Photographer captures Korea’s cultural heritage

This essay is by knowledgeable photographer who has spent greater than 30 years documenting cultural heritage websites in South Korea and overseas. It combines some 70 of his pictures with reflections on the craft and mindset behind them. His work has additionally performed a job in serving to Korean landmarks, together with the Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty, the Baekje Historic Areas, the Gaya Tumuli and the Petroglyphs Along the Bangucheon Stream in Ulsan, earn UNESCO World Heritage standing.

The creator defines images as “an expression of humanism.” For him, humanism shouldn’t be restricted to encounters between individuals. It additionally means connecting with those that lived centuries in the past by means of the artifacts they left behind, understanding their lives and methods of pondering, and conveying that understanding by means of pictures that talk extra powerfully than phrases.

That philosophy shapes the way in which he approaches each heritage web site. He doesn’t see cultural treasures as relics of a distant previous preserved behind glass. Instead, he treats them as residing locations that proceed to inform their tales at the moment. Palaces reminiscent of Gyeongbok Palace and Changdeok Palace might now be admired primarily for his or her historic worth, however they had been as soon as houses the place kings lived out their every day lives. He believes solely by imagining these lives can a photographer uncover the true character of the structure.

The dedication behind his pictures is outstanding. Photography is commonly known as the artwork of the decisive second, however that second not often comes by likelihood. The ideally suited picture is dependent upon a exact mixture of daylight, humidity and even snowfall. To seize it, he research climate forecasts daily and returns to the identical location repeatedly, generally dozens of occasions. Climbing over rocks in quest of the proper angle, he says, is just a part of the work.

One {photograph} stands out because the clearest instance of that perseverance: his picture of the primary corridor at Jongmyo Shrine. It took 5 years of ready to make. The {photograph} captures all 19 ancestral chambers illuminated on the similar time. Against the fading night sky, the nice and cozy gentle accentuates the shrine’s solemnity and sacred ambiance. The tales behind these pictures, every taken when a cultural treasure reveals itself at its most interesting, are simply as compelling as the pictures themselves.

김도연 repokim@donga.com