Open Hope of All University Students That Dream in Photography 2014 Mirae Award

■ Awardees
- KANG Yeje (Kyungil University, School of Photography & Motion Picture)
- KANG Eungkyu (Sunchon National University, Department of Photographic Art)
- CHO Seunghyun (Kyungil University, School of Photography & Motion Picture)

■ jury
- KO Youngjun (A. General Manager, Canon Korea Consumer Imaging INC. Pro. Solution Dept.)
- Park Youngmi (Curator, Parkgeonhi Foundation)
- LEE Sabine (Assistant Curator, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea)
- YI Sangil (Photographer, Director, Goeun Museum of Photography)
- CHOI Kwangho (Photographer)

■ Competition
- Submission Period : July 14 – 18, 2014
- Eligibility : All University (College) Students in Korea
- Total number of entries : 104
- Award : Canon EOS 6D, 24-105mm f/4L IS USM
Systematic and Professional Tutoring from Photographers and Curator
Exhibition and Publication

■ Ceremony
Date : August 14, 2014
Place : Canon Korea Consumer Imaging Conference Room
Prize : Canon EOS 6D, 24-105mm f/4L IS USM

■ Tutoring by Professional Photographers
Tutoring Period : August, 2014 – January, 2015
Master Tutor : KOO Bohnchang (Photographer)
Tutor
- KOO Sungsoo (Photographer)
- PARK Youngmi (Curator, Geonhi Art Foundation)
- CHUNG Heeseung (Photographer)
- CHOI Kwangho (Photographer)

■ Commentary

1. KO Youngjun / A. General Manager, Canon Korea Consumer Imaging INC. Pro. Solution Dept.
Many students dreaming to become photographers of the future participated in the 2014 Mirae Award. Particularly notable this year was that we saw many students attempting to express their anguishes or thoughts through photography. I believe that work to transform thoughts into images is the first step in becoming an artist. In that sense, our expectations are even higher for the future works of the 3 students selected this year.
In Go A, KANG Yeje used props such as the chair to express the reality, where he is not allowed to have even the smallest space to sit and rest comfortably, executed in monotone photographs with high levels of completion. The chair and spaces shown in a well-organized frame were connected with one another organically, thus appropriately revealing the photographer’s thoughts on life in quality work.
School by KANG Eungkyu is a work that photographically expresses the spaces of the oppressive and uniform notions of the school, defined in the thoughts of the artist. The images of the typical school buildings and the dimly pressed down tone and manner invite viewers to re-think the definition of the word “school” in this age.

Finally, Stuffed, Not Stuffed by CHO Seunghyun is a work that re-composes objects and space using digitalized photographic media, different from traditional photographic work. The objects, which are stuffed as documentation of moments in small virtual spaces made digitally, are reality, but not reality, and stuffed, but not stuffed.

Once more I congratulate the three students selected by the 2014 Mirae Award. I support your efforts to grow into great photographers in the future.

2. PARK Youngmi / Curator, Parkgeonhi Foundation
Serving as juror for the 2014 Mirae Award as a special opportunity to estimate the level of works made by students dreaming to become photographers at a glance, and to come face-to-face with our young people’s thoughts and anguishes through their works. The evaluation process involved each juror recommending outstanding portfolios in the first stage, and selecting the common nominations to be included in the list for the second-stage evaluation. In the second evaluation, the final winners were chosen through a debate and consensus of all jury members.
KANG Yeje’s Go A showed an outstanding power of concentration, as if each photograph contained all the stories of a whole short film. The portfolio, which repeatedly used props to question identity, had an exact grasp on the main idea, thus clearly revealing what the photographer wanted to say through the overall composition.
Kang Eungky’s School demonstrates a certain simplicity, true to the nature of photography, which seems to be pushed aside in the contemporary art scene, which imposes uncommon imagination and peculiar creativity. While expressing the ordinary story of the school, which can be shared by anyone, through a natural perspective, a high level of technical skill and perfection helped achieve a solidly composed portfolio.
More than anything else, CHO Seunghyun’s Stuffed, Not Stuffed gave me the pleasure of seeing visual refinement in photography. The portfolio showed harmony among the animals, stuffed and alive, traversing spaces of reality and fiction in creating the story, stable composition and color, and variegated settings of situations.
I want to thank the 104 college students who entered the Mirae Award, and hope that they are not disappointed with the results, but continue to pursue their work. An artist is a being who cannot be completed, one who must silently walk alone through a long period of time without beginning or end. I would like them to know that our respectable older-generation photographers also experienced such frustrating times in countless occasions.

