Roaming the mountains, villages, and rivers across our land, gazing into the emotions nestled within the folds of the landscape.

Words & Photos ∙ Lee Hankoo
* A documentary photographer who has spent years climbing countless mountains from the Baekdudaegan Range to the Himalayas, traveling old roads to record the landscapes of nature and life. In the spring of 2024, he held the exhibition “Tae — The Energy and Lyricism of Our Land” at Ryugaheon.
ryugaheon.com

At the Cheonjedan Altar on Taebaeksan Mountain,
the prayers of people have risen to the heavens since time immemorial.
The waters of Jaeinpokpo Falls, falling for tens of thousands of years,
form a vertical sanctity etched into people’s lives.
As she has done since long ago, the shaman dresses in purity and offers a mountain prayer before Beombawi Rock.
It is a moment of wondrous, profound connection between humanity and nature.

I wanted to record the beautiful values of our land,
the spirit and sentiment that could keep us in balance against materialism and vulgarity.
I believed I could find it now in the many passes fading into memory as ‘old roads,’
in the shaman’s mountain prayers, in the direction of rivers and wind,
and in the layered, quiet dialogue between mountain and mountain.

— From the artist’s notes on “Tae”