In 2006, Gallery Lumiere started LIPA (Lumiere International Photography Award) with the intention of building a platform for young, creative and innovative artists. The idea behind the award is to actively support their artistic career by generous funding and open doors for them to gain an international reputation.

Yun Lee studied at Kunstakademie Dusseldorf. She was named as the best student by Jannis Kounellis, a master in sculpture and installation work. With Thomas Ruff’s recommendation, her tutor as well as international photographer, she had become LIPA’s first winner.

Yun Lee, an artist who is actively building a career in Germany, produces works that are both sentimental and philosophical. Her ‘Private World’ series was started in 2004 and this deals with the most traditional fine art genre; portrait and still life. By using the two genres she produces works that are reborn as visual art with a new form which has a visual harmony. Yun Lee analyses, captures and explains the female models’ private world, and this is reproduced in her photography. However, in reality the truth we see in the photographic work is not the private world of the female models but a reinterpreted display of the artist’s world.