Nikki S. Lee

Nikki Seung-hee Lee (born 1970) is a Korean photographer and filmmaker formerly based in New York City, now living and working in Seoul.

Education

After earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Chung-Ang University in South Korea in 1993, she moved to New York in 1994 to attend the Fashion Institute of Technology. She earned her Master of Arts in photography at New York University in 1998.

Work

Projects, 1997–2001

Lee's most noted work, Projects (1997–2001), begun while still in school, depicts her in snapshot photographs in which she poses with drag queens, punks, swing dancers, senior citizens, Latinos, hip-hop musicians and fans, skateboarders, lesbians, young urban professionals, and Korean schoolgirls. She immerses herself into each American subculture and created an identity that is an extension of herself. With a simple point-and-shoot camera, she asked the selected group or passerby to record her. Lee conceives of her work as less about creating beautiful pictures, and more about investigating notions of identity and the uses of vernacular photography. The project was one of her graduation requirements.

Nikki (singer)

Nikki (or Nikki Lee) is a Japanese-American musician, born in Okinawa, Japan and raised in Dayton, Ohio, United States. Signed to Geffen Records, he released one album, Nikki, in 1989. Three singles were released from the album: "Ooti Ooti" and "Notice Me" in 1990, and "If You Wanna" in 1991. Of the three, only "Notice Me", written by Nikki and Paul David Wilson, was a hit, reaching #21 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, #11 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart. and bringing Nikki and Wilson honors from BMI as writer and publisher of one of the most performed songs of the year, 1990.

Nikki was also a backing member of the soul-funk music group, Sun, and a writer of TV commercials.

Nikki is also known as Michael Mozart, and in 2003 he formed the band Oppera with his wife Martika. Changing her sound to that of goth pop, she and Mozart released Oppera’s debut album Violince in 2004, followed by a self-titled album in 2005.

In 2009, Nikki changed his name to Michael Daemon and began producing, directing, writing and starring in the web based TV series J8ded.