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Co-organized by the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA) and Center for Creative Photography (CCP) in collaboration with the School of Art, University of Arizona, Wonders and Witness: Contemporary Photography from Korea represents the joint effort of these institutions to share the achievements of Korean photography with a broader audience.

Contemporary Korean society can be called a culmination of social consequences caused by rapid modernization, urbanization, and westernization. It carries pervasive sensibilities such as modern desire, anxiety, mystery, and frustration. In this context, photography emerges as a significant and potent medium capable of documenting the scenes of our daily life and society, bearing witness to their dynamic and precarious changes. The photographs showcased in this exhibition invite us to question and contemplate various issues prevalent in contemporary Korean life and society, including urbanization, individual and community dynamics, family matters, identity, and economic shifts.
It can be said that the works are grounded on the belief of the photographic possibility of documentation, yet with a subjective and artistic interpretation. The photographs portray a scene as an observation of the world around us. At the same time, they attempt to capture invisible sensibilities that continuously linger in the photographed moment. In this regard, the works of these 12 photographers serve not only as social commentary but also as acute witnesses to the affective conditions of society.
Hopefully, these works will give rise to captivating and unforeseen narratives, resonating with the wider audience at the Center for Creative Photography. The photographed moments, where artistic intention and magical serendipity coexist, possess the capacity to engage viewers' imaginations and interpretations, ultimately harnessing the profound power of photography, replete with wonders and witness.
Artists: Bang Byoungsang, Chung Chuha, Gwon Doyeon, Kim Mi-Hyun, Kim Oksun, Kim Seunggu, Kim Taedong, Nikki S. Lee, Lee Sunmin, Oh Heinkuhn, Area Park, Yoon JeongMee (in the alphabetical order of the last name)

5 Foreword─Kim Sunghee (Director, MMCA)
7 Foreword─Todd J. Tubutis (Director, CCP)

11 Curatorial Essay: A Photographic Story of Wonders and Witness─Kim Namin
21 Contemporary Korean Seen Through Four Photographs─Kim Youngmin

29 Part 1 Walking Around a Strange City
59 Part 2 Not Just Family Matters
107 Part 3 Better Days

131 The Journey of Modern Korean Photography Post-Liberation─Park Pyungjong
139 Photography of Korea in the United States─Kim Jeehey

146 Artist Biographies
152 Contributors
154 List of Plates

The works in Wonders and Witness: Contemporary Photography from Korea are predicated on the documentary capacity of photography. However, they also carry the artist’s subjective interpretation of reality, evoking thoughts and emotions in the viewer. However, what these photographs also have in common is that they maintain a certain distance. While they unveil various aspects of contemporary Korean society, they refrain from making explicit claims or offering conclusive opinions. Instead, the works offer perspectives, expressions, interpretations, and critiques of the subjects and scenes. These expressions and interpretations evolve through more intricate processes, thanks to photography’s mechanical attributes, which can capture everything within their field of vision. Documents of moments where intention and serendipity coexist compel viewers to engage with their imagination and interpretation. They rouse both the power of documentation and the wonder of moments simultaneously.
Kim Namin (Curator, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea)
Curatorial Essay: A Photographic Story of Wonders and Witness, p18


Looking at photographs is also the act of discovering something we did not know existed before. Photographers capture unexplored terrain, or magnify the beauty or contradictions of everyday life that often go unnoticed. Thanks to such photographs, viewers become aware of things they had not consciously noticed before. But even the most sensitive photographer cannot grasp everything he or she capture. The most definitive characteristic of photography is that it is indiscriminate in what it includes in its frame. Things that the photographer was not aware of are also captured in the photo. Indeed, these may only later be discovered by the audience.
In summary, a photograph is at once a record of a scene as it existed at a particular moment and a report of what might have eluded our attention. Through the four photographs being exhibited, this article aims to examine what existed in modern Korea and to shed light on aspects of the individual, gender, power, labor, and leisure within Korea’s political community.
Kim Youngmin (Professor, Seoul National University)
Contemporary Korean Seen Through Four Photographs, p21


This essay is a general summary of the developmental process of Korean photography following Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule. The process can be largely condensed down to three stages. The first is from after liberation to the 1950s, during which time realist photographs emerged advocating differentiation from the fine art photographs of the colonial period. Among them, photographs pertaining to the saenghwaljuui (everydaylife realism) movement led by Limb Eungsik emphasized the documentative nature of photography, which exerted considerable influence until the 1960s, with later attempts founded on modernist theories fading shortly thereafter due to institutional barriers. The second stage is from the 1970s to 1980s, a period marked by the predominance of documentary photographs as a paradigm. On the one hand, this period saw the mass production of amateur photographs taken in the extended context of saenghwaljuui for submission in public contests, and on the other hand, it also saw the publication of documentary photographs marked by auteurist approaches through journals and magazines. The third stage is from the 1990s and onward when contemporary art began to genuinely embrace photography into its sphere. In this stage, the boundary between art and photography became blurred, and photographic methodology also greatly expanded, ultimately resulting in photography becoming a major axis of contemporary art.
Park Pyungjong (Aesthetician and Photography Critic)
The Journey of Modern Korean Photography Post-Liberation, p131


This essay explores the ways in which photographs of Korea are collected and archived at various institutions in the United States. To date, there has been a chronological focus on collecting and archiving Korean photographs, many of which were primarily influenced by Western religious and imperial advancements on the Korean Peninsula in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as well as by the Korean War in the mid-twentieth century. Post-Korean War collections of Korean photography remain relatively sparse and arbitrary compared to previous decades. It is also crucial to pay attention to the photographic works of the Korean diaspora in the Americas. This essay analyzes major photography collections in art museums and vernacular photographic archives in university libraries to understand how Korea and its culture have been visualized and imagined from an American perspective.
Kim Jeehey (Assistant Professor, University of Arizona)
Photography of Korea in the United States, p139