– Jae Sung, his life with the camera in his hand and a contagious serene smile on his face.
I met Jae Sung for the first time about a year ago, his smiling way of facing life has always fascinated me, in his presence, there is always a serenity that is hardly given by other people.
Born in Seoul near Pagoda Park, in the central area of the South Korean capital: “It was my playground! I have many memories of that area that now, after around fifty years, is completely different. All these buildings and skyscrapers weren’t there yet.”
“My father would have liked me to study economics, but my answer was direct and precise…No! Then he proposed that I enroll at the university of law, another idea that I categorically refused. So he asked me what I wanted to do…a question to which I had no precise answer. Following in his footsteps I would have liked to become a journalist and work in an editorial office, above all I was interested in photojournalism as I have always loved shooting pictures.
When I was in high school, I went to a camera club, this is where my passion for photography began.
My dad didn’t know anything about it, we also had totally different ideas about my future. However, I tried to pass the exam to enter the university of economics, but I was not prepared enough and I failed. Then I tried the French literature faculty, but even here it didn’t go well, I wasn’t interested in this type of study.”
“I found myself again in front of my father who asked me, for the second time, what I wanted to do with life: the choice was between continuing to study and obtaining a degree or joining the army immediately … I decided to continue studying.” In South Korea, military service at the time was 3 years and, as it still is, compulsory.
“He proposed again economics, law, or literature. But I really hated studying very much… so I secretly started working. I became a DJ at a restaurant in Gangnam. And obviously, once I tried to pass the exam I didn’t find success, as I hadn’t studied anything this time. After several unsuccessful attempts I plucked up my courage and, finally, I decided to enroll in one of the most famous photography academies in Seoul, using the money I had earned working. A really challenging degree course where the entrance exam was really difficult to pass. I remember that I was so afraid of failing that I didn’t find the strength to go and see myself the posters displaying the results of the exam in front of the institute. At the time there was still no Internet where you could consult the results online, so I sent my brother to check for me … he called me by phone, I still remember the intense emotion I felt at his words: you did it !!” And laughing Jae Sung adds “And now how are you going to tell dad?!”
“I could not tell my father what I had done, or I couldn’t live under the same roof…Unfortunately, the money I had earned was not enough to complete my studies, so I decided to tell my mother everything, who was quite surprised. However, she helped me to obtain a loan for the academy and we secretly paid for my classes, while my father kept thinking I was still trying to pass the admission test for the university of economics.
One day I decided that it was time to tell the truth, this story couldn’t have been kept forever hidden. So I confessed to my father what was happening, his reaction completely threw me off…
Once he learned that I had passed the exam for the photography academy and that I had started my studies, instead of going on a rampage, he was gladly surprised. He was so happy that the first thing he said to me was: how much money do you need?”
“He was a journalist and I had an interest very similar to his, so he helped me a lot, giving me a lot of advice, especially teaching me the way to frame the scenes. He pushed and encouraged me to practice more and more. Instead of using the pen as he used to do, I had chosen the camera to express a similar passion for journalism.
I was not interested in other types of photography, I was not in landscapes or portraits, I wanted to become a photojournalist.
I started taking a lot of shots of Seoul and what was happening in the poorest neighborhoods, South Korea was quite different at the time from today. Also in that period, it was the 80s, many student protests were organized, I wanted to document what was happening in my city. I remember being beaten by the police several times, to avoid the effects of tear gas I protected my face with self-made masks using film to preserve food, otherwise I couldn’t keep my eyes open for my shots. Sometimes it happened that the agents seized my camera rolls. I wanted to testify, with my photos in the streets, what we called Seoul Spring.” A period of democratization in South Korea that runs from late 1979 to early 1980, after the assassination of President Park Chung-Hee.
“Certainly the most important period of my life, I was about 24 years old. I created a good portfolio of photographs taken during those times.
I was an excellent student with really good grades and the academy offered me an opportunity, finding me a job at a modeling agency. I wasn’t expecting this kind of experience, especially because taking pictures of people posing was not what I liked, but one of my professors called me and told me they wanted me from the model studio and they were interested in hiring me. I accepted, it was my first official experience as a photographer, not knowing I was going to start working for one of the biggest and most important studios in the country, with the most famous supermodels, actresses and actors of the time.
I liked photographing portraits, but it wasn’t exactly the job I wanted at that time, and they also gave me various administrative duties in the company. I decided to leave and focus only on what I was passionate about: stay behind the lens of my camera!”
“I got a new job at Travel Korea, the country’s leading travel magazine. I was going around hotels and restaurants taking pictures, it wasn’t bad, but again, not what I was looking for in my career and life. So I started my third job, for a weekly magazine, where I had a lot of freedom for my photoshoots, I could have done whatever interested me.
At that time, the former dictator Chun Doo-hwan exiled himself with his family for several years on a mountain in an isolated Buddhist temple in the Gangwon-do province. Some sort of a scandal occurred when rumors began to circulate that his wife took a helicopter to go shopping in Seoul. Several journalists attempted to reach his refuge, but the way was blocked by the former dictator’s personal guard. To reach the top it would have taken more than two hours walking in the snow because the bus was transporting only monks or those who worked at the temple. The choice was to return to Seoul or to try to continue in one way or another. My fellow journalists decided to return home but I wanted to take pictures of the place, I wanted to show everyone that the ex-dictator’s wife was not there with him.
