JI Yeo

Beauty Recovery Room is a series of photographs that were taken directly after its subjects had undergone plastic surgery operations; showing the physical cost that many Korean women bear by adhering to social pressures of attaining beauty; specifically, a more Western look. The latest raw data compiled from the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery in 2010, confirms that South Korea is indeed the country with the world’s highest per capita rate of cosmetic plastic surgery. It is a culture where men are judged on their financial balance sheet and women by their beauty. The male-dominated media endlessly reinforces its model of the ideal woman. As a result of these cultural forces Korea has become a beauty-oriented society where people are judged more for their appearance than their character. Korean women often fall into the trap of trying to live up to an ideal personified in the media. The combination of these factors has dramatically increased the burgeoning plastic surgery industry while creating another set of standards for women to adhere to. Enduring general anesthetic, cuts, bruises, and often intense scarring all for the sake of vanity is no longer considered risky or extravagant behaviour; quite the reverse, it has become commonplace. Beauty Recovery Room shows the wounded faces and bodies of women who have recently undergone plastic surgery.