Star Photographer Shares Modest Exhibit
By Jane Han
Staff Reporter
With star photographer Park Ki-ho's career track of shooting and pasting big shots on the covers of major magazines, it's only natural to make assumptions about his first-ever solo exhibition. But you won't find photos of President Roh Moo-hyun, Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee or any of the other big names taken by Park.
``Those pictures are important, but for me, those end there. It's meaningless to exhibit those photos,'' Park said in a Korea Times interview last week at the White Wall Gallery in Chongdam-dong, where his show will be held through Wednesday.
Instead, the 47-year-old presented photos of ordinary citizens doing ordinary things.
``It's showing their life. It's real. Nothing made up, but just them as who they are,'' he said.
In the collection of nearly 20 works, Park has brought more life, dimension and reality to the giant photographs by fixing objects on their surface.
In a piece titled ``Father's Medal,'' he covered the entire surface with the tail part of real cutout ties to make them appear in the shape of medals.
``I never wear neckties. But lots of fathers have to wear a tie day after day, year after year, and decade after decade. These men deserve a medal for tying themselves up all the time,'' he said.
In another piece displaying an image of his daughter Won-hee, Park decorated the canvas by gluing pink toys all around her.
``No matter all the expensive gifts I bring back for my daughter from trips abroad, she likes her pink plastic toys. That's her world, so I tried to portray that in this piece,'' he said, adding that he had to steal a piece at a time from her collection.
Similarly, the other photos, including images of a firefighter, church pastor and taxi driver, carry real objects pasted on the canvas or displayed together to accurately deliver the life of the subject.
``It took a lot of work and time. For other people, work is done when a photograph is taken, but for me, that is only 25 percent of the finished product,'' he said. ``I had another 25 percent left to collect the props and the last 50 for putting it all together.''
Park said he's had this exhibit idea since 1993, has been collecting ideas for over a decade and concentrated on nothing but the show for the last six months.
Because I've met with so many people throughout my career and visited so many places, I had the privilege of getting constant inspiration,'' he said. ``What other job out there lets you meet with presidents of major companies one day and mingle with homeless folk the next?''
Park has been working as a freelance photographer for Time, Fortune, Forbes and other global news magazines for the past 20 years.
During the assignments, the veteran photojournalist says he's worked on a range of projects including long-term corporate annual reports and short term portrait shots of CEOs.
``Some photos can take as long as weeks and months, but some can last five minutes or less,'' he said. ``President Roh's photo for Time Magazine took five minutes.''
Although the actual photo session took only minutes due to what the head of state's schedule allowed, Park says preparation took a week.
``We couldn't go into Chong Wa Dae at the time because it was two days prior to his inaugration,'' Park recalled. ``So we took the photo at another government building and I had set up all the lights and practiced with a dummy so that everything was good to go.''
He also recalled another short session with soccer player Ahn Jung-hwan.
``Coach Hiddink only allowed 10 minutes _ five for the interview and five for the photo,'' he said. ``So it was a quick snap, snap, snap.''
While there were those quickies, some allowed for more time _ most recognizably Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee.
Park said Lee's photo for BusinessWeek took nine hours to finish, but the chairman didn't frown upon it.
``He very much understood that a good photograph can take a long time,'' he said.
Park's name in the industry gives him a good voice and standing when working with top names, but he says none of this came free.
A graduate of Rhode Island School of Design, he landed his first job with global agency Magnum Photos by chance and with his standout skills.
He was able to work with renowned photographer Bruce Davidson, which Park says changed his career.
``I organized all the negatives of 50 years of his work,'' Park said. ``That was like a bible for me.''
After that, the ambitious photo enthusiast went to Newsweek and ``asked for a job.''
``I said I can speak Korean, English and I can take photos _ give me a job,'' he said laughing.
``And they did.''
Park flew out to Korea, during the times of Chun Doo-hwan, and did much work for the U.S. magazine, and continued to take photos for other publications.
Looking back over 20 years of his career, the son of famous oil painter Park Ko-suk said he's glad he walked the path he did. And he hopes to return to school and study more about three-dimensional work within the next few months.
Asked if he takes photos during his free time, Park said laughing, ``When people ask me what my hobby is. I answer that it used to be photography.''
He implied that it's more than a hobby now, but his life.