The hundreds of people were not standing in line under the scorching sun at the Hangaram Design Museum for Gustav Klimt’s first ever exhibition in Asia nor were they waiting to see the pop artist Andy Warhol’s Campbell Soup. People were holding a waiting ticket on their one hand and various sized DSLRs on the other to greet the arrival of the 145 Pulitzer Prize winning photographs in Korea, which apparently just finished few days ago.
I paid 10,000 won only to realize I had to wait 50 minutes till my number 1,557 pop up in the overhead screen signaling a green light for me. “Am I at the Louvre?” I thought to myself. Apparently, the weekends were always crowded with people.
Finally taking my very first step into the exhibit, Joseph Pulitzer the father of yellow journalism and the initiator of the Pulitzer Prize welcomed me to the photographs from the 1940s to this years’ winning photo. Then you hear Edward Adam, the winner in 1969, whisper to you “If it makes you laugh, if it makes you cry, if it rips your heart, that’s a good picture.”
Starting with a picture that captured the attack on Pearl Harbor we are soon reminded of our past misery. The excruciating moment of the Korean War depicted by Max Destor’s picture of refugees fleeing through the collapsing bridge above the Taedong River makes the audience speechless.
People seem to stay longer as if they remember what it was like back then. The audiences are startled once more when they realize Destor took this picture with a paralyzed hand.
“Don’t know how I was able to press the shutter,” writes Patrick Farrell, winner of the 2009 award for Breaking News Photography, who covered the victims of disastrous storms in 2008 Haiti. Farrell captured a lean naked black boy rescuing a beat up stroller near his flooded house.
Farrell’s quote painted on the gallery wall assures us those photographers who were in these miserable situations were as human beings as us and were not ignorant invisible creatures clicking on their shutters for dramatic photographs.
The crowd can only take a step at a time not because it is crowded but because they are so dissolved in each and every one of the pictures.
This exhibit reminds you how a picture is worth a thousand words. Looking at Anthony Suau the 1984 award-winning photographer’s photo titled “Memorial Day,” you think to yourself what more there needs to be written about a woman’s lose of her husband.
It was awkward to see people whispering to each other about a seemingly normal photo. However, I knew I was naïve to not have noticed the fact that Llorst Faas and Michel Laurent died soon after they took the “Torture in Daca.”
Photos not only contain stories and happiness but they communicate people’s belief. The Philadelphia’s homeless talk through Tom Gralish’s photos about their love of the freedom they enjoy emphasizing they are not restricted to rules. There were so many other pictures that depict the current historical crisis such as the 911 attack and the Iraq War.
As a reporter, this exhibit reminded me the ideals reporters pursue: passion and professionalism. At Ewha, there are three independent media groups: The Ewha Weekly, the Ewha Womans University Broadcasting System and The Ewha Voice, all eager to share with the students the most updated news about Ewha. We always start our semester four weeks before other students to produce our articles or videos. Our semester has already started and we are ready to provide you with the best. All you have to do is just stay updated with us.
저작권자 © Ewha Voice 무단전재 및 재배포 금지