Korea Week: Myoung Ho Lee

Korea Week: Myoung Ho Lee by Joanne Junga YangJanuary 18, 2016

©Myoung Ho Lee

Works of Korean photographers presented in Korea Week have some remarkable visual creativity and their vision in photographs that are striking and intellectual challenging.

Myoung Ho Lee’s Photography-Art Project is to introduce natural sceneries intervened by installing a white canvas as a metaphor of the re-presence and re-produce; Jeong Lok Lee has created a mysterious and dream-like scenery that is beyond the reality; Seong Youn Koo surprises us with photos filled with arranging and gathering mundane objects in an unfamiliar combination; Seung Hee Hong has created a visual depth by creasing and draping flat and solid surfaces; Sung Seok Ahn has reinterpreted the past and present by projecting an image on a screen; Won Chul Lee has captured an ambivalent space through flow of time and emotional sentiment; Nanda represents Modern Korean society taking pictures of modern girls in the movie studio and reproduces narratives between reality and imagination.

These seven photographers are creating a new paradigm of contemporary photography in Korea. Through their works, we can look into the present and future of contemporary photography in Korea.

I’m very happy and grateful to have the opportunity to introduce Korean photographers to Lenscratch. I introduce the creative and experimental photography of these seven photographers working steadily in their unique world of photography, and I hope you will be able to appreciate their work through this Korea week.

Joanne Junga Yang is a Korean curator and has organized and curated many exhibitions on contemporary art and photography. She has been involved in numerous international photography events around the world as a curator, reviewer, and juror. She has also contributed many articles to diverse magazines and has interviewed international artists.

MyoungHo Lee was born in 1975 in Daejon, South Korea. He studied Photography at the University of Chung-Ang in South Korea. Currently, he is a professor at the Photography Department of the Kyungill University. His work has been exhibited internationally. He has won “Photography Critic Award” (2006, The Committee of Photography Critic Award), “Sungkok Art Award”(2009, Sungkok Art Museum) among others. His works have been collected and exhibited by world famous museums such as Jean Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles, USA), Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts (Kiyosato, Japan), Museum of Contemporary Art Salta(Salta, Argentina), National Museum of Contemporary Art Korea(Seoul, Korea), Seoul Museum of Art(Seoul, Korea) and many others.

©Myoung Ho Lee

Photography-Act Project: Tree, Mirage

MyoungHo Lee has worked on the series of Photography-Act Project. In his show, Photography-Act Project: Camera Lucida, Camera Obscura…, he is showing his Tree series and Mirage series, which he has worked on for last ten years, as Camera Lucida and Camera Obscura in the two separated spaces. By installing a white canvas in the back of tree, Tree series presences the complete figure of tree. As a metaphor of the re-presence, this series is in the space Camera Lucida. On the other hand, by installing a white canvas on the surface of desert, Mirage series produces oasis or sea like mirage far-off in desert. As a metaphor of the re-produce, this series is in the space Camera Obscura.

It is assumable from the title Photography-Act Project that Myoung Ho Lee values the whole as well as the part of the process as the trace of his act rather than just final piece of photography. By showing his View of Work and Video of Work together, he shows his artistic attitude toward the process and act of his work.