[Asia Economy Reporter Byunghee Park] The 2020 Seoul Photo Festival at the Seoul Museum of Art will be held at the Seoul Museum of Art Buk-Seoul Museum until the 16th of next month.
The Seoul Photo Festival is Seoul's representative photography project and is celebrating its eleventh edition this year. This year's photo festival consists of two exhibitions: "Because I Miss You" and "The Golden Age of Camera Clubs: The Birth of Photographers and the Chronicle of Photo Contests."
"Because I Miss You" is a thematic exhibition exploring the ontological meaning of photography through everyday photos, while "The Golden Age of Camera Clubs: The Birth of Photographers and the Chronicle of Photo Contests" follows up on last year's Seoul Photo Festival exhibition "Open Your Storage," which featured "Myeongdong Salon and 1950s Camera Clubs," continuing to chronicle the history of Korean photography.
"Because I Miss You" deals with moments when seemingly insignificant things become meaningful through photos of everyday subjects such as family photos and landscapes. This exhibition explores the fundamental role of photography at the pinnacle of various media environment changes, focusing on everyday photos we easily take to examine the original meaning of photography. Through works by 12 domestic and international artists introduced in the exhibition, it presents the meaning and distinction of photography as the only medium that manifests absent subjects, differentiating it from other genres.
"The Golden Age of Camera Clubs: The Birth of Photographers and the Chronicle of Photo Contests" organizes and presents the history of photo contests, a key pillar of the photographic system from the Japanese colonial period to 1981, in chronological order. It introduces works by 42 photographers active at the time, focusing on 26 major photo contests held since 1910. Photo contests served as stages for photographers to debut and grow, playing a role in introducing new photographers in each era. The exhibition examines the use of photography according to the times through the characteristics and content of each contest.
The Seoul Museum of Art plans to continuously accumulate research and related materials on photography in preparation for the opening of the Seoul Photo Museum (tentative name) in 2023.
The Seoul Museum of Art is temporarily closed in accordance with the government's COVID-19 response guidelines. Currently, it is introducing various programs such as "Exhibitions Introduced Directly by Curators," "Artist Introductions," and "Meetings between Artists and Critics" through the official social media accounts of the Seoul Museum of Art.
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