A photographer’s special exhibition on tradition

A fishing boat dragging a miniature ship made of rice straw heads for an open sea. One can feel comfort in darkness at a time when the sun is hidden by clouds. Is it because the fishing boat came out this far to ditch the rice straw boat carrying bad luck? Even fishers’ back seems comfortable.

This is a description of a black and white color photo taken in the sea off Wido Island in Buan County of North Jeolla Province in 1985. Late photographer Kim Soo-nam (1949-2006) captured the scene of the island’s traditional exorcism by a shaman off the sea. Located on one side of the exhibition hall, the photograph has a unique attractiveness that makes viewers feel their heart full. Our ancestors have had such traditional ceremony of exorcism probably for the survivors.

Since last Wednesday, the National Folk Museum of Korea has been holding a special exhibition called “Kim Soo-nam.” It selected 100 most famous pieces out of 170,000 donated by the photographer’s family. It is unusual for the museum to receive a photographer’s entire archive and digitize them for a special exhibition. It shows that Kim’s presence in our folk sector.

Former photographer of the Dong-A Ilbo, Kim started to take photos in traditional ceremonies of exorcism across the country in 1973. He had a sense of responsibility that he should record the traditional exorcist culture, which began to disappear due to economic development and modernization. He not only took photos but also categorized and recorded exorcist ceremonies by region with Kim In-hoe, an honorary professor at Yonsei University, and Hwang Lucy, a professor at Catholic Kwandong University. The extensive work for almost a decade has finally published “Korea’s Gut (ceremony of exorcism),” a total of 20 volumes.

Kim’s photos depict the true stories of ordinary people in the ceremony. This is well shown in pictures taken in Jeju in 1982. They humorously shows a shaman who plays the role of a god who harms children in the traditional faith on the island is ridiculed in the neighborhood and then driven away from the village by a god who gives and takes care of a child. The scene where the bad god jumps over the hill with a cane overlaps with a large empty space, making her look like a truth-seeker. The exhibition continues until June 6. The contact number is 02-3704-3248.

김상운 기자sukim@donga.com