International Photo Fests Open This Month
By Cathy Rose A. Garcia
Staff Reporter
Photography buffs will have a chance to enjoy world-class photography in two major events in Korea this month.
The Dong-gang International Photo Festival, featuring photographs by renowned Korean and foreign artists, opens July 24 in Yeongweol, Gangwon Province.
The festival offers nine different photo exhibitions held at the Dong-gang Museum of Photography and various areas around Yeongweol, through Aug. 23.
The special main exhibition ``Masks'' features 85 works by top artists; Man Ray, Diane Arbus, Valerie Belin, Brassai, Lee Friedlander, Orlan, Jacques Henri Lartigue, Andy Warhol, Koo Bohn-chang, Yook Myung-shin and Oh Hein-kuhn.
Seven young Korean photographers were chosen to take part in the Young Photographers exhibition ``Magic Flute.'' The eye-catching photographs are brimming with youthful energy and whimsy.
Breathtaking Korean landscapes by Kwon Hyuk-jae and Park Nam-sik are displayed as part of ``Under the Same Sky, Different Landscapes'' exhibition.
Visitors will have a chance to look at a different side of Yeongweol and various areas in Gangwon Province through the eyes of photographers. The Gangwon Documentary Photography Project offers vibrant representative images of the province. More artistic photography depicting scenes in Gangwon Province are included in the Gangwon Province Photographers' Invitational Exhibition. Meanwhile, the Yeongwol County Photographers' Exhibition features daily life and community activities.
Visit www.dgphotofestival.com or www.dgphotomuseum.com.
Best of Photojournalism
The annual World Press Photo Exhibition is once again traveling to Seoul. The winning photos of the 52nd annual World Press Photo Contest will be on display at the V Gallery, Seoul Arts Center from July 24 to Aug. 26.
``The exhibition is a showcase for creativity in photojournalism and a platform for developments in the profession, part of World Press Photo's aim of encouraging and stimulating the work of press photographers around the world. The show also attracts a broader public, and because of the wide-ranging focus of the contest forms an eyewitness record of world events of the previous year,'' organizers said, in a statement.
A black-and-white photo by American photographer Anthony Suau was awarded the World Press Photo of the Year 2008. The photo, which was taken in March 2008 as part of a story for Time magazine, shows an armed police officer inside a house in Cleveland, Ohio. The residents of the house were being evicted as a result of mortgage foreclosure, so the police officer was clearing the house to make sure the residents have moved out.
``The strength of the picture is in its opposites. It's a double entendre. It looks like a classic conflict photograph, but it is simply the eviction of people from a house following foreclosure. Now war in its classic sense is coming into people's houses because they can't pay their mortgages,'' said jury chairperson Mary Anne Golon, in a statement.
The exhibition of prize-winning works opened in Amsterdam last May. Prizes were awarded to 64 photographers from 27 countries, including Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Korea, Spain, and the U.S.
Korean photographer Sung Nam-hun won third prize in the Portraits Singles category for his photo of a Tibetan novice nun for Photonet.
Tickets are 8,000 won for adults, 5,000 won for students and 3,000 won for children. Seoul Arts Center is located near Nambu Bus Terminal station Line 3. Visit www.worldpressphoto.org.