The Last Word in Beauty — The Swiss Alps
Climbing the Swiss Alps changes your point of view. Photographer Shin Gyucheol, captivated by the Matterhorn, the Eiger and other peaks, finds in Switzerland’s mountains the ultimate expression of nature’s beauty.
The Last Word in Beauty — The Ultimate Beauty of Swiss Nature
Climb a mountain, and your perspective shifts. Things that loomed large seem small, and things you had never noticed come into view. Standing before the peaks of the Swiss Alps, photographer Shin Gyucheol comes to understand the extreme beauty that nature can reveal.
Words & Photos Shin Gyucheol
I have always liked photographs that are simple and free of clutter. That is also why I admire the work of the American photographer Joel Meyerowitz. These days it is hard to travel abroad because of COVID, but in every season I roam across Korea and encounter landscapes that are similar yet always new. When I photograph natural scenery, what matters most to me is cutting precisely the part of the scene before me that I want to show and placing it within the frame.
I first visited Switzerland in 2000. Since then I have traveled there eight times. When I first reached the top of the majestic Swiss Alps, I was completely captivated by the view that opened up before my eyes. I have never forgotten that feeling, and every time I have returned to Switzerland since, I have photographed the mountains.
In a word, the mountains of Switzerland show the last word in the beauty that nature holds. It is something humans can never create or imitate. Beside the beauty of nature, the beauty humans make is only a trivial fragment. Standing on a summit and looking down at the view spread out beneath my feet, I am struck again, and intensely, by what we forget in daily life: how great nature is, and how insignificant and small human beings are within it. And I realize that nothing can take the place of that beauty, either.
