time. With each click of the shutter, he exhumes the magic of things that have slipped by our notice. Within these identical pre-fab units is a megacosm of secret life, a wonder-world of private domains, perfect empires constructed by the people who dared to dream them. People just like us, just like Jung.

Number 18, a family of music lovers, with a keen interest in traditional arts, delighting in their children, their apartment converted to a colourful playground for their young daughter and her fluffy pink rabbit friend.

Number 17, a clan of intellects, they travel the world and the www, interfacing with the globe that strengthens their pride in their own heritage. Adorning their walls with family photos, inspirational calligraphy, alongside a souvenir cuckoo clock, they are adventurers in their own home.

Number 16, live in the height of fashion. Luxurious leather furniture, and minimalist interior design indicate their refined taste and virtue.

Number 15, are a family on the move. There's no comfortable furniture for lounging here. Only the efficient needs of a busy lifestyle, dominated by the largest clock they could buy. If the devil makes work for idle hands, this family is the epitome of goodness.

Number 13, fancy themselves as something of royalty. Being middle-class apartment dwellers doesn't squelch their ambitions to live in an Arabic palace. Everyday they experience the dignity of kings.

Jung's portraits do more than just depict circumstance ; they are mementos of his own relationships. Photographing people in their homes requires trust : the cultivation of friendships, a process of giving oneself. Sharing experience and aspiration, expanding one's own existence in the world. Evergreen Towers consist of 32 families, each one known to Jung by name, personality, occupation, and interests. Through his work, he is presenting more than their dreams. He's disseminating the qualities of their friendship. With each image, Jung acts as mutual acquaintance, making an introduction between viewer and subject. Each photo represents a world made smaller by one less degree of separation. Collaboration is more than a process, it is the art.

Super Rule #2: Be friendly, value each other.


Super Rule #3: Celebrate your shortcomings.

Meeting someone for the first time is always so weird. That awkward dating agency getting-to-know-you, entire lives compressed into sound bites. All the intimate details are suppressed palimpsests struggling to be read between the lines. There's something of a talk-show tv aspect to Jung's work : It's people's innermost fancies which he expertly extracts. Not seedy sex casuistries or social freak-isms, but the really personal stuff : Our most coveted desires. Dreams are the most honest revelation of self ; the hidden escape routes from our most sensitive vulnerabilities. Sharing a dream is the greatest act of bravery. It's not who you are, but what you want to be that matters.

Fantasies are embarrassing because they're so simple, chimerical naiveties that defy logic. To harbour a dream of travelling to Antarctica, to live in a house entirely upholstered in Marimekko fabric, to become a great chef, fall in love at a night club, or a be a hero like Tom Cruise in "Top Gun" are the most humiliating confidences of all. "Hi, my name is Bob, and I've always wanted to play spoons with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra" is the hardest thing in the world to say. [4]

Jung doesn't promote an I'm OK You're OK assurance. His is a far more risky business : He offers voyeurism as the most inspirational of pleasures. He evangelically purifies "gawping" into "sharing." His photos convert shame into delight. In "Bewitched," Jung relishes this inhibition as a celebration of difference. Meeting complete strangers on his many travels, Jung rides in like a contemporary Lone Ranger, peddling the opportunity of making their dreams come true. Deals with masked men, however, are never what they seem. It requires genuine faith, and more than a little hard graft.

Making a dream come true is not as simple as abracadabra : These collaborations take months to accomplish, building meaningful relationships with each subject, faithfully executing their fantasies right down to each implausible detail. Here the desire of the dreamer and the vision of the artist become inextricably tangled. Negotiating sponsorship for each fantasy brings dozens more onboard. One man alone cannot accomplish a dream : Jung has garnered the assistance of design firms, small businesses, world experts, school children, and even the Korean military. Achieving one person's dream becomes the ambition of thousands. Jung's photos are icons of valour, monuments to inspiration, possibility, and good will. With each project he casts a spell of altruism with a ripple on effect. The end result may only be a single image, an aspiration staged for only a moment. But these are humble souvenirs of the much grander magic : The power of Belief.

Super Rule #4: Goodwill is contagious, spread it.
Super Rule #5: Children know something we don't, learn from them.

Belief, these days, is intensely unfashionable. It's the naive stuff of wishes and felicities, a simpleton's faith in the impossible. Innocence is always tinged with self-chastisement. Wonder and astonishment are unsophisticated sentiments, special privileges reserved just for children: wizards on broomsticks, flower garden princesses, magic fairylands of rainbows and candy trees. Children believe unquestioningly in Mr. Wonderful ; because Yeondoo Jung completely understands.

In "Wonderland," Jung's latest collaborators have been a group of kindergarten kids. Working from drawings they've made, Jung has recreated their untarnished fantasy worlds in photographic reality. Geometric stick figures take teen-model form with specially designed costumes, nymphs elevate into flight via photomontage, and clumsy crayon distortion becomes pure logic placed in real perspective. What's most inspiring about Jung's photos is how they fit seamlessly into adult worlds.

A 5-year-old's scribbled mass of two men holding flowers and a stick figure baby are faithfully recreated as a joyous gay wedding. A clown with an umbrella stands outside the dismal exterior of the school, a drab institutional-looking building in the child's eyes is an enchanted paradise. A delightful portrait of a prince giving gold to a peasant girl is romantically staged in a back alley of Seoul's slums, the city's glorious corporate skyline towering in the distance. What Jung has represented isn't artificial construction. His photos are plausible adult blueprints reflecting children's innate will to see only the good in the world.

Super Rule #6: If you belief in magic, you will find it everywhere.



Sometimes when Super was stopping crimes, I'll bet that he was tempted to just quit and turn his back on man, join Tarzan in the forest.

But he stayed in the city, and kept on changing clothes in dirty old phone booths till his work was through, and nothing to do but go on home. [5]

Imagine a world where there were no secret lives, no double identities ; where dreams become a treasured and accepted part of everyday reality. Superman could finally stop his constant lying to Lois Lane. The Incredible Hulk could get some help with aggression management therapy. And Batman could quit hanging out in the cave beneath his house, come to terms with the death of his parents, buy a normal car, and develop more appropriate relationships. The world may never come completely to terms with a man who's half-spider, but we could learn, become more tolerant of Peter Parker's infliction. None of this would affect their ability to fight the forces of evil ; they will always do that. But it would make them more enriched people. Make their lives a better place, for themselves and the people around them.

Saving the world is no easy business. It's neither instant nor dramatic. There's no insignia or capes, no underwear on the outside of trousers. No secret lairs, or magical powers. Being a bona-fide superhero is simply a philosophy. It's something within Jung, something within each of us. Strength, courage, kindness, love. Being open and completely honest. Tolerating and sharing. Heroism begins at home. It's spread through every positive action.

Somewhere in Seoul is just a regular guy, a man with a camera, a man with a vision. When Yeondoo Jung goes to bed at night he is very, very tired. But he is happy. What exactly he dreams about isn't important. He knows in his heart of hearts that dreams really can come true.

Not what we originally wished for, but something much, much more precious.


Sweet dreams, Mr. Wonderful. And thank you.


[1] Lyrics from Crash Test Dummies' "Superman's Song," track 3, The Ghosts That Haunt Me, Arista Records, 1991.
[2] Oh, the possibilities Mary Jane enjoys with a man who can actually stick to the ceiling!
[3] Ancient lost city mysteriously referred to by Plato, and rumoured to be sunk to the bottom of the sea, guarded by mermaids. Home to Aquaman. . .