Visual Philosophizing on the Road

Kim, Woo Young_Artist’s Note

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OCTOBER 2016

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My photography begins with landscapes that we encounter every day. Scenes that we might have seen somewhere. Yet, these images caught by the camera look somewhat unfamiliar – this is the beginning of the problem that I explore in my photography. Scenes in my photos are obviously taken from daily life. However, these are reprocessed images in a carefully calculated and planned visual condition. In other words, my photos are something that should be ‘read’ in between myself and the viewer. I pursue the expansion of meanings in this process. As the frame is determined and the shutter is pressed on the intersection in which the location of a landscape as a subject for the camera and the position of my conscious thinking are connected by logic, the feeling of tension increases. It is a logical view of landscape or an anti-landscape view of photography. The look of colors is crucial in my photography. In dealing with the complication of random landscapes or the sense of reality, interpretation of colors creates a direct visual condition that is completely distinguished from a symbolic expression of black and white photography or a metaphoric unfolding of inner images. My photography, which is not an experiment conveying a concrete message, attempts to show possibilities of a new interpretation of landscapes by providing a direct visual experience. My work is not a fragment of a simple landscape – it is different from other photos that intend to record something with specific intentions. The prominent logic in my work is to convey the reality - understanding it as the ‘world’ itself. Manipulating the system of colors in reality to interpret it into my own language, for example the color system of nature, - this is my own color system and how I perceive landscapes. While preparing this series, I wanted to develop a critical mind in a more controlled yet intense way. I hoped that my world would be able to perform the role of a visual language reflecting a sense of reality by suggesting broad perspectives on culture, society and art, beyond the realm of photography. My artistic achievement lies in the fact that my efforts do not end in urban depression and tragedy. Instead, my art provides an irony that leads one to reflect on urban desires and eventually to be freed from them. Instead of escaping from the city or transcending it, my photography visits the dark shadow of urban desires in order to discover the light of purification and regeneration. ​ _