Kim Seok Jong _ Journalist
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JULY 2023
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The life and photographic odyssey of Kim Woo Young are filled with solitude and wanderust. He was once a leading figure in Korean commercial advertising photography. However, as he earned money and fame, his life lost its placidity, and his spirit became weary.
He described it as a feeling of being chased by something. It was around that time that I met Kim Woo Young, who had a life awash in alcohol. It seemed like he was struggling to find the lost ‘self’.
He traveled several times to the Himalayas following a professional mountaineering expedition. And finally, in 2007, he left Korea for the Californian deserts. The bare face of nature, such as sunlight, air, water, and wind, was there. He was particularly fascinated by the almost ruined industrial areas. He lived there as a solitary free spirit for a solid six years and continued to immerse himself in photography. He went ‘all in’ for the fundamentals of photography, stripping away any pretense like computer editing.
His works in that period are closer to painting than photography in terms of texture and color. The photos of abandoned gray factories appear simple, but reveal a solid dignity with a sense of weight and heaviness. The contrasting colors of red, blue, and orange vividly stand out against the details that show the traces of time. It’s like a stage set for a classical play.
The colorful lines and surfaces of the central lines of empty asphalt roads, sidewalks, and building boundaries boldly divide the screen. The sunlight shining on the landscape, the flickering shadows or shade, the sound of passing wind, and the lingering sensation of lively rainwater are all engraved.
Kim Woo Young turns his vision to the traditional Korean beauty from urban aesthetics and techniques he acquired from his work in the United States. He focused his lens on the minimal lines and structures of the hanok, maximizing the natural beauty of soil and wood. It was a new attempt to embody the Korean aesthetics and traditions in Korean temples, gardens, academies, and forests.
The Korean tradition captured by Kim Woo Young is the fruit of a long wait. He patiently waited for the perfect moment to press the shutter. The black-and-white contrast and empty spaces of the snow-covered hanok look like black-and-white photographs, but they faithfully express the original colors. By using traditional Korean paper to print, he incorporated the ambiance of Eastern arts such as calligraphy or ink painting. Kim Woo Young’s poetic imagination makes the familiar unfamiliar, and preserves the time-honored sensibility of Korean people.
Kim Woo Young’s odyssey seems to be traversing the earth now.
The imagination of his land is connected to the birth and erosion of nature, as well as eternity. At times, asphalt roads and dirt paths weave into the depths of rugged nature, reminiscent of an eternal journey that bridges the present world and the next world in the landscapes of mountains and deserts.
Land is the energy and source of the Earth, humankind, and nature.
His depiction of land guides us to the deep spirituality of untouched primal nature. Has Kim Woo Young escaped from the depths of solitude and wanderlust through his contemplation and imagination? Mother nature he gazes upon is cold, abrupt, profound, and distant. His odyssey is progressing towards the realm of Tao where life and photography are united into one based on the essence of the Earth.
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