Korea has undergone rapid variety over the last one C , with Seoul transfigure from the first East Asian city to light its royal palace with electricity to arguably the most modern metropolis in the domain . PhotographerSungseok Ahncaptured modification by fix up a screenland and project the old on top of the new .
I ran across Ahn ’s body of work after he was nominated for aSony World Photography Awardthis springtime . His project , Historic Present , is like in conception to other diachronic photo montage we ’ve reckon lately .
But this one , unlike those projects , is n’t the study of some clever Photoshop . Lugging a beam projector , a author , and a laptop computer across the metropolis , Ahn fix up heaps of exposure shoot that captured landmarks — either former or current — behind historical prototype taken from the same advantage .
Always shot at dawn or dusk , the images are beautiful and unearthly , with the yesteryear looking like a picture - windowpane into an alternative universe .
Paradoxically , Ahn had the idea not at home , but while traveling in Europe . “ I realized I had never ‘ travelled ’ Seoul before and that sense very strange , ” heexplains . So when he arrive home , he checked himself into a invitee mansion full of foreign tourer and then , well , hang out with them for a month . “ I visited historical place with the mass I stayed with and add English translated spell books with me , ” he says . “ I get a raw view about Seoul . ”
When the World Photography Organization asked him to depict what he hop we ’d all take away from the project , Ahn gave a stark , but frank , answer : “ Someday all of us will disappear like others in the old pictures . Things change and we will be gone . ” [ Sungseok Ahn;World Photography Organization ]
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