For 50 Years, Giving Affection to the Truth of Photograph

Monochrome Photographer, Hak-su Kim

Se-young Lee

edition and translation: Jeonju Cultural Foundation

In 1827, Niepce, Joseph Nicéphore fixed the scenery on a slab of stone at which he looked down from the window of his house. After the dream that human beings had wanted to draw a picture with the light from nature came true, photograph was a new means storing memory. However, aroused at that time which the memory is perished, its unique nostalgia made photos something more than memory fixation or regeneration.

During half a century, a photographer who has been including traces of time through a viewfinder in his photos, Hak-su Kim has taken impressive scenes that could be called 'crucial moments'. And his scenes which slipped from his memory were reminded through the conversation with him that could recall the past which we can never go back.

He was born in Nosong-dong, Jeonju and as the second of three brothers and four sisters. He graduated from school attached to college of education, but was not interested in studying. So his grandfather sent him to a night school to learn work skills with staying at his uncle's home. His uncle ran a big shop to sell materials in Jeollabukdo. At the time when the U.S. troops stationed in Korea after World War II, his uncle did business facing the U.S. army base, so he was very wealthy. Since then, his uncle dealt mainly with photographs, hence he could be naturally familiar with photograph.

You stayed with your uncle quite a long time, but what did you do?

In the Japanese colonial era, I made money developing, printing, and delivering pictures taken from the army. After Korea was liberated, I received photos from National Guard Troops and the U.S. troops. Then I sent the color photos to Seoul by train and developed and printed the black and white photos at home, and delivered them as my uncle ordered to do. I also went on Korea Exchange Bank an errand to exchange dollars to Korean currency.

I think it seemed to be easy to learn photography. why did you learn photography, photo developing and printing from your uncle?

There were several cameras in my uncle's house, so I learned about photography, photo developing and printing from my uncle. At least until that time, there was no any material for photograph in Korea, so we ordered and used photographic papers and photochemicals from Japan, America and so on. However, I started to take pictures in earnest when I worked for topographic unit. I took military photos with working in the army unit 739 for construction as a civilian attached to the Army. Although I learned English alphabet in the night school in Gunsan, it was beyond my ability to understand all films and chemicals written in English. So, I went to YMCA English academy while working in Busan.

He quitted working in the army. In 1960s, color photographs were introduced to Korea and ran Hyundai Color Special Agency and it was beginning of working a photographer in earnest. He has recorded the sceneries of mountains and streams and its people in Jeonbuk with riding a bicycle with a camera. He tried to express the artistic value which photograph has or the unique feeling of black and white photos. But he would not know that the photos would be any records.

He affirmed that if the Dong-A Daily News didn't hold 'Readers' photo competitions' in its newspaper, he couldn't be what he is. The 'Snowy Way' which was picked as a winner by Dong-A Daily News in 1963 made him a real photographer. When his work, 'Snowy Way' was picked as a winner after 'Full Autumn' in 1962 and he received the reward of one thousand won, so he thought that he has the possibility as a photographer. Since then, he has been walking a single path as sticking to black and white photos with pride as a photographer.

We can say that people got to know your name as photographer when your work, 'Full Autumn' was picked as a winner by Dong-A Daily News. I'd like to hear how you entered the competition in the newspaper and became walking the path of photographer.

At that time, there were hardly opportunities for photo presentation. Then, Dong-A Daily News kept holding a photo competition for their readers. Although the newspaper had received more than 200 photos from their readers monthly, my photos got into papers twice successively, winning an award of excellence. In the day when the winner was announced, I can't forget the moment that I spread the newspaper and my picture was in there. I had fans for the first time. They sent me letters from all over the country asking for a piece of my picture. I think I could keep taking photos until now because I was born in the time when photo is considered precious.

The 'Snowy Way' showed the figure of women who go to Jjaeboseonchang (Jukseong Dock) in Gunsan to receive fish with a big rubber bowl. It gives strong impression showing the 60's hard life. It had a comment saying, "The contrast between the common people's cold life feeling on the snow and hot train smoke is well expressed.". So do you regard 'Remaining Snow' as the best than 'Full Autumn'?

At that time, the theme that the newspaper proposed was 'snowy way'. I wanted to take a photo of the common people's sorrow on the snowy way. No matter how the weather was, they couldn't take off at least a day from buying fish wholesale. I contrasted the snowy way and a railroad because I wanted to clearly contrast the black and white of the figure of women who had to get on a cargo compartment instead of a passenger compartment for the reason why they smell fishy. Later, a jury's comment let me know that there's something more than I thought in my photo. I remember the 'Snowy Way' as my major work forever.

After you were accepted for the National Art Exhibition, many of your works had won prizes in the competition. I think Dong-A Daily News played an important role. Did you have any reason why you kept entering its competitions?

