Born in 1933 in Gaeseong (now part of North Korea), Han Youngsoo studied art before discovering a passion for photography. His life changed when he served as a frontline soldier during the Korean War (1950-53), an experience that left him with haunting memories of the devastation of property and human lives. After the war, he wandered the streets of war-torn Seoul, saddened by rubble and suffering but also moved by the resilience of its people.
“I left the army with horrific memories intact and found myself in the middle of a life which still bore traces of soot from the war. But what was even more surprising was the ordinary fact that people still lived on,” he reflected. Though struggling with the multifaceted after-effects of the Korean war, … I was able to find hope watching cities and rural communities being rebuilt; in the bustling markets and the sparkling eyes of children, the laughter I had forgotten. Slowly but steadily, I was recovering my own humanity.”
Armed with his camera and a dogged determination to record a country rebuilding itself, Youngsoo captured poignant images of urban redevelopment amidst rubble but more significantly, he captured the faces of hope in the people as they were once more, “putting down their roots on the ground, trying to find their place in this world.”
Youngsoo died in 1998, his work largely unknown outside Korea. After his death, his daughter Han Sunjung established the Han Youngsoo Foundation to preserve and promote his work, a work marked by immaculate composition and timing, capturing fleeting moments of great poetry and depth.
‘Photographs of Seoul’ by Han Youngsoo (taken in 1956-63)
“The world breaks everyone and afterward, many are strong in the broken places.”
~ Ernest Hemingway