Lee Ki Jun _ Jazz Connoisseur, Producer
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MARCH 2022
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Prologue Kim Woo Young’s work is not about what he does but about who he is. Human beings have a tendency to continue to define something through their preconceptions. Mathematical order and chaos of precision, composition of functional design, surreal colors; the premise that these characteristics encountered in Kim's work are due to his studies of urban planning and visual design must be abandoned. Kim Woo Young is called a photographer because he conveys something through photography, but it is more precise to identify him as an artist who practices fine art via the means of photography. His work is radically subversive. He is a revisionist and iconoclast with an enigmatic dignity who is equipped with an aristocratic mind and supreme humility Light Kim Woo Young’s work is about the light of mystery. There would be no photography without light. In a nutshell, photography is to record what light has created. We can see the movement of subjects in detail when the glow of dawn is created by the reflection from the sky as the sun rises. This is why he likes the Kelvin color temperature at dawn. He eludes the diversity and complexity created by shadows and enjoys the moment when light is constantly changed and ignited before the shadows from light appear. Usually, people simply recognize colors and objects with their eyes through light. The colors Kim Woo Young creats are not things that can be artificially done. The color change caused by the movement of light is transferred to the frame through the lens with a sense of control and training developed over a long period of time. For him, the moment of pressing the shutter is crucial and artistic. All feelings such as happiness and sorrow exist there. The feeling at the moment when he takes a photograph means everything to him. The result is nothing but a result. In fact, this is all his photography provides. This artist is excellent at embodying color in nature. This makes Kim Woo Young's work unique. That is, he instantly brings out the saturation and brightness of mysterious and unique colors that are revealed by the object’s movement in light. He naturally acquires habits and responses to stimuli from rapidly changing colors and intuitively unravels them. The essence of his philosophy regarding his method of working is closely related to the Zen spirit; only the present exists and anything including the past or future, should not interrupt the complete life of the present moment. Attitude Kim Woo Young’s photography is about attitude. Ultimately, the author tells a story about himself; how he has grown up and what experiences he has had in what environment. His identity naturally permeates into and oozes out of his work. Urban Odyssey’s work which he accidentally encountered while traveling on the North America continent embodies his attitude. He chooses profound internal joy rather than a vain reputation to convey the truth through the perspective of a stranger. He witnessed human errors committed on the sites of abandoned cities. In a splendid yet simple form, Kim Woo Young expresses the story of city dwellers who struggled with psychological death, their past and experiences, and the weight of loss and helplessness created by objects, plants, and topography. He talks with some affection and interest about a hopeful future where deep inner interaction is possible. Therefore, it does not really matter what he takes and what he expresses. It is more important to him to achieve empathy with his deep inner self, even if it is only one percent through the process of his work. The attitude is the core of Kim Woo Young's very personal existence, and it tells us what kind of spiritual journey he has been walking. Longing Kim Woo Young's photography is about longing for his mother. Kim Woo Young recognizes that the world flows like water. In the early spring of 1990, he needed to find the power to perceive what he felt. It was the power to be himself. In order to find that power, he realized that he had to abandon what he thought he knew. Only in this state of abandonment, surrender, or captivity, he learned that he could do creative work. He perceived that anything else except for that state was nothing but the same pattern of a state within a fixed frame, and only when we leave the frame and the attitude that we adhere to, we can get close to the truth. He learned from nature over a long time that knowing, seeing, and understanding are completely different. He did not refuse to confront the essence of the natural world so as to palpably feel the concept of time. To him, nature was a mother he could return to at any time. Urban Odyssey's work is the first journey of his instinct to long for nature and return to it. To me, Kim's work is an encounter with nature as his mother, who raised him as an artist. Epilogue We have to leave in order to encounter abandoned cities and buildings, and the way lies over Mother Earth: nature. In the same sense, Kim Woo Young’s life is always on the road, and the world of his photography shines on the road. God has given him the eye to see the light which other people do not see. One poet sings, “People can share the landscape, they cannot share the abyss.” Likewise, the work of Urban Odyssey can only share the minimum elements of his photographic artistry. Now I only hope that one day he will share all of the marvelous depths of complex responses towards his mother, which he has learned from Mother Nature. Harlem, New York, 2022
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