Photography and Art

Find out more about South Korea's status in the 'pottery wars', Heejeong Sohn shows how Korea's missionarries were represented at the turn of the twentieth century, Robert Koehler turns a muddy reality into a beautiful moment, and see why one photographer is turning her lens on North Korean women.

"Peace at last in pottery wars?"

Pottery is a traditional and much-loved art in Korea, but "the debt that Japanese ceramics owes its Korean antecedent is also cause for pain". In this article, Olivier Duong interviews South Korean potter Min Young Gi from Jeju on the socio-political history of the craft, as well as his hopes for the future; "He [Young Gi] wants to surpass the expert skill of the Japanese usurpers, and even his Joseon forebears, and some say he already has".

…READ ONTHE JEJU WEEKLY

"Gendering Modernity: Korean Women Seen through the Early Missionary Gaze (1880s–1910s)"

This academic investigation into the representation of Korean woman around the turn of the century is fascinating and insightful. Heejeong Sohn from Stony Brook University, New York, presents a series of photographs of Korean missionaries that help "… to tell a visual story of the vicissitudes of life of some Korean women. The images were captured during these women's encounters with modernity and the West at the turn of the twentieth century, a time when Korean women experienced major challenges and changes".

…READ ONCROSS-CURRENTS

"Fishing boat on the mudflats of Yeongjongdo at low tide"

What a stunning picture by Robert Koehler! Yeongjongdo is a small island off the west coast of Incheon (where the airport is), and those who have travelled to Seoul via Incheon International would have no doubt seen the expansive mudflats that, admittedly, paint the scene across the bridge to the mainland as a rather dull affair. Robert, on the other hand, has turned this "ugly" natural occurrence into timely appreciation.

…SEE ONROBERT KOEHLER TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY

"Photographer puts delicate beauty of North Korean women into spotlight"

Romanian photographer Mihaela Noroc quite her job and decided to take up photography full-time, a daring move for anyone, but Mihaela took it further and jumped at the chance to travel the world (37 countries so far) and when see was in North Korea she snapped up some stunning pictures of North Korean woman and their sense of beauty: "When entering North Korea you step in a different world… That's why I decided to explore and photograph this subject, something mostly unknown for the rest of the world", she said.

…SEE ONRT