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Today’s Cities

Cities are symbolic spaces that are at the core of our lives. As British architectural historian Mark Girouard once said, humans build cities and cities shape humans. In other words, cities are formed according to our desires and needs, but they now define our way of life and culture, providing us with enriching experiences. In modern history, cities play a crucial role as a hub of various activities and cultures, and supporting the cultural development of humanity. According to statistics as of 2022, 91.9% of the Korean population currently resides in cities. Cities provide opportunities for industry, jobs, and the future. They continuously receive new information and products, offering us the services we need in our daily lives.

Samil Building and Cheonggyeocheon Overpass (1970s). © Kim Han-yong (ACC Archive Collection)

A Reason for Recording Cities

But cities are constantly changing. New buildings rise, and things disappear within them. In the midst of these changes, we often overlook the beauty and importance of cities. These cities contain our history and memories, but such moments can easily be forgotten. After all, we document and preserve cities to enrich the future. By recording the constant changes of the city and the history and culture within it, we can uplift the city’s identity and historical consciousness. Based on this, we can contribute to creating the future.

Recording Cities Through Photography, Kim Han-yong

Kim Han-yong chose photography as the method of recording cities. Photos are recording media and important visual materials that show various changes in history, society, and culture through intuitive and excellent reproduction of reality. He tried to convey how cities have changed through photography. His photos play the crucial role of preserving the beauty and history of cities by depicting the appearance of cities changing over time.

Kim Han-yong first encountered photography at the age of 24 in 1947 when he began to work as a photojournalist at an international newsroom. The International Publicity League of Korea published a monthly magazine called the International Publicity. This magazine included publicity photos as well as photos of different areas, such as theater, industrial facilities, individuals, and events. He was a member of the war correspondent group during the Korean War, and he worked as a photojournalist for the Busan Ilbo in the refugee city of Busan. He also opened the Kim Han-yong Photography Lab in Chungmuro in 1959 and worked as an advertising photographer since then. South Korea underwent a period of economic development and modernization in the 1960s and 1970s. In other words, Kim Han-yong was a photographer and a recorder who grew with the history of commercial photography that began to advance with industrialization and economic development.

Someone said that photos turn into history by embracing time. In particular, Kim Han-yong wrote history by putting the stories of Seoul into his photos. While submitting works to major contests since the late 1940s, Kim was active in the artistic photography area. He also took photos depicting the changing landscape of cities at the time. By continuously taking photos of the landscape looking down from Namsan Mountain in Seoul, he tried to recognize the regional changes that occurred in one glance. The photos of the airport in Seoul he took on a jet plane in the 1960s mark the highlight of his archive. It was a very difficult task for a civilian to ride a plane operated by the Air Force at the time, but he could do so by presenting his ID as a member of the International Publicity League of Korea.

Seoul Airport photo with the sight of the Jongmyo Shrine (right side) (1960s). © Kim Han-yong (ACC Archive Collection)

Until he passed away in 2016, he tried to take numerous photos showing the landscape of cities from his unique perspective. Through various writings and photo exhibitions, he explained directly and indirectly why photo archives are important and how they are delivered to the public. A considerable portion of his photos has been turned into the Photos of Asia archive collection at the Asia Culture Center.

Panoramic landscape of Seoul looking down from Namsan Mountain (1994). © Kim Han-yong (ACC Archive Collection)

Recording the Present in Everyday Life

Some time ago, the Asia Culture Center operated a program called, “A Group of City Recorders: Reading Gwangju from City Recorders’ Objects.” Participants viewed and recorded from their perspectives the places and spaces that constantly change with various social and cultural elements in the city. This program introduced that cities can be targets of interesting observation and hold value worthy of recording. Participants of the “Group of City Recorders” walked around the ACC, Gung-dong, Dongmyeong-dong, Seonam-dong (Printing Street), Seoseok-dong, Jang-dong, and nearby places to gather “city heritage” from their own viewpoints and shared their thoughts.

If we wish to understand cities in greater depth and feel their beauty more richly, we must explore and record various aspects and stories of cities. The streets and trivial moments we pass by in daily life may become precious opportunities to record the beauty and significance of cities. We must become city recorders ourselves and carry on the stories. Wouldn’t it be nice to find and record the trivial aspects of cities hidden behind our daily lives, perhaps with our amiable life stories within them? Their meanings can perhaps be fully revealed in the near future.

ACC A Group of City Recorders Program © ACC Archive Collection

Go to the Kim Han-yong Photograph Collection