[요즘 청소년들은 이렇답니다] Exhibition focuses on Korean teens

Puberty is one of the times we hate the most while experiencing it but miss the most once it is gone.

Ilmin Museum of Art gathered some photographers to record the precious moments of today's Korean adolescents and published a book titled "The Image of Youth."

"We consider that all juvenile delinquency is the result of and also the root of all adult problems. The book holds more than 700 photos which attempt to visualize the lives of today's youth," said exhibition curator Kim Ryang-mi.

There are nine Korean photographers who participated in the making of the 600-page book. They are Kang Jae-gu, Ko Jung-nam, Kwon Woo-yol, Park Jin-young, Yang Jae-kwang, Oh Suk-kuhn, Lee Ji-yeon, Choi Eun-sik and Choi Jong-gyu.

Each photographer focused on different characteristics of Korean teenagers.

Visitors can also check out some of the photos at the museum. The museum is currently displaying selected works at the exhibition under the same title as the book.

Among the photographers exhibited, Lee Ji-yeon shows the vivid and intimate moments of teenagers. Currently a high school teacher, she was able to capture her students dozing off in the classrooms lying down on the instant beds they made by pulling some chairs together, as well as the nervous looks on her students' faces on their graduation day.

Park Jin-young placed his attention on teenagers' fandom culture. Young girls doing costume play look like they popped out of a manga. In another photo, thousands of teenagers crowd together at a concert to see their favorite star.

Kang Jae-gu did not miss the trivial things in teenagers' lives which are easily neglected as too common, like school uniform shops, scribbles on the school walls and boys on motorbikes headed for their English institutes.

Kang knew that those familiar scenes would quickly excite the now teenagers' nostalgia just as middle-aged adults treasure the memories of their schooldays in the 1970s.

"This book will be an archive for teenagers of today. It might be considered a boring job but it is essential," said Kang.

The exhibition runs through Aug. 23 at the Ilmin Museum of Art in Sejongro, central Seoul. For more information visit www.ilmin.org or call (02) 2020-2055.

(claire@heraldm.com)

By Park Min-young