Dong-A Daily News commented on the photos in detail so that it taught me how photograph is taken. While entering competitions many times, I had learned how to take photos. Whether my work received any prizes or not, I could learn to photos. Thanks to this, 'Roof Repair' was selected at the 15th National Art Exhibition in 1966. Before and after I started my photography career in 1963, I won rookie award at Art Awards, an award at Sightseeing Photo Competition and so on. It seemed I was in top form at the time.

He enjoyed taking photos contrasting light and shade of black and white. So, he took the photo of trees, especially skinny winter trees. He used to run the snowy way over and over again in order to take photos as the gray scale excepting black and white is disappeared. He kept trying to find the time when the natural phenomenon can be taken in a black and white photograph more strongly. Most of his photos leaving impressions with the contrast of black and white are the scenes of Jeollabukdo's nature and its people living. His photos are the history of Jeonbuk and the story of its life. So he says Jeollabukdo's nature was his teacher at that time.

When it comes to your photos, I think I should start talking about monochrome photograph first. Nowadays, many people are taking digital photographs as well as color photographs. However, you still have taken monochrome photographs. Why do you stick to it?

I also take a family photograph in color but I have sticked to take art photos in monochrome. Black and white photograph can express what I want to express more strongly. I like backlight and silhouette photography. They are better to be taken in monochrome than in color. I prefer the backlight photo for strong expression but monochrome photography can be expressed more than what I want.

I used to take photos of skinny trees which lost its leaves were shed in late autumn or winter tree covered with white snow. I can't escape from the monochrome photograph because I hate summer and love winter which is good to take strong feeling of the black and white.

From your point of view, I think it looks like an ink and wash painting. The backlight photos seem to be intended to cover the detailed expressions in people's faces or scenes. Did you have any special intention for that?

Take a look at the photos and think solemnly about it. It's enough to figure out how their figures are just at the sight of their silhouettes. The photos which the detailed contents were disappeared become to put more emphasis on the outline and convey abundant expressions or a lot of imaginations. For this, I wanted to take photos which make people look and imagine.

So, I prefer taking photos from far away to close. I don't go close to a face and put a scene and people together in a photo. My portraits are completed by sceneries and the sceneries gain stories from people. Every appearance and look has its story. Even though photographs catch a moment, they become to include all the dramatic emotions if we read the story.

The stories of your photographs are about streams and mountains and people of your hometown. they're kind of vague because they are disappearing. Do you have any reason that you became interested in the disappearing things?

Many scenes were too good to just lose by the influence of the New Village Movement in the 1970's. There were many subjects nearby such as salt farms, farm villages, and mills. I got attached to them so that I wanted to take photos before they are disappearing.

I knew all of market days in Jeollabukdo. The stories from the people who drank in a market became the important information that would be heard at nowhere. I used to choose new photo locations with sharing the information about farming with the people. So, the market day is one of my favorite sites because it has the scene that people are living.

As I read the work of Sacheon, the story follows one after another./ Rising and falling tide/ Are round spiral./If I think that I could see the bottom,/ I am circling in the sky./ Yes, the work of Sacheon is/ the sky without the bottom.

This is a part extracted from of a poet, Seung-beom Choi. I think this poem is the best explanation of Hak-su Kim's photos. It seems that stories would come out continuously like 'the sky with no bottom.' His photos have the hidden side of the era. He was so affectionate to the scenes that no one gave any attention and his heart had gotten through hard times is still so warm.

Each of 7 themes has enough values because they all have a hidden side of the age. As the photos of mills, compared with the present, we can often find many changes of scenery in your photographs. What is your memorable photo being taken at that time?

There were a lot of dusty and noisy mills in Jeollabukdo which is a breadbasket. I think I had taken almost every mill in Jeonbuk. I am really sorry that mills are no longer existent but they are living in my pictures. I remember all pictures such as a tied cow in the front yard of a house with thatched roof, a royal robe sailboat, a salt farm in hot summer and all pictures.

However, I think it was not easy to take photos. The rural areas were closed and the transportation was not good at that time. I think rural people had an antipathy against you taking photos in their workplace.

There were no cars then. So, I usually rode bicycle or took a bus when I go a long distance. Accommodation as well as transportation was inconvenient and it was hard to take photos in farming areas. People in the countrysides didn't like me because I was taking photos with a camera while they were working hard. Such eyes are in the picture of a mill taken in Tae-in, Jeong-eup in the late 1970s. Then, I needed to serve them a pack of cigarettes and a glass of Makgeolli (a kind of Korean traditional alcohol). It is hard to get close at first but after we became attached to each other, they greeted me with open arms.

