Min Sung Kim

Photographing Experience in Natures of United States and South Korea: Construction of Landscape Sceneries with Cubism Approach

I photographed landscapes of South Korea and the United States. I chose my photographic subject as nature because the sophistication of natural systems are inspiring. Study in physics makes analogies between formation of nuclei and formation of planets in galaxies of the universe. It is intriguing to observe nature behave in mysterious ways, especially because we understand that it follows a logical system. We consider new logical systems to explain physical phenomena, but interestingly, creative mindset is one of the key elements to understanding nature. For example, consider the discovery of the constant speed of light. The classic Newtonian mechanics could not explain such behavior of nature. In order to account for the constant speed of light, Einstein formulated a groundbreaking study in general relativity, introducing tensor metrics as a new way of describing space-time. The study led to understanding the relationship between space-time geometry and gravity. Nature drives us to be creative as it reveals properties that challenge previous understandings. Therefore, I hereby search for creativity by studying designs of the natural world.

It is important to note that I cannot create something that is as complex as nature, but I can implement designs of nature as part of my work. In other words, I adopt the aesthetics of natural environments in a new form as part of my study. In the case of this series, I chose the form of photography to adopt the visual aspects of three dimensional landscapes onto two dimensional surfaces.

During the process of implementation, challenges arose due to limitations of my perspective. My perspective is limited by my location, and time. In order to overcome the physical obstructions, unconventional photographic methods were employed, describing a subject from many points of view. Cubist painters approach the limitation with a similar method. As a result, my photographic series and cubist paintings share a visual component: discontinuities within an image due to multiple perspectives in space. This particular series also adopt multiple perspective/positions in time, since each frames were not taken simultaneously.

Min Sung Kim '15

Advisor: Walter Zurko