Seeing the Beauty of Destruction in Seung-Hwan Oh's 'Impermanence'

In this follow-up, in-depth exclusive interview, Seoul, South Korea-based photographer and filmmaker Seung-Hwan Oh discusses the inspiration behind his ongoing photographic series “Impermanence” and the painstaking process that goes along with it.

Practically everything you see now will eventually fall into a state of decay. It’s an inevitable process, one that can only be delayed but never truly avoided. Seung-Hwan Oh, however, has seemingly decided to embrace the fact in his stunning work in portraiture, aptly titled Impermanence.

From “Impermanence”

Oh started working on “Impermanence” in 2012 after reading a 2010 article from BBC Online about how fungus threatens to destroy historical film archives. “I noticed that mold on badly stored film can eat away and destroy its contents,” Oh said, “And then I realize that I may deliver the idea of impermanence of matter applying this natural disaster into my work.” The second law of thermodynamics played a major role in his series as well, with Oh saying that he had found beauty in it. He expounded, “It (‘Impermanence’) is about an idea that all the matter including all the life forms collapse in our spatial-temporal dimension we belong to.”

From “Impermanence”

The process for “Impermanence” is a unique, albeit a painstaking one. To put things in perspective, Oh said that only one out of 500 frames comes out properly and that he only has 15 of them so far since he started the project.

Oh begins by taking a photo using his Hasselblad 500 C/M loaded with Fujichrome Provia 400X. “I use the medium format color reversal film to see the damages on the image more clearly,” he explained. He then lets homegrown bacteria sit on the developed film in water for months or even years, noting, “It is key that you have to preserve the developed film wet and warm enough that mould can propagate itself. And then you just check them once a while.”

From “Impermanence”

The photos that comprise “Impermanence” veer on the surreal, with the many colors and patterns and distortions that have appeared courtesy of the bacteria present. Oh, on the other hand, has a fancier description for the series: “An aesthetic of entangled creation and destruction that inevitably is ephemeral.” Without saying anything specific, he revealed that his favorite photograph out of the whole series is “the first one I have gotten after 18 months of waiting.”

From “Impermanence”

Right now, Oh has moved on to another series done using the same technique. Titled “Straw Dogs,” it consists of nude portraits and, according to the artist’s estimate, would take two or three years to see the outcome. Other than that Oh isn’t sure what his future plans for “Impermanence” would be as of the moment, although he did say, quite understandably, “One thing for sure [is] I won’t do this again!”

From “The Ruins of Pleasure” (1992-1994), another work in analogue by Seung-Hwan Oh

According to Oh’s CV, “Impermanence” was showcased just last year at his solo exhibit at the Kimjina Thea Gallerie Ephemere in Seoul. Aside from photography, in which he works both in digital and analogue “depend[ing] on the theme I work with,” Oh also dabbles in filmmaking. As a film and photography student in New York, he directed two short films in 16mm titled, “A Man in the Birdcage” (1994) and “Billows Within” (1995). His work has been displayed in museums and galleries not only in Seoul, but also in Paris, Fukuoka, Beppu, and New York.

All photographs in this article are by Seung-Hwan Oh and used here with permission. Visit the artist’s online portfolio here.

See also: *'Impermanence' by Seung-Hwan Oh*

2015-11-12 #people #lifestyle #experiments #medium-format #interview #analogue-photography #bacteria #impermanence #seung-hwan-oh

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