3. LEE Sabine / Assistant Curator, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea
This was my first time as an evaluator of college students’ works. It was a difficult but pleasant experience, an opportunity to think about what we expect from young artists, and what we burden them with through those expectations.
Perhaps it would be a paradox to expect novelty and originality uninfluenced by older generations from young photographer aspirants. Everyone is influenced by the existing environment before they become independent and live their own lives, and it seems unfair to demand them to overcome their limitations. Nevertheless, our contradiction lies in the fact that we cannot discuss art without newness. We appreciate art to receive emotional stimulus, and things we already know cannot stimulate us.
What should we see, or can see in artist aspirants in their 20s? The tenacity to dig into old and familiar things can serve as a background for novelty, as this requires accumulation of physical time and experience. Honesty in the attitude of sincerely observing oneself and his/her surroundings, the powerful desire to express, even if it seems childish or emotionally excessive, and the sustainability of will to look at the world with a somewhat different perspective. I suppose this would be enough as a starting point for something new. The three artist aspirants chosen are more than equipped to fulfill such conditions.
Among the candidates that chose the theme of “family and me,” KANG Yeje’s Go A was outstanding. As I turned the pages of the portfolio the photographer’s straightforward and powerful method of revealing his story, and sensibility to compose it through the language of photography elevated my expectations for the next page.
Many of the submitted works dealt with animals. Unlike works that depicted animals as metaphors of others through the form of portraits, CHO Seunghyun’s Stuffed, Not Stuffed chose a rather universal theme concerning the contrast between life and death, reality and virtual world. Rather than theme, CHO demonstrated potential in the power of presentation and composition of the images.
In KANG Eungkyu’s School, I deeply felt the sincere attitude of the artist eager to pursue an old and familiar subject he was well aware of. I suppose there is no one who does not have complex feelings about school. My opinion is that the theme was an appropriate and humble choice for a work that lays down a foundation to cultivate unique newness as the photographer will soon completely leave the institution called the school.
Expectations are high as all three photographers will be tutored by great photographic artists. I hope that the possibilities of novelty, which can only be sensed by older generations, will be further extended.

4. YI Sangil / Photographer, Director, Goeun Museum of Photography)
The Parkgeonhi Foundation and Canon Korea Consumer Imaging Inc. are assisting the artist aspirants of Korea. Artist aspirants are those who want to live their lives through work, but do not yet have the assurance. These people are in desperate need for a system of self-evaluation, and have extraordinary expectations towards Parkgeonhi Foundation and Canon Korea Consumer Imaging Inc., which operate such systems.
Then what are the factors to realistically fulfill the desire to live one’s life through artistic work? I still do not have the confidence to clearly answer that question. I can only say the question and answer to why one wants to live as an artist, or live together with photography must be a priority. This is because the artist is a name that is provided when one has acquired a sense of existence, unique creativity, and furthermore, artistic qualities demanded by the times.
Thus, as I reviewed the works submitted to the 2014 Mirae Award, I decided on a set of criteria. Is the photographer of the future telling his or her story? Of course one’s own story must be a personal one apart from universality, even if it is an issue concerning a rampant concept. Another criterion is—though I do not necessarily expect artistic qualities demanded by the times—can we see unique creativity? This is because “future” implies at least not being contaminated by traits of older generation photographers. In that sense I was personally drawn to the Go A series by Kang Yeje.
I would like to make these requests to the 2014 Mirae Award winners: First, endlessly ask yourself why you want to live as an artist, or photographer, and never forget your cocky attitude that the works of the older generations are all relics of the past.

5. CHOI Kwangho / Photographer
When I was in college doing photography I was at a loss. Why? Because I could not see a future. Moreover, I did not have a camera. I was ever more envious of those who held good equipment and could work with as much film as they wanted to. Once I was caught by my professor doing my friend’s homework for him in exchange for borrowing his camera, and sometimes I would agonize it the fact that photographs I took for someone else got them better grades than me. This was my college life.
But for me there was something as important as taking photographs. What is photography? What does it mean to live truly while practicing photography? From when I started to take pictures in high school until 40 years later today, I dreamt that dream more than the dream of becoming a photographer. No matter how hard or difficult life was, it was photography that enabled me to overcome everything and come this far.
Therefore, when I judge or evaluate photographs, I look at the person’s attitude of life first. Through what attitude does this person look at life? How is this revealed in the photographs? The photographs that first come into my sight are the ones containing such genuineness.
As I served as a juror for the 2014 Mirae Award, I felt that the methods of thinking about life and attitudes toward photography have changed significantly. They have become quite diverse and new, which was good. As they were good, it was hard to choose.
In Go A KANG Yeje reveals his present appearance through the chair. In the photographs, I could sense not the chair as a convenient tool, but the chair as a life form revealing the inner world of the photographer. I liked the ability of the photographer to compose images of the self in spaces including forest, sky, road, plaza and buildings in a high level of completion.
KANG Eungkyu’s School is a photograph revealing a sense of presence at the site based on a candid view of where the photographer lives now. The honest perspective of a student looking at the school appealed to me strongly. Through this photograph, which is dark, uncanny and gloomy, viewers encounter the desperate reality of students living in our schools today.
CHO Seunghyun’s Stuffed, Not Stuffed is a beautiful photograph. But its contents are sad and painful. The last image is so beautiful it gives the viewer a heart ache. As if to depict a faraway world the animal pranced in when it was alive, there is light in the photograph. Amidst the beautiful colors shown between the light there is a view toward “life.” The desire to send the stuffed animals back to Mother Nature is revealed through the contrasting images.
What is important here is “to never stop until the end.” I hope that these works continue until the photographers have thought and thought again, observed and observed again, contemplated and re-contemplated, and have felt that they have nothing more to do, they have done their best, and therefore they are relieved and have no regrets. I hope they become photographers that are moved by their own works, praise themselves, have great expectations for themselves, and dream of their infinite possibilities.
Photography is living. Since diligently contemplating on one’s issues and revealing the results of contemplation is photography, photography is an expression of personal contemplation, and to photograph is to live. Finally, I want to tell the young artists that photographs will gain power not when they are just presentable, but when they are based on sincere thoughts and genuine attitudes of life, not when they are photographed for the sake of photography, but when they reveal the artist’s contemplations and values of life.