Following photography from objectivity to humor

By Ines Min

In these chilly wintry weeks before the peak of the holiday season, rather than succumb to the inviting warmth of fantastical art or indulgent contemporary works, photography exhibitions are providing some grounded reality — ending with a well-judged pinch of intimate humor.

Gallery Hyundai — with its locations in Sagan-dong and Gangnam — and the Michael Schultz Gallery Seoul are

holding three photography-based exhibitions through the new year, bridging analytical observations with a subtle personality, shadowed by the viewerpersonal experiences.

Acclaimed German photographer Thomas Struth, one of the country’s most widely-exhibited and collected artists, makes his Korean debut with a collection of new

photographs taken over the last three years. The artist captures cityscapes in a plain, straightforward manner while traveling across the peninsula from Ulsan to Gyeongju, Gangwon Province, Seoul and even Pyongyang.

With the help of the German embassy and Goethe Institute, Struth managed to photograph for five days in the North Korean capital, much to the chagrin of his unshakeable guide, who insisted on getting underneath the camera blanket and censor the images. But the photographer was determined to get the shot of lonesome skyscrapers, and put his own foot down on the constant editing.

“It was really depressing. You cannot walk anywhere by yourself. The government prepared so that I could take photos, but not of what I wanted, because it would’ve been disrespectful to Kim Jong-il,” Struth told reporters Monday, before the exhibition opening at Gallery Hyundai.

Although he had visited China in the 1990s and plenty of former-Soviet countries, the efficacy of Kim’s total rule was a shock, he said. The dying capital reminded Struth of East Germany, which he visited after the fall of the Berlin Wall in the early 1990s. The German city served as a tribute to a time long-forgotten, which was perhaps a charm in itself, but the state it was in was devastating.

“I saw the terrible decay of the cities, stagnation and a desire for progress suffocated.”

The photographs of South Korea maintain that distinguished characteristic of Struth’s to capture a city’s essence in a record-like image of a moment in time. Using a traditional camera and film — shunning those modern editing programs — the German is able to approach new worlds through the eye of a foreigner: seeing the city for what it really is.

Struth’s most famous series include his museum photographs (which focus on the visitors themselves, rather than the artwork) and his portraits, taken only of people he knows, such as mentor and painter Gerhard Richter.

For his Korean series, towering clumps of apartment blocks stand prominent, but so do the array of building color palettes, the magnolias of a Buddhist temple and the busy production of the nation. Although his cityscapes are always absent of people, they are never devoid of the human presence, he said.

Conversely, the images of Hisaya Taira on display at Gallery Hyundai Gangnam Space offer a narrower slice of life. The Japanese artist focuses on landscapes isolated from nature, purposely showing the city as a product of the people and moves away from the natural environment.

Empty subway stations and escalators in modern Tokyo, the dead quiet of a ‘90s Dallas street, Taira manages to focus on those parts of daily life that function as only a moment of transition for the rest of the world. Based on photographs, the artist then transfers the images onto canvas in a perfect match, capturing the glow of the fluorescent lights.

“I seek images that transcend the boundary between photography and painting, images that turn a personal and subjective experience into something abstract,” the photographer said in a statement. “Even if you don’t know the places in these paintings, you may feel as if you have passed through them sometime in the past.”

The intimate space of the Michael Schultz Gallery plays host to four young, emerging photographers, who play on one’s sense of reality with a wry wit. Aged from 26 to 30, these artists — all of whom are currently enrolled in school — bring lightness to the medium in the most contemporary sense possible.

The work of Bak Hyong-ryol, who has already held one solo exhibition, serves as a reminder of the consequences of modern man’s actions, selfishness, and relationship with others. Anonymous actors carry away plants trapped in plastic cases, while others fish for numbered boxes.

Yang Seung-won explores times past with a series of photographs of water towers, warehouses and furnaces. Lee Il-seok captures the rare corridors in an infinity view measured by its geometrics, while Yun Sun-young moves a “pojangmacha” (street food tent) into bleak, flat landscapes for a sense of the unreal.

inesmin@koreatimes.co.kr

Exhibition information

Thomas Struth’s premiere exhibition here, ``Korea 2007-2010,’’ runs until Jan. 9, 2011, at Gallery Hyundai in Sagan-dong. Hisaya Taira’s ``City Mind’’ is on display at Gallery Hyundai Gangnam Space until Nov. 30. For more information, visit www.galleryhyundai.com.

``Fast Forward,’’ featuring four up-and-coming photographers, will be on display at Michael Schultz Gallery Seoul until Dec. 5. Located on the third floor of the Nature Poem Building, near exit 9 of Cheongdam Station, subway line 7. For more information, visit www.schultzgallery.co.kr or call (02) 546-7955.