Black-and-white photography capturing the spirit of Korean culture

Korean photographer Gap-Chul Lee (born 1959) creates formidable, intense black-and-white photographs that search for the spirit of Korean culture. Lee approaches his subjects intuitively and directly, without prior aesthetic consideration; he prefers rough cropping to a tidy finish or meticulous compositions, drawing out a chaotic force in his images rather than a harmonious virtual world. Working in this way, Lee looks to capture often-suppressed impulses and a world of shamanism rooted deep in Korea's collective unconscious. His arresting, mysterious photographs of street scenes and the natural world are marked by a feverish sense of vitality and spirituality.

This monograph includes Gap-Chul Lee's most iconic series, Conflict and Reaction (1990-2002) and Energy-Qi (2002-07), as well as his ongoing projects since 2008. More than half of the book covers the current projects, published here for the first time. The volume coincides with Gap-Chul Lee's 2019 exhibition at the Museum of Photography in Seoul.