DAEGU ÉTAIT UN GRAND ÉTANG

DAEGU ÉTAIT UN GRAND ÉTANG – The first book in the Rhythmic collection is “Daegu était un grand étang” by French photographer Dohyeon Eom. It is a series of photographs taken in 2021 and 2022 that explore the theme of the city of Daegu, Korea. The first series of photographs in the book was taken in 2021 and shows the artist’s thought process as she explored themes related to Daegu. The second series of photographs forms the main body of the book, and represents a fully-fledged observation by the artist on the theme of the “pond”. In this series, which is part travel diary and part photographic essay, the artist captures stories and scenes of ponds that once existed but no longer do, and those that did not exist but do today. Through this exploration of the blurred boundaries between ponds and lakes, reservoirs and water, Daegu comes across not as a dull, boring city, nor as a politically conservative district, nor as a region of Samsung and apples, but as one of many fluid cities where fictional pasts and presents are inscribed in people’s memories.