Johsel Namkung

Last night, a friend and I went to a lovely show and warm talk by Johsel Namkung, a terrific photographer of nature. His large scenes are abstract and small somehow, the "universe in a grain of sand" idea. One sure way of gauging my excitement is by counting how many of the photos (large format) I wanted to rip off the walls and make a dash with. Quite a few.

This was also a special evening because my friend Laurie's uncle was Namkung's best friend. Having her there made this experience more intimate and personal.

I was most delighted with a slide sequence of Mt. Baker that he shot with a mind to sell the image to a regional company. When the slide came up, the audience oohed because it was a typical, stunning image of mountain, autumn leaves, reflecting lake. He then gently disparaged the photo and pointed to a ruffly area in the foreground lake. That was where he saw something special.

Indeed, there was this lazy, rhythmic water grass which he shot close up. Reminds me of the delicacy of Cy Twombly's writing series or John's Snow series. Really mesmerizing, gentle and transporting. That was the special thing for him. Finding a natural image that provokes something larger and something smaller.

He also has a healthy distrust of color. These large canvases gain a surprising amount of abstraction and painterliness because of that. I roamed over his image of bare trees on sawtooth Korean hillsides. Took me some time to realize that this was a photo and not a painting. White, gray and a dash of evergreen. As Laurie said, it's easy to see where the vertical, abstract typically Asian landscape style comes from when you look at this topography. It looked like the land was reaching for a barren heaven. After all, this park was near the border of the two Koreas.

Inspiring show. His artwork generously lends itself to your sight and ideas. He invites that sense of participation. He knows upfront that sharing the images and sharing the authorship of them, is of equal importance. His nature photography is abstract in the best way - you don't lose yourself in his outdoor images, the images create a space to meditate on how to live in the natural world.