Lingering in Time : Koo Bohnchang’s Photography 1990 - 2021

<Exhibition poster. Courtesy of the Three Shadows Photography Art Centre.>

KOO Bohnchang is one of the most well-known Korean photographers in the world. 

He spent more than half of his life pursuing the medium and showed us photos creatively made for the last 40 years. Among many projects he made, a few series are better known to people. One is the [Vessel] series which took the images of traditional Korean porcelain. Another is the [Masks] project. And the [Breath] series is also well known due to the story of life and death in it.

Of course, a few projects cannot define the spectrum of his work. Koo Bohnchang’s images fascinated us across fine art and commercial. 

In commercials, movie posters such as [Chihwaseon (醉畫仙)], some brand ads, and the portraits of celebrities are also famous. In terms of fine art, 

we could  assume his spectrum of speculation through the experimental series1), 2), 3) in the early days to the latest project, [Incognito] in 2019.

<Installation view. Courtesy of the Three Shadows Photography Art Centre..> 

<Installation view. Courtesy of the Three Shadows Photography Art Centre..>

The exhibition [Lingering in Time: Koo Bohnchang’s Photography (1990-2021)] held in the Three Shadows Photography Art Centre Beijing is a chance to see the world of his art. The show includes almost 80 images from 13 projects throughout 30 years and one video work shown in Milano before.

The gallery has two-story exhibition halls. The works that imply more dramatic feelings open the show. These are [Stories in Ashes], [Breath], [In the Beginning]. Some other works such as [Snow] and [Portraits of Time] surround these. At the narrow aisle with natural light, they hanged up the [Soap] series. Then photos that have quiet auras follow until the end of the show. These series are [White], [interiors], and [Vessel]. The flow of the images leads audiences while playing on them through various emotions.

<Sea of Thought 12, 1990. Gelatin silver photograph with thread on paper. Courtesy of the artist.>

Let’s see the show in detail. The very first image that welcomes the audience is the “Sea of Thought 12”. It is a huge photogram print with threads on it. On the left side, the images from [Masks] are exhibited with the introduction. In the center of the 1st floor, the six artworks from [Stories in Ashes] are displayed on the bottom. And others are surrounding them. On one side of the wall, the video work from the show in Milan is playing. The photos of [Gold], the latest series included in this show, are shown. One of them includes the gold collection from the museum in Chengdu, China. 

Others are the images of the collections from Korea and Peru. The following series are [Soap], [White], and [Interiors]. Then the [Vessel] series, one of the most well-known works of Koo, works as the grand finale of the show.  

Then there is a place for the archive that includes all of the books, posters, catalogs, etc. from the ‘80s. Among them, some books such as [Youlhwadang Photography Book - Koo Bohnchang], [DMZ] and [Beyond the Silver] show the artworks not included in the exhibition. 

The last part of the show is prepared specially for Chinese audiences. The red-covered photo book, [Souvenirs from China], is about souvenirs and antiques that the artist has collected so far. The artist told the stories related to each image. 

<In the Beginning 01, 1991. Gelatin silver photograph with thread on paper. Courtesy of the artist..>

Each of his series has enough meaning to be considered for an in-depth critique. Thus it would not be appropriate to explain his work one by one. 

Nevertheless, let’s talk about a few projects. One of them is the [In the Beginning] series. He started this project because he could not find an appropriate size paper. The first impression I’ve got from these images was that I would never know if I did not see them in person. Regardless of how many times I’ve read and see about the project, I would never understand what the images actually look like. The texture of threads, the materiality of sewing, and the white traces through exposure are too realistic. What would the artist think when he made these papers in the darkroom? Those images reveal the fragile nature of the human body and mind. And I feel that the traces of threads are blood vessels running inside of us.

The next series is the [Breath]. Koo said it was a ‘turning point’ of his works. This project pulled himself up from the deep inside to the outside. And it also made the artist face the real world. I felt that he tried to look at the line between life and death through the images. Fainted evidence on an old wall, a butterfly captured in a vinyl collection bag, and the last breath of his immediate family. All of these implied a hunch of death. I would not feel the auras coming out from the images if I did not see them in the exhibition.

<Breath 01, 1995. Archival pigment print. Courtesy of the artist..>

The final one I would like to tell is the [Stories in Ashes]. The artist said he began this project by recalling the memory of childhood. At that time, people burned out funeral orations to pray for their ancestors. He torched the printed paper and then stuffed all of the traces made from the action. They are paper burned out, scattered ashes, and brownish holes due to fire. The works of the project look ambiguous somehow.

Can we call them photos? Or are they results by a performance art? By the way, each image became unique because of the making projects. These images cannot be reproduced like other ordinary photo works. Thus these somewhat vague photos have exclusiveness that overcomes the limit of the medium.

<Stories in Ashes 07, 1995. Burned Gelatin silver print on Ricepaper. Courtesy of the artist.>

Koo Bohnchang once said that he “talks with and listens to small and quiet things”4). Photography is a medium that looks at something through a camera. In this regard, I think Koo stares at not the outer world, but the inside of himself. His attention to things has extended through the last 40 years, but the core of the gaze is still towards the inner mind. Thus his photos show the same ways of seeing regardless of looking in or out. The photographer captures an ordinary moment that resonates with his mind.

<Portraits of Time 12, 1998. Archival pigment print. Courtesy of the artist.>

Let’s read some articles that talk about Koo Bohnchang. Critic Lee Youngjoon says that the [Vessel] series hide porcelains in the images rather than shows them to us. He elaborates it is how the photographer communicates with the subject.5) Critic Kim Seung Gon says that photography is not a medium to recognize the world for Koo Bohnchang. Instead, the photographer chose the medium to dive into the deepest inside of himself.6) And the last is the story by Gu Zheng, a Chinese curator. He recalls that what Koo said before - “we all like quiet”. And he thinks it shows the reason that Koo’s images hold a quiet beauty.7)

One common thing in the stories is the ways of seeing of Koo Bohnchang. These help us understand the way that this photographer sees his subjects. The current exhibition is the record of time while he lingers in it. Through his images, we can see the world that he has met until now.

<Installation view. Courtesy of the Three Shadows Photography Art Centre..>

<Installation view. Courtesy of the Three Shadows Photography Art Centre.>