Kyungwoo Chun, b. 1969
Bom in Seoul, South Korea, Kyungwoo earned his BFA in Photography at the College of Art at the University of Chung-Ang, Seoul in 1992, then obtained his diploma in Communication Design (Photography) at the Berg Universitat, GH Wuppertal in Germany in 1999. Kyungwoo has held several solo shows in Germany, Denmark and Korea, including a recent show at the Sungkok Art Museum in Seoul. Group exhibitions include the international Photoszene Cologne at the Deutches Sport und Olympia Museum, Cologne, 2000, Black and White at Kunstverein Museum Schlo-Morsbroich, Germany, 2000 as well as a number of other shows in China and Germany. He is the recipient of the AGFA Foerder Program Photography Award, 1998. Chun's portraits try to extract and portray the very soul or essence of the sitter, playing on the familiar phrase that 'the camera never lies' - a phrase which has become almost obsolete in today's digitally manipulated world. During his investigations, he has become more interested in the photographic process, and begun to use an exposure time of thirty minutes. This slowness of exposure captures the various expressions of the faces portrayed. Precise facial features become blurred and ultimately only the 'aura' of the person is captured by the camera lens, as well as a feeling of time and depth. His portraits are all double portraits, forcing the viewer to consider the relationship between the two subjects.