The School of Art, Arizona Arts, and the Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, are excited to invite you to our first symposium on Asian photography, a three-day virtual symposium entitled “Photography and Korea: History and Practice,” to be held on Thursday, February 24 from 5-7:30 pm MST; Friday, February 25 from 5-8 pm MST; Saturday, February 26 from 4-8:30 pm MST.

This symposium is supported by the 2022 Korean Studies Grant Program of the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS-2022-C-014)

The introduction of photography in Korea was considered part of an enlightenment effort by the royal court and the intelligentsia as it incorporated advances in scientific knowledge and technological developments. Progressive intellectuals considered the knowledge required for photography, including chemistry and production of glass plates, to be related to other scientific and military endeavors necessary to making the country competitive with modern nation-states such as Japan and the US. From 1910 to 1945, Japanese colonialism structured photographic practices and culture in the Korean peninsula. Visualization of the Korean people was a part of ethnographic and anthropological studies during the colonial period, while the Japanese photographers opened studios in urban centers and Koreans went to Japan to learn the technology. The cold war hegemony played a crucial role in the postcolonial Korean society, impacting photographic practices in various ways.

How did the Japanese photographers visualize Korea and its people during the colonial period? What have women photographers been addressing in their photographic practices? How have Korean photographers been interacting with postcolonial and the Cold War social changes through their works? What colonial legacy has been continued and denounced in Korean photographic scenes? Are there different ways of interpreting prominent photographers, including Youngsoo Han and Myung-duck Joo?

This symposium aims to explore various ways in which photography has been structuring Korean history and culture while addressing diverse photographic practices and movements to the global audience. Panels will be divided into topics, including the history of photography magazines, major photography movements and exhibitions, colonialism, postcolonialism, gender issues, and national identity. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the symposium will be held entirely online to accommodate a broader audience in South Korea, the U.S., and other countries. In addition, due to the time difference between South Korea and Arizona, the symposium is held for three days with only afternoon panels in Tucson, AZ (morning panels in South Korea), while the recorded sessions will be available on the YouTube channel of the Center for Creative Photography for those who miss the event.

The symposium on Korean photography will be the inaugural one for the series of symposia on Asian photography at the University of Arizona in conjunction with the Center for Creative Photography, the largest photography archive in the United States. It will be followed by symposia on Taiwanese, Japanese, and Southeast Asian photography. I also hope that it will also lead to exhibitions on the topic, with either a nation-based theme or a trans-Asian approach. The University of Arizona will provide technical support for the virtual platform of the event, while the Center for Creative Photography collaborates for marketing and promoting the symposium throughout the world and supporting the coordination of the event.

The symposium will be delivered both in English and Korean with interpreters.

To register:
https://asianphotography.art.arizona.edu/

Schedule

Day 1
February 24, Thursday 2022 (Arizona)
February 25, Friday 2022 (South Korea)

5pm: Opening Remarks (9 AM in South Korea)
Colin Blakely, Director, School of Art, University of Arizona

5:30pm-6:30pm: Keynote Speech (9:30-10:30 AM in South Korea)
Yong Soon Min, artist, Professor Emerita, UC Irvine

6:30pm-7:30pm (10:30-11:30 AM in South Korea)
Special session: Photography Museums in Korea

Introduction: Meg Jackson Fox, Associate Curator, Center for Creative Photography

Hyunjung Son, curator, Seoul Museum of Art
The Necessity of Public Photography Museum: Seoul Museum of Photography

Sujong Song, Senior Curator, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea
The Photographs Collection at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea

Day 2
February 25, Friday 2022 (Arizona)
February 26, Saturday 2022 (South Korea)

5 pm-7pm (9-11 AM in South Korea)
Panel 1: Korean Photography Then & Now
Panel chair & moderator: Boyoung Chang, Independent Scholar

Stephanie Lee, PhD Candidate, Northwestern University
Haely Chang, PhD Candidate, University of Michigan
Painting through the Camera Lens: Kim Kyujin's Experiment with Performativity and the Art Market in Early Twentieth Century Korea

Suzie Kim, Assistant Professor, University of Mary Washington
Architectural Photography as Visual Propaganda: Images of Korean Architecture in Pyongyang during the Postwar Period

Hyeri Oh, Research Professor, Research Institute for the Visual Language of Korea, Myungji University
Repositioning Photography and Realism in a Global Context

7pm-8pm (11-noon in South Korea)
Special session on The Korean Photography Collections in and around the U.S.
Introduction: Audrey Sands, Assistant Curator, Center for Creative Photography

Sunjung Han, Director of Han Youngsoo Foundation
The Horse without a Head and the High Heels: Photographs of Han Youngsoo

Sunyoung Kim, Curator, Museum of Photography, Seoul
The MoPS Collection and its meeting with the international art scene

Day 3
February 26, Saturday 2022 (Arizona)
February 27, Sunday 2022 (South Korea)

4 pm-6pm (8-10 AM in South Korea)
Panel 2: Korean Photography in Global Scene
Panel chair & moderator: Meg Jackson Fox, Associate Curator, Center for Creative Photography

Jeehey Kim, Assistant Professor, University of Arizona
Photography and Korean Identity since the 1970s

Young Min Moon, Professor, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
The Souvenir Photographs from the Military Camptown in South Korea, circa 1980

Boyoung Chang, Independent Scholar
Imagining the other Korea: Photographs of North Korea

Hyewon Yi, Director, Amelie A. Wallace Gallery, SUNY Old Westbury
The Staged Self: Chan-Hyo Bae's Photography

6:15pm-7:15pm (10:15-11:15 AM in South Korea)
Special session: Photographer Presentation: Youngsook Park & Myung Duck Joo
Introduction: Jeehey Kim, Assistant Professor, University of Arizona

7:15pm-8:15pm (11:15-12:15 in South Korea)

Roundtable Discussion
Moderator: Jeehey Kim, Assistant Professor, University of Arizona

Speakers:
Christopher Phillips, Independent Curator
Anne Wilkes Tucker, Curator Emerita, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

8:15pm (12:15 PM in South Korea)
Closing Remarks
Anne Breckenridge Barrett, Director, Center for Creative Photography