Overview
Boomoon (b.1955) is a South Korean photographer currently working in Seoul and Sokcho. Since the 1980's, he has been engaging with natural landscapes in his work as a means of self-reflection, producing large format photographs of vast expanses of sky, sea and land. Devoid of human existence, the central emphasis of his work is the experience of the infinity of nature and the representation of its presence.
"It is of profound importance to understand Boomoon's capacity to create an experiential space for the viewer and allow us to embody essential vantage points upon the optical splendor and ordering of the physical world. Significantly, Boomoon's camera perspective does not simulate an overtly human scale or optical perspective. He goes beyond being a photographer who offers us the sense of an omniscient but still human visual exploration of the world. Instead, his acute avoidance of a hyperbolic signature photographic style means that we are liberated viewers that can move into, above and beyond the natural phenomena that his camera explores, unhindered by an overbearing sense of his authorship." - Charlotte Cotton, taken from Constellation, published by Daegu Art Museum.
Boomoon's debut US solo exhibition at Flowers will comprise of selected works from his series Naksan. Naksan is located on the east coast of the Korean peninsula, taking its name from a beach overlooking the Sea of Japan (East Sea). The series, conceived during the heavy snow storms of 2005, 2010 and 2014, is characterized by details of crashing waves on the snow covered seashore. The photographs are dominated by a blank plane in the lower half of the image where the snow has accumulated on the beach. The snow is rendered as a singular flat surface devoid of scale or perspective, accentuating the horizon line that cuts midway through the pictorial plane.
Confronted by the vastness of Boomoon's immense and isolated landscapes, the viewer is presented with a meditative space in which to consider our metaphysical and spiritual connection with nature.
The poet and critic Shino Kuraishi wrote that Boomoon's photographs are "so large that they extend beyond the perimeter of the human body and systematically arranging them to provide separate encounters with individual viewers, he creates sites conducive to a highly contemplative experience. Wherever I stand in front of Boomoon's landscapes, I am inevitably drawn into dialogue with myself."
