- Title
- Sogong-dong, Seoul, Korea 1956-1963
- Culture
- Korean
- Date Made
- Post 1945, 1956–1963, printed 2019
- Medium
- Toned gelatin silver print
- Dimensions
- 16 × 20 in. (40.64 × 50.8 cm)
Image: 12 × 18 in. (30.48 × 45.72 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.2019.232.13
- Collecting Area
- Chinese and Korean Art
- Curatorial Notes
During a time when photography was used primarily as documentation for newspaper reportage, Han Young-soo captured Seoul’s rapid transformation from war-torn city to modern metropolis in the 1950s and 1960s—a critical transitional period leading up to Korea’s first democracy. Han’s street portraits, taken with two Leica cameras that always hung around his neck (at a time when owning a camera was rare), show an impeccable eye for social detail and the serendipitous moment. Infused with optimism, his images established a unique style of portraying everyday Koreans, old and young, as they were, and not as a victimized people. Photo critics have noted the humanist sensibility shared with André Kertész, Robert Doisneau, and Henri Cartier-Bresson, as well as “uncanny overlaps” with the photographic work of Constructivist Alexander Rodchenko. In this bustling street scene, Han’s astute attention to detail produces a subtle contrast in class and culture. Two young men stroll through the rain in the Sogong neighborhood. Other people hurry by, protected by umbrellas. Off to the left, a man hauls a loaded cart beside a bus full of passengers. He and the young woman at right are bent in similar postures, but his is strenuous. His clothing is traditional—the shirt and pants of a laborer, as distinguished from the Westernized urban dress of the others on the street. His presence, seemingly incidental, is a reminder of the ongoing work that undergirds the new Seoul.
Virginia Moon
2021