The Mother of the Sea

The subjects reflected in my work are called “Haenyo,” literally meaning “sea women” in Korean. These women have a century-old history of making their own living by catching oysters, sea cucumbers, abalones, sea urchins, and squids. They hold their breaths for over two minutes and dive to depth of twenty meters without using any diving equipment. Being a Haenyo is certainly not meant to be for the weak; hence the saying, “Haenyos do the work of the dead in the land of the living.”