2nd Place, Filippo Venturi, Italy

Until the 1960s South Korea was largely underdeveloped yet just 50 years later it is one of the most advanced countries in the world, the result of rapid modernisation achieved through fierce competition and a national focus on scholastic, aesthetic and professional perfection. The young generation is pushed towards an alienating standardisation, the opposite of western ideas of success coming from one’s ability to emerge from the mass. The collateral effects of this rapid social, educational, economical, aesthetic and technological evolution, achieved through high competition, rivalry and plastic surgery, are psychological outbursts such as social isolation and stress that sometimes result in alcoholism and suicide.