3. The Thing We Have In Common

I photographed six Korean-American students in Provo, Utah. Along with each portrait is a small excerpt from the conversation I had with each individual about their personal identity as a Korean-American. These six subjects each come from a different upbringing - strictly Korean heritage, Caucasian adoptee parents, and everything in between. Some talked about their upbringing, while others discussed how college life has effected them culturally. Because the home is where we become most rooted in tradition and culture, I chose to photograph each student inside their apartment living space.


Yeri "I came here when I was twelve and lived in LA. When I was in LA I didn't have a lot of American friends. It was the middle of Koreatown and English was just for talking to teachers at school. My husband and I mix the language between English and Korean when we speak, but for me I speak more Korean because it's my first language. We actually eat more American food, like pasta, than Korean food because, for us as students, it just takes too long to make."


Emily "Because my parents aren't very good at English and moved to America when they were older, they still have all their Korean traditions and holidays and everything. I am pretty open-minded, willing to try new things, and accepting of different cultures, which makes me more American in that way. But I love watching Korean dramas and listening to Korean music and the language, I just love that side of it."


Grace "I feel like my family is pretty mixed. We eat American food and Korean food, but I like Korean food more. I don't really like American food that much. My parents, as business owners, know how to act American even though they are Korean. Out of my siblings, I think my eldest brother feels the most Korean out of all of us, and that's just because he served a mission there."


Jason "I would say that I am more 'American-Korean'. I used to feel torn, but I felt like it was a decision I had to make. You're going to be on one side or the other and when I married [my Caucasian wife], I felt like that's when I made my decision to be more American. Up until that point, it felt like I could live in both worlds. But it's a conscious decision which side you end up on. I feel like marriage within or without of the culture finalizes that decision."


Jake "We always spoke Korean in our house. If my parents asked me something and I answered back in English, they would look at me and tell me to use Korean instead. I feel more Korean when I'm around Koreans, but when I'm with Americans, I feel like I become more American. So I don't know if I'm necessarily more Korean or more American, it just depends who I'm with."


Rebecca "I was born in Korea but I was adopted when I was a baby. I grew up in Wisconsin and I am the only non-Caucasian in my family of five children. As I've gotten older and come to college, I think this has been the time that I've worked on understanding the Korean part of myself. It's still something that I'm figuring out, but it's a part of myself that I love. I've talked about this with many of my Korean-American friends, how sometimes it feels like you end up alienated, or displaced, from both [American and Asian] areas."

2. I Was In Bed

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"I was 10 and in 5th grade. School hadn't started yet, it was early in the morning in Utah, so I was still sleeping when my mom woke me up and told me that two planes had crashed into the World Trade Center buildings. I remember wondering what the World Trade Center buildings were, and also being annoyed that my mom had woken me up because of a plane crash.

I told her that I knew what I would use for my current event the next day, but she assured me that it would covered that day. I thought it was just a plane crash, so I told her I doubted it. It wasn't until I was at school and we were watching news footage of people burning the American flag that I started to realize it had been more than just a plane crash."

- Sadie Esplin

Orem, Utah

1. 701 W 1600 S

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“Me and Nana were baptized ­in June of 1958 and one of our friends from high school that we knew, his parents were members of the church and his mother had a sister who lived in Provo, and her husband had a mink farm. The deal that was worked out was that we could live on the farm and take care of the mink and we wouldn’t have to pay rent or anything.  And [in the house] there wasn’t even a bedroom. There was one big front room, the living room, so we had two cribs and roll out couch.

Minks are nasty little animals, they’re not friendly at all. You don’t pet them, believe me. We had big thick gloves we had to wear if you had to do anything with them so they wouldn’t bite you. There was this one time, I lost my wedding ring. I had lost so much weight over after we got married, and one time it just “whoosh” lost it in the bedding. Couldn’t find it. Maybe when they cut open a mink they found it.

The problem was that by the time we got there, we didn’t have any money. So, when I went to register, I couldn’t register because I didn’t have any money to pay, so we didn’t get into school. So we lived in the farm from September, October, into November.

Then Nana found out she was pregnant again and then her mother was going through a divorce. So we ended up going back home in November, so we were there for three months. That was 1958; I was twenty, Nana was twenty. Your dad was eight months old, so Lynnanne was a year and ten months. She as just starting to talk and she could walk.

It was actually a good deal and I think if Nana hadn’t been pregnant and then her mother with her divorce and everything and needing help… it was a good deal for us at the time.

So we came home just before Christmas of that same year.  But we never regretted it, it was a good experience.”

- Linwood Schulte, my grandfather

Unabridged version of the story + image of myself and grandpa at the house - CLICK HERE.