grounds of national security, the Japanese govern-
ment restricted the activities of Korean photogra-
phers. They were not allowed to take pictures from
buildings higher than 50 meters, and film could not
be purchased without official permission.
When Korea regained its autonomy at the end of
World War II in 1945, photographers in Korea
organized groups and conducted various activities.
In 1945, a group of amateur photographers founded
Chosun Photo Art Study Group (Choson Sajin
Yesul Yonguhui). Their members arranged the
first salon exhibition of art photography, which
was the first nationwide photography competition
in Korea. During this period, the public was primar-
ily interested in photography as ‘art,’ yet the term
‘art photography’ was not clearly defined. Instead,
the tendency was to refer to photography by ama-
teurs as art photography.
During the Korean War in the early 1950s, many
war correspondents, both foreign and Korean,
actively recorded the vivid situation of the war,
which ultimately introduced the concept of ‘realism’
to Korean photography. Also beginning from the
early 1950s, photographers began to participate in
international photography competitions. Although
few were successful in these during the 1950s, by the
late 1960s, photographic works submitted for inter-
national competitions by Korean photographers
earned more than 4,000 awards in about 50 compe-
titions. Due to their participation at these interna-
tional competitions, Korean photographers had
ample chances of contact with the latest Western
photographic trends. In the meantime, photogra-
phy became available to a wider public. For exam-
ple,The Family of Manexhibition organized by the
Museum of Modern Art, New York, when shown
at the Kyongbok-gung Museum in Seoul in April
1957, attracted more than 300,000 visitors.
In the 1960s, media photography played an impor-
tant role during the democratic movement in Korea.
During the April 19th Student Uprising, when peo-
ple protested against the autocracy and corruption of
the government, photographers risked their lives to
record the brutal forces used by the government to
suppress the protests. These pictures were published
in various newspapers, which eventually brought
about the fall of the corrupt government. So-called
media photography found its function and responsi-
bility during this political upheaval. Along with art
photography, journalistic or realistic media photo-
graphy now constituted one of two major trends of
photography in Korea.
Photography began to be adopted in commercial
advertising relatively late in Korea, beginning only in
the late 1960s. The primary concern of the new
government during the 1960s and 1970s was ‘mod-
ernization.’ The economy was changing from a tra-
ditional, agriculture-based system to an industrial
one. Advertising photography was the outcome of
the period when mass-production engaged mass-
consumption. In addition, the introduction of color
film and auto-focus cameras after the 1960s made
photography more accessible to a wider population.
Due to the successful economic development after
the late 1970s, photography became a popular lei-
sure activity among the general public. The digital
revolution came as a boon to amateur Korean
photographers in the 1990s, aiding the exchange of
ideas and images, and numerous amateur photogra-
phers post their works on their personal websites.
Postwar and contemporary Korean photogra-
phers who have made reputations both in Korea
and outside include Choi Min-shik, who most com-
monly focuses on human subjects; Lim Young-kyun,
who takes landscapes that capture the rhythms of
ordinary life; Jeong-Hee Park, also a landscape
photographer; Kim Ga-jung, who takes nudes; Kim
Woo-young, a nature photographer who photo-
graphed the Himalayas; photojournalist Siwoo Lee,
known for his photographs of landmine victims; and
Jungjin Lee, a female photographer who served as an
assistant to Robert Frank during her studies in New
York. Suh Jai-Sik published the popular books,The
Beauty of KoreaandThe Beauty of Seoul,featuring
his expansive color photographs. The arrest and sub-
sequent jailing of photojournalist Seok Jae-hyun in
China for allegedly taking photographs of North
Koreans attempting to escape that country, made
international headlines at the close of the century.
J. P. Park
Seealso:Photography in JapanKOREA, PHOTOGRAPHY IN