The Bride Series, stretches the traditional ways brides are defined. The Asian brides I photographed are not the typical, submissive, male-relying brides that may first come to mind to a lot of people when they think of Asian brides. Other brides I photographed transcend the meaning of the gender of groom and bride. The women in my photographs are the participants in a mass marriage ceremony by the Unification Church; the bride-wanna-bes at Korean sticker photo stores; a 78 year-old bride on her 60th wedding anniversary in Queens, NY; drag queens, and another mass marriage ceremony of same-sex brides. - Jean Chung



Korean photographer Jean Chung has won one of the six grand prizes at the International Photojournalism Festival of Perpignan in France. The 36-year-old freelance photographer has been touring famine and conflict sites around the world.

Chung has been visiting troubled areas around the world, including the Afghan interior and tsunami ravaged Thailand. An art student in her earlier days, she graduated from Seoul National University's Oriental Painting College of Arts in 1993.

She studied photography at New York University and worked in the U.S. for a while as a photojournalist. After getting her master's degree in photojournalism from the University of Missouri, she began to travel the globe. Her first important work was a New York Times spread detailing the destruction caused by the tsunami in Thailand in late 2004. Since then she's been active both at home and abroad.

Digital Chosun Ilbo