/ 2025 / Fine Art / Other

• Prize
  Honorable Mention
• Photographer
  Jinhoo Kim, United States

This series, “Helpless Hand,” explores a longing for help and connection that often goes unmet. In “Helpless Hands,” I depict hands in symbolic settings, expressing hope thwarted by frustration. Hands grasp at unreachable glass walls, cry out from cages of black tights, and struggle with sharp thorns, which, while symbolizing help, inflict harm. Needles show how tightly held desires for support can leave us with deeper wounds. These series collectively convey the struggle, vulnerability, and emotional toll of striving within an unyielding societal framework.