HANBOK 한복
•Brief Description
: I photograph people from around the world wearing hanbok, Korea’s traditional attire, at Gyeongbokgung Palace—one of the most iconic and symbolic sites in Korea.
By juxtaposing these powerful cultural icons with individuals of diverse nationalities, I explore the dissonance that emerges and use it as a lens to enter the interhuman space—the relational realm between self and other.
All images are taken in daylight, with the use of flash as a deliberate tool to access the psychological and emotional interior of the subjects.
-Format: Hardback
-Number of pages: 132 pages
-Number of images: 56ea
-Publication date: April 2025
-Measurements: 24.5cm x 25.4cm
-Languages: English, Korean
-Published: Burn
-ISBN: 979-8-218-63104-8
-Texts: David Alan Harvey, Manseok Ha, Wooyong Chun(Historian), Heekyoung Kim(Curator, Art Psychologist)
•About the Book
<HANBOK>
: Over the past 80 years since Korea’s liberation, the country’s clothing culture has undergone rapid
Westernization. Hanbok, once a daily attire that visualy expressed gender, marital status, class, and
social hierarchy, has retreated from everyday life and is now worn only occasionaly for ceremonial
events such as weddings or first-birthday celebrations. Yet an ironic scene unfolds daily at
Gyeongbokgung Palace.
At this historic site—once a symbol of royal authority—visitors from across the world now walk the
palace grounds dressed in hanbok. Once an emblem of colective identity and social order, hanbok is
now worn by individuals of diverse nationalities, ethnicities, and genders. In this unfamiliar convergence
of tradition and globalization, of colective memory and individual presence, I use the flash of my
camera to iluminate the inner world of the Other.
Within each brief encounter, the subject and I enter what I cal an "interhuman" space—a relational
terrain between one person and another. This moment transcends documentation; it becomes an act of
mutual recognition, a philosophical engagement in which I confront myself through the face of the
Other.
In HANBOK, I use hanbok as a cultural and visual threshold—situated at the boundary between myself
and the world—to explore identity in both the subject and myself.
The book was published by Burn in 2025.
-Format: Hardback
-Number of pages: 132 pages
-Number of images: 56ea
-Publication date: April 2025
-Measurements: 24.5cm x 25.4cm
-Languages: English, Korean
-Published: Burn
-ISBN: 979-8-218-63104-8
-Texts: David Alan Harvey, Manseok Ha, Wooyong Chun(Historian), Heekyoung Kim(Curator, Art Psychologist)
•About the Book
<HANBOK>
: Over the past 80 years since Korea’s liberation, the country’s clothing culture has undergone rapid
Westernization. Hanbok, once a daily attire that visualy expressed gender, marital status, class, and
social hierarchy, has retreated from everyday life and is now worn only occasionaly for ceremonial
events such as weddings or first-birthday celebrations. Yet an ironic scene unfolds daily at
Gyeongbokgung Palace.
At this historic site—once a symbol of royal authority—visitors from across the world now walk the
palace grounds dressed in hanbok. Once an emblem of colective identity and social order, hanbok is
now worn by individuals of diverse nationalities, ethnicities, and genders. In this unfamiliar convergence
of tradition and globalization, of colective memory and individual presence, I use the flash of my
camera to iluminate the inner world of the Other.
Within each brief encounter, the subject and I enter what I cal an "interhuman" space—a relational
terrain between one person and another. This moment transcends documentation; it becomes an act of
mutual recognition, a philosophical engagement in which I confront myself through the face of the
Other.
In HANBOK, I use hanbok as a cultural and visual threshold—situated at the boundary between myself
and the world—to explore identity in both the subject and myself.
The book was published by Burn in 2025.