Limb Eung Sik (b. 1912~2001)
- Two Students are about young boys standing on their way to school after the Independence. Even when poverty and material deficiency dominated Korean society, students would walk a long way to school hoping that they could learn again. The students’ worn clothing and weary expressions from having to walk the desolate path, and their shaved heads (a common practice at the time to prevent lice from poor personal hygiene) offer a glimpse into the adversity of the period.
Two Students, 1946
Old Women, 1946
Walking Down the Alley, 1946
- In a wide field with flourishing wildflowers are two ladies walking across the fields and hills, with baskets on their heads. The focal point lies on the flowers rather than the ladies, with mountains horizontally delineating the image in the background. The composition gives an idyllic and poetic impression. The light shining ahead of the ladies, and the scene of ladies gazing afar as if the sun bothers their eyes seem to imply the long journey that lies ahead of them.
- Straw-thatched houses still remained strong even after modern architecture was introduced to South Korea. Reasons are cheap material, and easy access to residual straw due to the agrarian economy in rural areas. In the 1940s, the majority of Koreans lived in such thatched houses. The town in the image, with its stone walls and thatched houses, appears not too far from a town from the Chosun Dynasty at first glance. Upon closer examination, however, we can see hints of modernization in the short skirt that the young girl with a baby is wearing or in the short hair of the lady who walks ahead of them. The irony arises from the elements of modernity in the ever-traditional-looking town.
- Morning was taken in Busan, Limb eung sik’s hometown, upon his return after the Korean Independence in 1945. We find the sun shining on the ladies promenading with flower baskets on their heads in one early morning. From their braided hair and jeogori(a type of top in Korean traditional clothing), we can find the remnants of early modern Korea where the traditional Joseon lifestyle was still intact. But from their bottom – the aprons and mom jeans – we feel the heavy weight of life having to go to the market to sell flowers and support their families. Despite the implications, the baskets full of flowers and the bright light shining on them seem to point to a hopeful future amidst the social turmoil after the Independence.
Morning, 1946
Old Woman and Tram, 1947
- Old Woman and Tram captures the very moment when a tram and an old woman with a cane intersect. The fast-driving tram, as the symbol of modernization and the latest technology, contrasts with the slow pace of the old woman. This encapsulates the essence of then-contemporary Korean society, in which traditional values and new cultural and technological imports clashed. It was in the early 1900s when trams were first introduced to Korea. They became a major mode of transportation in central Seoul and Busan. Fast and convenient, trams managed to survive until the 1960s, when the streets were flooding with automobiles and their technologies were rendered obsolete by the subways. It is ironic that both the tram – then the latest technology – and the old lady in hanbok are both relics of history that can no longer be seen.
- The Cathedral in the Midst of the Gunsmoke is one of the works that Limb took as a war correspondent during his participation in the Incheon Landing Operation. At the center of the photograph is Dapdong Cathedral, a modern cultural heritage that has been standing since 1897, and the oldest western modern architecture in the country. It reflects the history of Incheon Metropolitan City during its port-opening era for international exchanges. The naval bombardments have turned the Aekwan Cinema and Dapdong Cathedral area into ruins, but the Cathedral itself survived the mayhem and retained its structure amidst the shattered remains of surrounding buildings. The bell tower that rises high into the smoke-filled sky adds a sense of mystery to the scene. Limb captures the Cathedral and the surrounding skeletal remains of destroyed buildings, creating a dramatic contrast. The use of an upward-looking perspective helped the photographer capture the devastation on the ground where debris from destroyed buildings and people in the rising smoke spell utter chaos. The bell tower and the cross on top of it draw the attention of the viewers to the clear sky beyond, evoking religious awe.
The Cathedral in the Midst of the Gunsmoke, 1950
- One of the photographs that Limb eung sik took, Road to Refuge, features a family on a carriage riding to seek shelter. Who appears to be the father of the family pulls the carriage full of luggage, and the younger man, presumably his son, pushes to help the motion. The boy’s strenuous look and the young girl whose face is about to burst into tears reflect the tragedy of a refugee family who lost their home.
Road to Refuge, 1950
- Limb eung sik worked as a war correspondent during the Korean War in 1950. His main responsibility was to capture the brutality of war and document traces of life. Student Refugee is one of the works that Limb took during this period. The refugees were moving south – with Seoul in flames, Busan became the wartime capital. The student in this picture is tall, but with a youthful, innocent face. He stands hunched, waiting for the bus with a big luggage. His rather still presence is contrasted with the fast-paced pedestrians, bicycles, and vehicles, reflecting the chaotic and uncertain future amidst the war.
Student Refugee, 1950
Shanty Town, 1950
- Shanty Town portrays the street of shanty town located along the seaside of Yeongdo, Busan. Limb captured the young girl walking along the street for grocery shopping. Unlike other girls in traditional hanbok attire, rubber shoes, and braided hair, the girl wears a blouse and skirt with short hair and walks with a bright smile on her face. Her modern appearance stands out in the traditional setting and reflects the tension and hope between the past and the present and a hopeful look into the future.
