Youn Tae Ok _ Traveler
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JULY 2023
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In 1989
About 30 years ago, I founded a new monthly magazine called “Broadcast” while working at the Broadcasting Commission. With the reorganization of the editorial department, I met Kim Woo Young, who was the same age as me. Kim Woo Young had just finished graduate school and joined as a photojournalist. From his attire and hairstyle to his speech and behavior, he exuded freedom and casualness that were not seen in other members of the organization. We had a professional connection, and because photography was my humble hobby, I willingly approached him.
He worked passionately with a sense of fulfillment, but his carefree nature also caused some friction in the bureaucratic organization. There were some ups and downs, but we just enjoyed ourselves sharing a glass of soju together. We would either create an atmosphere full of laughter or engage in heated debates. Although feeling guilty about my invasion of his privacy, I occasionally peeked into his workspace, the darkroom of the editorial department. This is how I witnessed his late twenties, and it was during that time that I owned a copy of his graduation portfolio.
In 1990
One day, he submitted his resignation letter. His resignation was expected. Being a salaried photojournalist, especially in a government agency, was not enough to encapsulate his life, even though it might have been a short-term experience in his youth. It didn’t give him any room to breathe life into his work. He took off his temporary label as a salaried photojournalist and left for New York.
In 1993
Several years had passed. His time in New York seasoned him with his study. It couldn’t have been an easy experience. With just one camera and a filter of his own sense, he delved into a new world of photography in a foreign language. I could guess how much his body and mind were struggling all those years, and how he shifted the coordinates of his life going through the mill.
In 1995
After traveling back and forth between Seoul and New York, he returned to Korea. He was active in commercial photography, mostly at studios in Sinsa-dong. Many fashion models and celebrities danced in front of his camera. I could tell without asking that he was commercially successful.
He also didn’t stop holding solo exhibitions. Commercial photography is also considered art, but it is also work. Amidst all those tasks, he carried his own photographic world separately.
Kim Woo Young was full of energy. His exhibits were always based on urban engineering he studied in his early twenties.
In 2003
The most memorable work of his for me was not the urban engineering based abstract images, but the photographs of people. They portrayed patients fighting cancer as well as medical professionals and caregivers.
The smiling faces of cancer patients in bright-toned treatment rooms, and the gentle smiles of those taking care of them. He captured the somber and burdensome reality through the bright movements of life.
I personally commented on his work for the first time. I told him that his photos were really good and they permeated into the depths of my heart.
In 2007
Whoever it may be, whatever life they lead, there are twists and turns.
He halted all his successful career in commercial photography and other business activities to return to the United States. Now, he decided to focus on his lifelong fine art projects as an artist. It was a risky choice, especially at his middle age, to let go of the financial stability. I didn’t know about his financial situation then, and I still remain unaware, but a fragment of my concern followed him. It felt different from his first departure.
In 2011
At that time, I had withdrawn from Korean society and become a somewhat unusual traveler, spending about half a year in China.
Kim Woo Young flew to Yunnan, China. With a travel backpack on his back and a camera bag on his front, he showed up at Kunming Airport.
Holing a large Hasselblad camera in his hands, he was literally a fine art photographer. Seeing an artist on location rather than at an exhibition was a unique experience, but above all, it was simply pleasant to see him in person.
I traveled with him, a friend of twenty years, and my son in his early twenties. I traveled, he worked, and my little son made memories.
I remember him pressing the shutter endlessly in the canal that runs through a rural village from the mountains. I also remember vividly that he pressed the shutter as if piercing through the old walls. The field was covered with yellow rapeseed flowers and the clouds were floating at eye level in a grand canyon. He took my camera and pressed the shutter a few times as I gasped for breath on the rough ridge. He captured that moment for me. That photo is still used as my profile picture. I heard that Kim Woo Young revisited Yunnan after that.
In 2015
For some reason, he was focusing on the diaspora. At that time, I traveled somewhere in China for about half a year under the title “Humanistic Journey in China”. He caught fragments of the diaspora from my travelogues. Immediately, he packed his backpack and we went to the deep forests of the north together. The way from Harbin, where we arrived by plane, to our destination was literally the land itself. There were no hills or mountains even after a two-hour drive on the highway.
The endless cornfields were so unreal creating an illusion of space and time. We passed by the infinite meadows that looked abandoned, and then impressive winding mountain paths as well.
Crossing the mountain range to the west, we finally arrived at Hulunbeier Grassland, which was a quite different land from the Manchurian Plain. Defined by the hopeless curves, the contours of the land were invisible because our eye couldn't reach. The vast grassland quietly made history, and the roads disappeared into the horizon without ever breaking, albeit thin.
Nothing suddenly happens in life. Something has accumulated for a long time and made its appearance. Kim Woo Young is releasing “THE VASTNESS Ⅱ” today because he has accumulated it in his body and mind for so long. Luckily, I am sharing some magnificent memories of the plains, mountain ranges, forests, and grasslands.
While traversing such paths, he met many different people. His journey was filled with familiar or unfamiliar vocabulary, such as the Tungus, the Ewenki, the Daxinganling reindeer, and more. He once spent a night in a felt tent of the Ewenki, who raise reindeer in the forest. As the reindeer returned home in the morning, the delightfully tinkling sounds of bells around their necks would resonate in the fog.
In 2016
In the following year, there was an exhibition at Choi Sunu’s Hanok in Seongbuk-dong, Seoul. On the walls were hung his artworks depicting the Hanok delicately. Each piece portrayed fragments of the Hanok, but creative enough to envision a complete Hanok house. His perspective has been constantly expanding with his focus aligned on both distant and nearby subjects.
In 2022
His exhibitions took place annually. The same held true in 2022.
I got in touch and met him at his temporary workspace in downtown Seoul. It was there that he gifted me two volumes of his art books: “Poetics of Tranquility” and “Urban Odyssey (North America)”. The soft gray and light pink covers made a strong impression. The two massive books were 3.5cm thick and 36cm long, weighing around 3 kg!
And now, in 2023
While exploring somewhere in Europe, I received a message from Kim Woo Young. He informed me of the release of his third art book, “THE VASTNESS” and asked me to write a piece of writing for it. It was delightful, but I hesitated for fear that my limited understanding of aesthetics and my humble writing would ruin a comprehensive collection of his lifetime work. I wanted to decline, but all the years we had spent together prevented me from doing so. It is not common to witness the creative process of an artist in lifetime. Moreover, our relationship is not limited between the artist and the audience at the exhibition hall. We are friends sharing the memories, traveling together near and far even with my son.
I am truly grateful to be part of his remarkable art book.
Last, but not least, I want people not to misunderstand that this book is a wrap-up of the second half in his career. That is not true.
Kim Woo Young is merely filling his halftime, transitioning from the first half of his career to the second half. I have no doubt that he will agree with me.
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