The inspiration for Hyung S. Kim’s series of portraits stems from a visit to Jeju Island, South Korea in 2012.  Captivated by The Haenyeo and their unique physical performance of a daily routine that revealed immense power, resilience and courage.

Choosing portraiture to show the free divers emerging from the sea, wet and exhausted after long hours of fishing. The photographer spent a few years getting to know this tight-knit community before approaching them with the idea for a project. The results are incredible images, tired and cold after a difficult day of diving, yet still with a self assured strength. Their wetsuits are decorated with embroidered fabric and the weighted belts that prevent buoyance, which then become a symbol of prestige as indication of the skill and ability to remain submerged. Most Haenyeo will continue diving into advancing years, waiting for the day when "mulsum" or  breathe underwater, a euphemism for the uncontrollable gasp for air that will inevitably end their life.
 

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​The Haenyeo are a diving community of women that have existed for as long as history remembers, however this is a traditional form of fishing that, like many others is in decline. With only a few working professionally, Jeju Island residence now choose to seek work in cities.

This ancient form of free diving has achieved UNESCO World Heritage status as an Ephemeral Culture, but has little chance of existing into the second half of the century.

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"Feminist quiz question of the day: Where in the world has a society existed since the 17th century in which women do all the work and the men take care of home and childcare? Google “haenyeo divers” and you’ll find that just such an impressive cultural economy exists in the Jeju coastal area of South Korea, where the “Amazons of Asia” dive for valuable shellfish without breathing apparatuses well into their eighties."  Sarah Mower - vogue.com