On a wet British summer’s day, a north London studio is bustling with around 40 people, all here for the star at its centre: Jung Kook. Beyond his boundary-breaking career as a member of BTS, this shoot, for the cover of our Autumn 2023 Beyond Borders issue, marks a milestone in this journey as he (literally) takes the wheel to shift gears into his soloist era. Released only a few weeks before this photoshoot, “Seven”, the first track from this new era immediately ricocheted him to number one on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the fastest single to exceed 100 million streams on Spotify, and setting the stage for a promising solo debut.
“It was important for me to show how much I’ve grown as a solo artist through taking on new challenges,” Jung Kook explains to Taylor Glasby, “rather than staying in my comfort zone or settling for the things that I was used to. I wanted to fully explain that to my fans.” Its success has only strengthened the quiet confidence of the BTS maknae (youngest member), whose charisma pulls all around him into his orbit. On what would be an intimidatingly large set, Jung Kook moves through looks styled by Dazed fashion director Imruh Asha with ease, a process captured by Campbell Addy’s lens, and marked by playful fistbumps with movement director Yagamoto after each successful shot.
A star with millions of eyes on him, Jung Kook takes this pressure in his stride as he walks this new path alone. Filmmaker Celine Hong was there to capture this in motion – from a Romeo + Juliet fishtank moment with Des’ree’s “I’m Kissing You” playing in the background, and Drive-worthy moody car shots – watch what happened behind the scenes of his cinematic Dazed cover shoot above.
Read the cover story taken from the autumn issue of Dazed here. The Beyond Borders issue is on sale internationally from 14 September 2023. Pre-order a copy here.
