Kylie Knott _ South China Morning Post
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OCTOBER 02, 2019 LINE TODAY
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South Korean photographer Kim Woo Young in Hong Kong: 'This city is full of contrast’
Kim’s first solo exhibition 'Urban Odyssey' takes viewers on a journey through empty US streets and traditional South Korean neighbourhoods.
He says his photography begins with landscapes that we encounter every day, yet the images caught by camera look unfamiliar.
South Korean photographer Kim Woo Young stares out a window at the Upper House hotel in Hong Kong's Admiralty area, transfixed by the shifting shapes reflected on the surrounding buildings.
"Hong Kong's urban landscape is so modern and striking and so different to the village homes and abandoned villages that I have been exploring while here " this city is full of contrast," says the artist, breaking his gaze to carefully unroll one of his works onto a table.
The piece is smack-in-the-face bold, a street scene that beautifully captures the artist's love of colour.
"Colours are vital in my photography," he says through an interpreter. "I love manipulating colours to suit my own language, like how I interpret the colour system of nature."
For his first solo exhibition 'Urban Odyssey', showing at Soluna Fine Art in Sheung Wan until October 19, Kim reveals a collection of 12 images from his many road trips in the United States where he was inspired by empty streets and abandoned buildings. It is also easy to see how American realist painter Edward Hopper and British artist David Hockney have affected his work.
"On these road trips I shunned big cities for small abandoned towns … I enjoyed being alone," he says.
Other pieces in the exhibition include abstract calligraphy-style photos inspired by South Korean hanoks, traditional homes built in the 14th century that take design cues from their surroundings.
"I love the raw textures that you can see in the wood of these homes," Kim says. "I took these photos in the morning " that's why there are no shadows " and the end result looks like a watercolour painting."
Born in the port city of Busan in 1960, Kim, a confessed loner who now lives in California, has worked a number of professions: restaurateur, DJ, architect, city planner. He has also been a photography director of 10 lifestyle magazine publications in South Korea.
But before all that he was an activist.
"While growing up in South Korea I was involved in student rallies and demonstrations," he says, adding his roles in these protests got him suspended from school. "South Korea in the 1980s was going through immense change " industrialisation, political turmoil and the displacement of people."
He explains that it was the strained political and social situation that prompted his move to the US, first to New York, where his photographic journey started.
"My photography begins with landscapes that we encounter every day, scenes we have seen somewhere " yet these images caught by the camera look unfamiliar. This is the beginning of the phenomenon that I explore in my photography."
Kim's next series of photos will focus on China and Tibet.
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