Early Pioneers of Photography in Korea during the Nineteenth Century

This paper presents the pioneers who opened the first photography studios in Korea. These early Korean photographers experimented with the new technology in the 1880s, but their efforts to establish a lasting photographic culture succumbed to domestic and international conflicts over hegemonic dominance in Korea amid the modernization of the country.

Among the intellectuals and envoys to Japan and China were the three pioneers of Korean photography who established the first photography studios in Seoul around 1883: KIM Yongwon, HWANG Chul, and JI Unyeong. The 1870s and 1880s, when they learned about photography from Chinese and Japanese photographers and built their own studios, coincided with the emergence of elements of modernity on the peninsula through the endeavors of progressive and reformative intellectuals. These three photographers were colleagues of intellectuals who supported the reformation of the country. They travelled to Japan and China on their own or as government envoys to learn photography. They witnessed the creation of national symbols, including the national flag, which structured the identity of Korea as a modern nation-state. This paper addresses the following questions: how did they understand photography within the modern visual culture of Korea during the late nineteenth century? how did other visual practitioners understand photography at the time? did photography play a role in the epistemological transformation of visuality from the pre-modern to the modern?