2008.12.22
We often encounter two paradoxes with documentary photos. One is that despite them being more frank and straightforward, they end up more touching than artistic images.
The other is that foreigners sometimes turn out to capture the most vivid and insightful moments - perhaps natives of a country are too deeply entrenched to see things clearly.
Two Seoul galleries are exhibiting documentary photos of Korea and Uganda, taken by outsiders.
One of them is a documentation of the past of Korea, recorded by Japanese photographer Kuwabara Sisei.
He became famous with his piece on a Minamata patient that helped inform the world of the seriousness of the illness.
Curious of the changes that occurred in Korea after the Korean War and the separation of the peninsula, Shisei first set foot in Korea in 1964. Since then, he has been addicted.
For half of his life, Shisei has photographed the country. His recent work includes documents on Korea's presidential election last year, later published as a photo essay.
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Shisei was once deported because of his fearless exploration of the darker corners of the society, which the government was trying to conceal.
Thanks to his boldness, we can see what shantytowns and villages near military camps looked like in the 1960s and 1970s.
For the exhibition running at the Museum of Photography in Bangui-dong, southern Seoul, Shisei displays 66 of his photos. Most of them are being shown for the first time.
"He did what Koreans needed to do, but couldn't do. He recorded our history for us. That's why I am thankful to him," wrote Han Jeong-sik, photography professor at JoongAng University in his essay on Shisei.
Some of Shisei's photos of North Korea are also on display. It is weird to see how North Korea's present is so similar to South Korea's past more than two decades ago.
If Korea was not strong enough to record its own history at the time, it now seems like Koreans are paying back what they received, by photographing the history of other less developed countries.
Kim Kyung-sang, a Korean photographer, has captured the present of Uganda, which is in a civil war. His pictures focus on places that can be easily neglected and unloved.
Gallery M in Jeong-dong is showcasing 24 of Kim's photos through the exhibition "Lord's Resistance Army."
The children in his pictures appear heartrendingly innocent. An African kid grins under a single candle, with a book under his nose. The book is ragged and the candle is crooked, but his bright smile still seems genuine.
In another, a five-year-old puts his hand on his mother's knees, and stares at her with mournful eyes. His mother, who is sitting in front of a sewing machine in what looks like a factory full of workers, gives him a weak smile.
"Kim's photos are not just records. He spotlights the fundamental problems of humans through the inhumanity and brutality of the internal war," said curator Lee Ki-myeong.
Kuwabara Shisei's exhibition runs until Feb. 21. For more information, call (02) 418-1316 or visit www.photomuseum.or.kr
"Lord's Resistance Army" runs through Dec. 30. For more information, call (02) 2277-2438 or visit www.eurocreon.com/magnumphotos
By Park Min-young
(claire@heraldm.com)
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