Seungmann Park

It is not a CGI: looking through the lenses of Seungmann Park

Tuce Erel, Art Laboratory Berlin

“Aiming at Virtual” was a solo exhibition by Seungman Park,

a photographer concerned about the future of analog photography. The exhibition took place at Route 17 Media Art Center(Daejeon) between 15 and 29 December 2023. I had the chance to visit the exhibition during my stay in South Korea.

I must admit I fell into the trap of assuming that the artist generated the images in this exhibition on a computer. However, Juha Lee, the curator of the exhibition, explained in-depth that each photograph in the exhibition is an analog photograph and that each scene is well thought out, planned, and executed to look almost like CGI (Computer Generated Image), but actually not! It takes careful assessment and long gazing at each picture to realize the details, minor human errors - thank god, they were there - to convince me and of course any spectator that they were not CGI. After the exhibition visit, I had the chance to visit Seungman Park’s studio, where we talked about his fascination with analog techniques and equipment. He showed me some of the ‘behind the scenes’ images to depict the detailed scenography of his projects.

Like many of his peers, Park was born in the digital photography era. I know from many other photographers of the older generation that adapting from analog photography to digital photography was a hard transition. The technology has indeed advanced at a fast pace that many photographers were either resisting or slow to move to the new era. In contrast, Seungman Park grew up in the 21st century, where a phone with a camera was a default. For me, it was not, for sure. I had an analog camera as a child and failed to use it, and I only learned how to shoot and even develop my black-and-white films when I was at college.

However, shortly after, digital photography advanced so fast, and shooting in analog was also less affordable than digital photography. This comparison is vital to understand Park's deep and unique enthusiasm for the analog photography technique. Additionally, his approach is humorous and challenging to generate images on a computer.

The exhibition “Aiming at Virtual” brought a selection of ongoing projects inspired by his personal military background. In this series, several gun models are pictured, and the portrait of a person wearing camouflage clothing is presented alongside his series, where he challenges the computer-generated images. This ongoing project focuses on different types of guns available to buy as toys in stores. Park transforms these toys with a non-reflective special paint and creates models resembling computer-generated images.

It was interesting to learn that in South Korea, people are not allowed to own a firearm. Although the difficulty of getting a license for gun ownership differs in each country, I was surprised to find out that it is completely banned in South Korea. So, seeing these highly detailed gun images triggers my curiosity. Why guns? How did he own them? Then, it got interesting to learn, and the detailed assessment went deeper.

When I was thinking about these questions and how the English language is playful at this moment, shoot with a gun vs. to shoot with a camera. The same verb is used for different content. It is one of the ways of interpreting his humorous approach. However, I learned more

about the connection thanks to Lee. Due to his time in military service, Park had the chance to encounter several guns. He had the opportunity to study and work with guns, but he did not find himself fit into the military and left to be a photographer. But as a photographer and a gamer, firearms are still present in his life in a different way. It is statistically proven that most gaming themes are war and combat. The player is the one behind the muzzle sight to aim and shoot. Therefore, Park’s solo exhibition “Aiming at Virtual” also strongly references the gaming industry, which also uses CGI software to produce these imagery worlds.

That unique history in his past in the military and ongoing interest in gaming manifested in this solo show. The artist knows his craft and understanding of analog and digital realms. In order to create 3D images on a computer, one needs to use software. The industry has grown so much that users can download any 3D modeling software for free and start creating images on their computers. There is no need for prior knowledge but time to learn and master these digital tools.

It is fascinating that Park has chosen a different path in contrast to his cohort, learning analog techniques to reach the same outcome or, as it is called in the computer language, a rendered final output as perfect as CGI-rendered output. If you put Park’s work with a similar layout of a

CGI image side-by-side, one cannot distinguish the difference at first. It is so easy to label them as CGI. As I mentioned before, I have been there. But one should really look closer to his work. It is a kind of show that one cannot experience over a screen or photo documentation. However, I wanted to include several close-ups to show details that bring the human touch to his work.

These days, it is getting harder to see the invisible hand of the artist in the contemporary art world. Therefore, I appreciate the time, labor, and thoughts invested in his photography series. To create an environment that looks like computer-generated grids, typical imagery that one sees on computer software for image generation is presented in his scenography and repainted gun toys as the objects. If one looks closer at this detailed image of one of the guns, little surprises await - seeing the tapes crossing over, slightly going off the object, or appearing somewhat detached from the surface. At that moment, I had my moment of sensing the artist’s labor on each object and the set-up he presented.

To summarize, the image world depicts only a partial part of Park’s photography world. It challenges digital tools using analog techniques and brilliantly creates scenography in each photograph. His work will reach out to the larger photography communities beyond South Korea and be welcomed by intergenerational photographers due to his respect and mastery of the technique.