Photos which he have taken focusing on what others do not pay attention show the scenes like the original form of hometown that cannot be seen anywhere now. They are a 'record' and became 'history'. In order for them to have a life as a record, he have recorded the detailed information such as year, season and location for each photograph. In 2007, National Folk Museum of Korea discovered such recording in his about 1800 photos and he willingly agreed to share them. So, these photos were disclosed to the world as an exhibition titled, "The Passed Time, and the Forgotten Time."

The scenes of Korean rural and fishing village in the 1960s~70s and the art works expressing the lives of the people have historically high values. Did you know your photos for 50 years are valuable as records when you donated them to National Folk Museum of Korea?

I was crazy in photograph so I have spent my whole life taking pictures but I didn't know that my photos have such value. I just thought I was going to donate my collecting antique pictures and a collection of works. However, the staffs of the museum visited my home and admired my photos saying that they were worth a data that showed the lifestyle of 60-70's well. I thought it would be good for my photos to be seen to many people so that I gladly donated them.

You seem to try various forms of photograph from press to artistic photos. Do you think whether the current form of photograph is right or it should go a new way?

It might be obsolete to stick to black and white photographs in the time when digital camera became a general trend and color photos could be printed in just 10 minutes. But, photograph has no lie and has the recording. In earlier times, my photographs had no reason to be sold because they were not bright and beautiful. However, they are being treated valuably after I've taken photos for 50 years. Photograph lives up to its value if it is recorded in each era steadily. Faded photographs become reminiscence, for we cannot rewind the time. I'd like you to get interested in our disappearing custom and consider the low life that can be still seen in the city, not only to pursue pretty and fancy things.

He still sticks to black and white photograph and analog in the time when machine prints photograph. He goes out in cold winter as ever with a camera for taking photos that can be taken only by God's grace. Although he has taken photos for a long time, Jeollabukdo is still his repository because there are white siberian chrysanthemums between pine trees in Jeong-eup, buckwheat field which blossomed white like pop corn in Go-chang and so on.

He says he has no greed anymore because he achieved everything that he wanted to achieve. And also says, "As long as my eyes allow me to work in the dark room, I am going to continue to do it. So, please keep watching me." He only worries that he might not use all films receiving from his Japanese friend.

So-cheon (byname), Hak-Su Kim (full name) (小川 金學洙, 80)

Birth in Jeon-ju, Jeollabuk-do in 1993(1893?)

Major Solo Exhibition and Invitation Exhibition

8 Solo Exhibitions

1986 Invitation Exhibition of Harold Washington mayor in Chicago, USA

2001 Invitation Exhibition in KBS Broadcasting, "Mu-ju Village People"

2001 Invitation Exhibition in the 5th Mu-ju Firefly Festival

2006 Exhibition of a Mill in Four Seasons

2008 Invitation Exhibition of the 1st Anniversary of Opening a Cultural Center of Korea and Shanghai in China

2008 Invitation Exhibition for the Community of the Koreans abroad in Shanghai in China

2008 Exhibition of Donated Material in the National Folk Museum of Korea

2011 Invitation Exhibition in the Jeonbuk Province Art Museum

2012 Invitation Exhibition in KBS Jeon-ju Broadcasting TV Gallery, "3 In 3 Saek (3 People Has 3 Different Colors)"

Major Awards and Commendations

1962 Awarding the Prize of the Photo Exhibition propagating an Idea of the Ocean by the Ministry of Transportation

1963 Awarding the Prize of the Photo Exhibition of Sightseeing by the Ministry of Transportation

1964 Awarding the Prize by the chairman of the Federation of Artistic and Cultural Organizations of Korea

1967 Awarding the Prize of the Rookie in the National Art Exhibition

1967 Awarding a Prize in the Art Contest of Korea

1967 Awarding a Prize in the Taiwan International Festival

1968 Awarding a Prize in the Singapore International Photo exhibition

1968 Awarding a Prize in Dong-A International Art Exhibition

1969 Awarding the Prize of Best 10 by the Photo Artist Society of Korea

1973 Awarding the Prize of Best 10 by the Photo Artist Society of Korea

1996 Awarding a Prize in the Art Contest of Korea

2001 Awarding a Prize of the Art by Jeon-ju City

2007 Receiving a Commendation by the chairman of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism

2008 Awarding the 46th prize of Photo and Culture of Korea

2009 Awarding the 31th Art Grand Prize

Major Personal History

Director of the Photo Artist Society of Korea

Jury of the Art Contest of Korea in Jeollabuk-do

The invited artist to the Art Contest of Korea in Jeollabuk-do

Jury/Commissioner of the Photo Contest of Korea in Jeollabuk-do

Consultant of the Photo Artist Society of Korea

The invited artist to the Photo Exhibition of Korea