PHOTO+ magazine

포토몽타주로 기록한 꿈과 환상
로데이터 Daydream by Laudator

PHOTO+ : Where did you get the idea of this series? What inspired you? Is this project still on going?
LAUDATOR : For the last few years, I have been practicing Yoga nidra, which resembles the Tibetan Yoga of Dream. Some of the images in Daydream are a resurgence of these night time dreams. I get the most of my inspiration from this practice. This project has just resumed and new pictures will be ready at the end of the year.

The images are so fantastic and dreamlike that I assume surrealism has affected you in a way. Personally, your works remind me of surrealist painter René Magritte. How do you think?
I think that it is a very nice compliment, and I am extremely grateful for it! Jérôme Bosch’s paintings, William Blake’s engravings, and Max Ernst’s collages are also especially relevant to my photomontage work. Artists such as Magritte, Bosch, and Ernst represent the main figures in Surrealism; and Blake has had a very meaningful influence in this artistic movement.

This question could be straightforward but what theme do you want to tell us through the series? It seems each image has a certain story. Children and birds, wings, moon… I am so curious what these mean. Could you kindly explain this to our leaders?
Images from the Daydream series are in a sense a reflection of a personal oniric reality. Are there keys to interpreting dreams? I am sure there are, but, to me, images are experiences, first and foremost. When I create them, their “raison d’être” is to bear witness to an experience. It’s a process of visual memorization of my dreams just like some people would write them down in a small notebook. I use metaphors and symbols in order to get touched by them through my senses, my body, my imagination. For instance, when we get into a house lit by oil lamp, we don’t scrutinize the wick or the oil. We simply experience the luminosity of the room. When creating my images, I think that I am trying to look for the hidden experience in them, that experience hidden in my dreams. Children, birds, wings, and the moon are elements that are borrowed from my first oniric experiences. Those are dreams that can be traced back to my early childhood.

You have been using Photoshop from its first version. I wonder how Photoshop affected your way of creating images. What was the biggest change?
Digital laboratory using Photoshop is far more powerful than the traditional lab in a dark room. Image editing offers quasi-endless possibilities. To me, one of the most important changes is to have been able to widen my visual scope, regardless of technical designing issues.

How did you get your start in photography?
Both my dad and my mom were amateurs of black and white photography. From an early age, I started to develop and print my own photos in the dark room set in my parents’ garage. After two years of photography studies, I started to practice as a professional photographer.

I understand you have earned a great reputation as a photographer. Could you explain about the project worked with the French Ministry of Culture?
That was for my first major photo report that spread for 4 to 5 years all over Europe. I was following artists that were working in public places. Street shows, live intervention theatre, Comedia del Arte, dancers, visual artists… I got a grant from the Ministry of Culture that partially funded my work. Later on, agencies such as the National Library or the Museum of Fine Arts in Besançon bought some of my photographs.

How do you think of Korea and Korean art?
There was a very fine Korean photo exhibit here in France, two or three years ago. I enjoyed the work of Kim Kyoung Soo on Korean Hanbok. And I really like Won Seoung Wo’s photo compositions especially his series “My Age of Seven”. His digital montages are very poetic.

What kind of projects are you working on right now? What are you plans for the future (in general terms)?
I just started a follow-up to my Daydream series that include a great deal of animal and chimeric representations. In parallel, I also work on B&W large-sized portraits that I create in a 4×5 inch room in traditional silver gelatin photography.

Interview and portfolio by Jae Hee Chung
Translated by Sylvie Faidit

« PHOTO+ Magazine n°51 »
Interview et portfolio Daydream by Laudator – Publication May 2012

PHOTO+ est un mensuel photo, papier et web, Sud Coréen publié par Yowool media