Are you sure photos capture true images?

Long before digital editing became common, there were already some photographers who harbored doubts about and challenged the authenticity of photography. At the exhibition "Masks" currently running at the Sungkok Art Museum in central Seoul, viewers can find 100 photos by 48 such photographers from around the world who questioned the perception that "photos are reproductions of reality." Works by renowned photographers like Man Ray, Diane Arbus, Brassai, Cindy Sherman, Koo Bohn-chang and Oh Heinkuhn are on display. "Photographs are never authentic reality. They are simply realities wearing a mask. That is why photos are masks," said curator Alain Sayag, former director of the photography department at Pompidou Center in Paris, at the opening ceremony. With the help from several museums in France including the Pompidou Center, French Cultural Center in Korea and many individual collectors, the show covers the past 100 years of photography that feature masks. The subjects in the photos are either disguised before being photographed, often by masks, or modified afterwards through various methods. For instance, Man Ray photographed Marcel Duchamp disguised as a woman and Valerie Belin took a photo of a model who dressed up as Leonardo Da Vinci. Orlan even went through plastic surgery to turn himself as an experimental subject for his works.

Other than these contemporary photos, some tiny vintage photos from 100 years ago also show reality-look-alikes that are actually ambiguous and fake.

Organized by Sungkok Art Museum and Dong-gang Museum of Photography in Gangwon Province, this show was first held under the same title at the Gangwon museum last summer.

The exhibition runs through Dec. 31 at Sungkok Art Museum in Jongno-gu, central Seoul. Tickets are 5,000 won for adults, 4,000 won for adolescents and kids.

For more information, visit www.sungkokmuseum.com or call (02) 737-7650.

(claire@heraldm.com)

By Park Min-young