Untitled, from the "Weed" series

About the Photographer

Min, Byung-hun

Korean, b. 1955

Byung-hun Min takes inspiration from the Korean landscape and culture; his photographs embody a blend of beauty, intricacy, and metaphor. Min's photographs of grasses were taken on repeated visits to the same site where weeds have grown up against vinyl greenhouses and dried to their surfaces. In these austere works, Min captures patterns that masterfully rephrase a delicacy and sensitivity to nature inherited from traditional Korean art.

Born in Seoul on January 3, 1955, Byung-hun Min was a student in electronic engineering before shifting to photography in the early 1980s and studying at the Soon-tae Hong studio in Korea. In 1984 he was awarded the silver medal of the Dong-A Salon with his work 25th hour. Min's work has been widely exhibited and collected by institutions including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Brookings Institution, Washington, DC; Centre National des Arts Plastiques, Paris; Seoul Art Center; and National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwachon, Korea. Min's work was included in the Museum of Contemporary Photography exhibition Alienation and Assimilation: Contemporary Images and Installations from The Republic of Korea, presented April 4 through May 30, 1998.

Baque, D. "Byung-Hun Min: Chystele Lerisse: Galerie Baudoin Lebon". Art Press, no. 267 (April 2001), p. 81.

Chambers, Karen S. "Byung-Hun Min at Gaain". Art in America, 1995 no. 10, p. 137.

Chattopadhyay, Collette. "Byung-hun Min at the Jan Kesner Gallery". Asian Art News. September-October 1997, p. 106.

Jin, D. "Contemporary Korean Photography". Koreana, v. 16 no. 4 (Winter 2002), p. 86-8.

Korea's Art Galleries [12 article special section]. Koreana, v. 15 no. 4 (Winter 2001), p. 4-35.