Fresh from my military service and encouraged by the fact that I wanted to show that I was worth something to my girlfriend of the time, today the woman I married, I decided to try: I waited for the night and crossed the river, in the icy water up to the knees. It was winter, it was snowing, my feet were freezing, I was shivering from the cold, I thought I was going to die. Remembering the army training, I covered my body with leaves to warm myself. I spent the night there and when the sun was about to rise I was almost on the top of the mountain, I reached the temple, I did it! Now I had to take some photos to witness what was happening. Observing the scene from above, trying to cover the reflections of the sun on my lens to not be discovered by the security, I noticed that the son of the former dictator entered and left the rooms without hesitation and without knocking. If his mother was there he surely would have never acted like that. So I figured out that the story was true! I went closer to be able to photograph the scene, but I was caught by the guards who confiscated me and destroyed all the films. Fortunately, I managed to save the shots I took with another smaller camera that they didn’t find on me.
They then sent me back to the valley, but I wanted to take more photos at the temple: the accommodation that was supposed to be simple had actually been modified to accommodate the important guest, with many amenities that shouldn’t have been in a sacred building like that. I decided to find a way back to the top of the mountain, asking for help from the people of the nearby village. They directed me to a group of people who were working at the temple. I started talking to them, offered them several bottles of soju and playing cards with them, deliberately losing and giving them the money of the gamblings. And when the time came, I told them that I wanted to get into their bus to enter the temple. I gave them even extra money by losing more at cards and extra alcohol…they agreed to help me, also because they hated the former dictator. I changed my clothes, got my face a little dirty and hid my photographic equipment among their tools. We left and passed without problems the three checkpoints to get to the temple where I could finally take my photos.
My boss was very happy once I returned to Seoul”
“After this adventure, I still worked for a few years at this editorial office, before moving on to the well-known film magazine Premiere. I was actually thinking about becoming a war photojournalist during that time, but my mother didn’t let me do it.
I told the director that I would have worked with them as long as I could have done what I wanted, shoot and do things in my own way, looking for a particular and personal style, I didn’t intend to repeat the usual photoshoots with the usual poses, over and over again.
My offer was happily accepted and so I started photographing models, famous actors and international film directors, having fun doing as I liked.
One day I had a stroke of luck when I met the Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Wai, with him I took a shot that became very popular, creating a lot of interest in the film industry of the time.”
“That photo changed my career forever.”
“My colleagues and I had a total of 15 minutes of time with the director, 5 of which for me and my photos. We were in his hotel room and I wanted to create something unique with that celebrity. We moved to the bathroom of his room where I found a newspaper. I wanted to make him read it, but just holding those papers in his hands wasn’t what I wanted to show, it wasn’t special enough. The director always smoked a lot, so I got the idea of having him set fire to the print publication. He liked this idea a lot and gave me more time with him. The photo was a great success”
“I spent 9 years with the magazine and 2 years as a freelance since I opened my own private photo studio at the same time. My work was really appreciated, I met many famous people in the cinema industry who were happy to work with me, I was proud of myself and what I was doing. Those were the years of the first Korean Wave”
“When I was about 40 I opened my own magazine, the Star Magazine, about the world of entertainment, actors, actresses, singers. It was an international publication translated into English, Chinese and Japanese. Ever since I started my career, my dream was to have my own newspaper, but it was a choice that I still regret today … a misstep in my career. I have never been a businessman, I am a photographer. For seven years it was really very stressful and tough, the business was not going well and I lost all my savings on that project. I also didn’t have any more time to devote to my passion as I was super busy managing the magazine.
A lesson I learned from this adventure is that you should only dedicate yourself to the things you know how to do well and not what you pretend to know how to do. If only I could go back I would not make this choice again. It was a real economic disaster in which I also lost my passion for photography.” Luckily Jae Sung tells this bad anecdote from his life with a big smile that lights up his face.
“For a few years I was busy with different businesses, I completely forgot my passion. But now, for about three months, after almost 13 years of absence behind the lens, I have been freelancing again for a Korean culture magazine where I have found back my passion for photography. I take photographs of artists, cultural producers, gallery curators and public officers working for the ministry of culture. I was scared that it wouldn’t have been as exciting as it was for me previously to work with actors and famous people, but I found that I like to photograph ordinary people, who are not used to posing and wearing a different mask every time you are there for taking a shot. They are much more pure and real, they allow me to enter in their world, discovering parts of their personality that no one sees, I can discover their hidden innocence, a very special and intimate thing that I have the honor to discover and to witness.
I was worried because of my absence behind the lens which lasted a long time…Would I still be up to what I was able to do? But as I picked up my camera again all my senses and my body woke up, remembering everything I had learned in years of study and experience, I was so happy again, my passion had returned!”
“When I was young I had no idea what taking pictures was to me, it was just something I liked. Now I have realized that photography is my life. My photographs come from my heart. I observe people, their facial expressions, what can be inside a person, his body posing is like is talking to me, I just wait for the right moment when he is expressing himself fully in front of my lens…and I shoot, as if I was a recorder. It’s all very spontaneous, I don’t think about what I do, it comes naturally.
Thanks to this experience I realized that we all have to do what we really love and the rest comes by itself.
I’ve had a lot of ups and downs in my life, I’m not rich but now that I’m back with my camera in my hand I’m very happy, it was like finding someone I haven’t seen in a long time.
Welcome back, my old friend!”
The link to his personal website with his works: exhibitiontalk.com
