Bae Bien-U
, Yeosu, South Korea — Lives and works in Seoul, South Korea
Bien-U Bae's photographic journey began nearly four decades ago, under the influence of American landscape photographers such as Ansel Adams and Edward Weston, along with the writings of Bauhaus professor Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. After extensive travels and while searching for traditional painters of East Asia, the artist became convinced that it is the natural environment and traditions of the place where an artist lives, that forges their unique artistic vision.
His photographic journey in his twenties gradually evolved from focussing on the natural environment of Korea to more specific features like Korean pine trees, oreums ("small mountains" in Jeju dialect, or cone-shaped volcanic clusters) and the sea and the sky of Jeju Island, the royal ancestral Jongmyo Shrine, and more recently, the Alhambra Palace in Spain.
Bien-U Bae's images bring to mind a perhaps romanticised, but quintessentially Zen perspective on our surroundings. Looking at the photographs can be experienced as a visual and spiritual pilgrimage of the senses.
About Bae Bien-U
Although Bae Bien-U takes pictures of many different things, his talent comes out most clearly when he encounters "nature", such as pine trees, flowering plants, sea, mountains, islands, et cetera. To be specific, when he pictures the earth, sky, mountains, sea or water, trees or plants or flowers, his photos become something very rare. Rather than saying that he tries to photograph nature, one may say that "nature" sent Bae Bien-U to the world of mortals. Nature is trying to show, no, display itself through him.
According to the German philosophe Immanuel Kant, there is no objective property of a thing that makes it beautiful. However, all living creatures come into existence with perfect balance. Such balance creates proportion and may reach its peak as the golden ratio, fractal or Fibonacci sequence. Yet, as prototypes of beauty, such as animal, plant and nature, grow and develop, this balance could be broken. When the beauty of proportion is maintained amidst such destruction, one can call it an exceptional beauty. Like the beauty of trees, its’ balance transforms as it grows, due to the light, wind, and environment. However, only the body of the tree changes while the original balance of the leaf remains intact. Such balance exists hidden in the roots of the tree and spirit of men.