Photography is a method to collect a part of the world as an elaborate duplicate through a mechanical process.

It cannot be said unconditionally that the world is beautiful, but there are beautiful moments: walls decayed and falling apart; unique architecture; sharp and angled shadows in the evening; and the geometry found in them. The beautiful moments I see are never seen in the exact same way by other people. When I frame what I find and release the shutter, I feel the same as when I dust off a mineral ore and place it in a glass case. When I import images to my computer, they become specimens of the world displayed in a grid. And when I reflect on my photography process I am always satisfied at this point.

One aim of this photo book is to reconstruct the relationship between these past moments and me, piecing together the images through the bookmaking process. I challenged myself to do the bookbinding work as well in this project because I am always attracted to books that I can touch and whose material existence I can feel. This book was constructed with different papers to explore the interactive aspect of a photo book. When the fingers caress the pages, they touch unique textures and perceive materiality.

I opened the photo-book and touched the surface of the pages. The image specimens I collected as elaborate duplicates of the world are exhibited in the book silently, as if they will exist eternally.

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Specimens of Surfaces, 2021  

pigment print, boxboard, linen thread, adhesive

254 x 207 x 39 mm

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