Home > Culture > Arts & Design

Photo festival focuses on local flavor

Published: 23 Jul. 2008, 21:56

“Looking for a Job” by Im Eung-sik.Provided by the organizer

The theme for this year’s Donggang Photo Festival is more specific and local than in past events.
The festival displays an elaborate list of some of the country’s best known contemporary photographers under the topic “Here, From Here.”
Photographers Kang Hong-goo and Choi Min-sik are included in the month-long exhibition, workshops and symposiums.
The festival mixes genre, crossing in and out of documentary and fiction forms.
One of the noted programs is “Perspectives on Korea: 1950-1980,” a series of documentary photographs on the devastation that war leaves in its wake.
Joo Myeong-deok presents a revealing black and white series on biracial children at local orphanages and military towns. Im Eung-sik captures war orphans and the homeless.

A scene from the documentary series of Park Jong-woo’s ancient tea route.

There’s a special focus on the work of Kang Hong-goo, a contemporary photographer who parodies the absurdity of the urban landscape and modern redevelopment by installing miniature houses and game characters in his neighborhood, which is destined for redevelopment.
In a separate display, a group of emerging artists question the concept of place through images that distort our living environment.
Nature pictures are also prominent. Jang Nam-won will exhibit his underwater images; Kim Yeon-soo focuses on the sky and Park Jong-woo presents a series on the ancient tea route along the Silk Road in Yunnan, China.

By Park Soo-mee Staff Reporter[[email protected]]

*The Donggang Photo Festival opens tomorrow in Youngwol, Gangwon, and runs through Aug. 24. For more information call (033) 375-4554.