Traces of Life: Seen Through Korean Eyes, 1945-1992, captures the details of Korean people’s everyday lives between 1945 and 1992. It features twenty seven photographs taken by the first generation of Korean realists, thirteen pioneers whose works evoke nostalgia for a nation in a radical transition from its past. Curator Chang Jae Lee describes the exhibition as a counterpoint to the turbulent history of this period in Korea, featuring “exuberant visual diversity” and “anthropologically important aspects of the nearly forgotten past.” Touching and expressive, the photographs show how people used their traditions and humanity to face a new world of independence, industrialization, development and complex political shifts. The exhibition offers a moving visual experience through which to understand and appreciate Korean history, culture, and the arts. This is the first time these black-and-white photographs will be exhibited in the United States.

This exhibition is presented by The Korea Society and independent curator Chang Jae Lee with generous loans from the Dong Gang Museum of Photography in Korea and the estates of Kim Kichan and Lee Hyungrok.