TREE

BY WALL DONE, 30/08/2010

Myoung’s Tree series has prompted references to diverse traditions in the history of photography, including landscape photography, anthro- pological field studies, studio portraiture, fashion, staged photography, cinematic projections, surrealism, and billboard advertising. Even though Myoung has been practicing photography for several years (he earned his BA in Photography in 2003, and his Masters in Photography in 2005), it was his conceptual series Tree that catapulted him into minor celebrity status on the internet and in pop culture. He is struggling to balance his instant fame with his working life. In addition to his artistic pursuits, he teaches photography at Joon-Ang University in Seoul, where he is also working toward his Ph.D. in Photography.

"Simple in concept, complex in execution, Myoung Ho makes us look at trees, one at a time, in their natural surroundings. He isolates each tree from its immediate environment by presenting it against an immense white canvas backdrop, creating in effect, a temporary monumental out- door art installation.

Myoung Ho then photographs the installation, and the photograph itself becomes a realization of his idea. This performance is then repeated, with variations, with different kinds of trees, in different locations, in different seasons. The photographs are elegant, clean and quite pleasing to regard. And at the same time, the idea, the concept, and perhaps even the audacity of the effort, seem to tap into some universal intellectual pleasure center when viewers comprehend what they are seeing.
Myoung Ho’s constructions are designed to simplify and intensify vision, thereby converting ordinary mundane landscapes into objects of meditation. At first, from a distance, we see one of his trees as one would see an advertisement of a tree on a billboard in the middle of a wilderness. We wonder, ‘What’s going on here?’ Why would someone erect a life-size photo of a tree in an empty field? Yet when we realize that this is actually an unusual twist on tromp l’oeil, we feel a jolt of in- tellectual delight.

On the surface, his photographs simply show what was there in front of his camera. By using a very large temporary framing device to create some visual isolation, he grabs our attention and forces us to look at something that we might typically ignore or not notice. Indeed, the landscapes he photographs might prove to be quite ordinary and even boring without the presence of the white canvas.

The strong graphic nature of the image is immediately engaging to our eyes. And when we begin to notice the details and understand the reality of what we are seeing (‘This is not a billboard of a tree, it is a real tree!... No, wait, this is a photograph of a real tree that looks like a bill- board of a tree.’), we begin to experience the playful delight that comes with the enjoyment of art."
—Jim Casper

All images © Myoung Ho Lee

Wall done MAGAZINE