The photography is the retina of scholars, 2012
You cannot say you have thoroughly seen anything until you have got a photograph of it.
On ne peut prétendre avoir vu réellement quelque chose avant de l’avoir photographié.
— Emile Zola, cited in La photographie scientifique et pseudo-scientifique,
We have fulfilled our desire to observe “everything” near and far through photography. The history of photography is also the history of our desire to make the invisible visible.
Photography made it possible to capture a trace of a disappearing time and also to visualise phenomena that can’t be seen by the naked eye. Murderers used to damage the eyes of victims in an attempt to erase their likeness form their victims retinas. Conversely, scientists in the 19th century endeavoured to transfer images from the retina onto photographic plates. However, both their hypotheses had two major errors. First, images can’t be made visible in our visual organs. Secondly, the role of photography goes beyond making objects visible. Instead, it visualises. What we see from retinal photography is not an image left on a retina but visualised capillaries on a retina. When the French astronomer Jules Janssen stated in 1988 that photography is the retina of scholars after photographing the surface of the Sun, he was celebrating a new world of vision that photography brought forward. What has been revealed in the human sense, is hidden reality rather than magic.
Optical devices are viewing instruments, originally developed for enhancing the imperfection of the human optical system. These can in themselves also be objects of contemplation. The pleasure of looking at cameras rather than photographs can be compared to that of the pleasure of looking at a map, rather than the actual journey itself. Rather than being “there”, the pleasure is in imagining and desiring that moment. This pleasure is for daydreamers, not explorers. Similarly, optical devices aspire to see, before they make seeing possible.
_ Eun Chun
Eun Chun
2009 Master d’Arts, spécialité Photographie, Université Paris VIII
2002 BFA, Chung-ang University, School of Fine Art, S.Korea
[Solo Exhibitions]
2014 ‘Searching for the photograph’, Old house, CAN foundation, Seoul
2014 ‘The photography is the retina of scholars’, Kumho gallery, U-square cultural center, Gwangju
2013 ‘Transit of venus across the retina’, Place mak, Seoul
2010 ‘Je regarde’, Bibliothèque chaptal de la ville de paris, Paris, France
[Group Exhibitions]
2017 ‘Method of curing’, Mi-in-do, Seongbuk cultural foundation, Seoul
2016 ‘April the eternal voyage : MV Sewol, memorial exhibition’, Gyeonggi museum of modern art, Ansan
2016 ‘Marbures+Photographies ; Marianne Peter+Eun Chun’, Galerie de l’atelier des Bernardins au vert, Moulin engilbert, France
2015 ‘23c Ocean arts research lab’, Artist house, Arts council Korea, Seoul
2015 ‘Alohomora aparecium, Mia-ri the texas’, The texas project, Seoul
2015 ‘Time collector’, Gyeonggi museum of modern art, Ansan
2012 ‘Imago Mundi’, Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venise, IT
2013 ‘Death of a star : Media art 2013’, Mediacube 338, Gwangju cultural foundation, Gwangju
2011 ‘Searching for oasis’, Gallery Banditrazos, Seoul
2010 ‘Focus’, Ville ouverte ; Les douches, Paris, France
[Projects] (about deafness and blindness)
2016 ‘Geum-gok, the Memorious’, Gyeonggi cultural foundation ; Northern cultural agency
2015 ‘A certain photograph’, Seoul art space Seongbuk, Seoul
2015 ‘Trees and forest : Talking hands meet reading hands’, Another way of seeing, Seoul
2014 ‘Blackbox Recorder’, Seoul art space Seongbuk, Seoul
2014 ‘A child who reads other poem’, Another way of seeing, Seoul
2010 ‘Journée mondiale des sourds’, M.A.I.N.S , Paris, France
[Awards & Grants]
2017 Official selection Les Boutographies 2017 ; Rencontres photographiques de Montpellier, Montpellier, France
2017 Winner at the 4th Amado Photography Award
2016 Gyeonggi cultural foundation ; Northern cultural agency / Seoul foundation for arts and culture
2015 The life and change 2015, Gyeonggi cultural foundation
2015 Seoul foundation for arts and culture / Arts council Korea
2014 Seoul foundation for arts and culture
[Residencies]
2017 MMCA Goyang residency 13th
2014-2015 Seoul art space Seongbuk 4th-5th
[Publication]
2017 ‘Float 6 : Le repos incomplet’, Hezuk press, Seoul
[List]
