- Overview
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Photos taken with heart and poems written on the road
- Book Intro
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This book introduces the poetry and photography of Choi Byung-gwan, a DMZ photographer, under the theme of longing. The longing for his mother in his previous work, “Mother's Silk Road” and the pain revealed in “450-Day Diary of 155-miles DMZ” are further emotionally elaborated in the book. He has written poetry whenever he is unable to express his feelings in his photography of nature. Hence, there remain glimpses of unanswered curiosity in his poems and photographs. By following this curiosity, the readers can observe the longing expressed in these unresolved emotions and thoughts. ‘I miss her but cannot meet her’; the misfortune disguised as a blessing has led him, in a sense, to photography and poetry. This book is like a diary that allows readers to see the author’s days of chasing his feelings of longing.
- About the Author
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Choi Byungkwan
Choi Byung-gwan is a photographer and a poet. Born in Sandui Village, Namdong-gu, Incheon, he has been taking photographs and writing poems of the disappearing hometown scenery. His photographs are inspired by nature and based on four principles: no photoshop, no trimming, no hood, and no color filter. His photos are pure and delicate, and appear more mystery the more they are looked at.
In particular, from 1997 to 1998, half a century after the Korean War, he was the first civilian to take photographs and write about crossing 155 miles of the DMZ from the west to the east three times. These photos were shown at the solo exhibition “In Search Of Peace and Life in the Demilitarized Zone in Korea”, which was held at the UN Headquarters in New York in 2010.