Street Cart Vendor, 1950
- Amidst the chaos during the Korean War, central Seoul was so crowded with street vendors and stalls that vehicles could barely pass. As supplies became scarce and people’s livelihood parlous, many were entertained by the idea of selling U.N. relief supplies in street stalls or on the black market. Especially women and children, who were unable to carry out hard labour, often turned carts into mobile stalls. The tragedy of war is reflected in the little child waiting for customers with chocolate cookies, beer and hard liquor, chewing gum, cigarettes, and toothpaste in the stall.
- Busan, the wartime capital during the Korean War, was extremely congested with refugees from all over the country. Limb eung sik, who was living in Busan at the time, opened his home to refugees and shared even his room. They built shanty houses in empty spaces, and, when they ran out of place to build, moved all the way up to the mountaintop to build shelter and formed a community own.
Shanty Town portrays the seemingly interminable series of shanty houses on a mountain. The integrity of the houses, supported on some logs and thin steel sheets, appears so precarious. Only one tree stands out on this densely populated side of the mountain. On the left, we see a sign of a hospital named ‘Daejae Hospital’ and there are several women carrying buckets of water on their heads in the middle of the photograph. Lacking any proper water pipe, the shanty town residents had to climb down the mountain to fetch water and return all the way back. Historical records report that, even with such effort, people were often left dehydrated without enough water supply.
Shanty Town, 1952
- Shanty Town Kids features three children sitting on the flimsy wooden stairs in a shanty town, watching a kite. The winter of 1953 was the time of truce and hope for new life. To kids in the shanty town where supplies were rare and the country was still in reconstruction, a kite would have been the only entertainment. Kites were made from bamboo and hanji(traditional Korean paper) and were flown from winter to around the first full moon of the lunar year. The moment of the kite soaring high up in the sky would have given them a sense of liberation and hope, where no earthly limitation stops them from pursuing their dream and having their hopes high.
Shanty Town Kids. 1953
- Street Stall depicts a couple with a stall. The stall is located in front of a skeletal building, presumably destroyed during the Korean War. They have laid out their goods on the stall crafted from bricks and wooden planks on a collapsed wall. Their seemingly busy gestures and expressions reflect their determination to find hope in adversity. The photograph captures the resilience of the people at the time, who, despite the sudden loss of home and being lost in the world, willed to live and carry on by doing what they could.
Street Stall, 1953
- During the war, the refugees who lost their homes and jobs resorted to selling American military supplies and smuggled goods in their stools in Busan. Children were no exception to making a living. In this work, little girls have laid out small stalls, displaying chocolate bars like Baby Ruth, a military ration often distributed to war orphans. A young girl on the left is carrying a baby on her back, reflecting the harsh reality where even children had to take on adult responsibilities. The innocent smile on her face, however, ironically evokes a sense of hope amidst the visible adversity in the photograph.
Girls at Street Stall , 1953
- After the war, the refugees who returned to the devastated Seoul formed large shanty towns throughout the city. Limb eung sik left many records of the lives of these refugees in shanty towns. This particular work captures the entire village from a higher angle, with houses winding along narrow paths. The houses are constructed so poorly, with relief tents from the U.S. military relief supplies and plywood. Along the narrow streets, people walking, laundry hanging on the walls, and vegetables drying on rooftops offer a glimpse into the lives of the refugees at the time.
Shanty Town, 1955
Naked Trees, 1953
- Enlisted in “Photo Annual 55” of the U.S., Naked Trees is a work that encapsulates the philosophy of ‘everydaylife realism’ that advocates for photography “to share its breath with the epoch”. The desolate look of the boy standing between the burnt trees surfaces the brutality of war. However, Limb titled the work Naked Trees instead of Burnt Trees, for example, suggesting that he was hoping for a better future in which the boy grows up to be a man and trees grow leaves again.
"Perhaps because my surname is 林 (Lim; translator’s note: a Chinese character consisting of two characters that mean ‘tree’), it was entertaining to capture bushes and trees. Naked Trees(裸木) is a work that functions as a doorplate for my house. It is always hung on the most visible location upon entrance wherever I move."
Job Hunting, 1953
- Job Hunting is perhaps the most iconic example of Limb eung sik’s ‘everydaylife realism’ photography. It captures from a close quarter a figure who tied a wooden sign saying 求職 leaning on a wall on a street. The figure, with his head down in a hat that hides his eyes, is contrasted with the bustling pedestrians in a suit in the background. This photograph reflects the complex societal condition after the Korean War and the contrast accentuates the desperation and frustration of the job seeker. ‘I wonder where in life is this young man after the photoshoot.’
Rain Hat, 1953
- The title of the piece, Rain Hat, refers to a cone-shaped traditional rain hat worn by the man on the right side of the frame. This rain hat, known then by the name of Ipmo, is made from oiled paper for water resistance. People wore the hat by unfolding it and shaping it like a cone to protect the gat(a traditional Korean hat) during rain, and when there was no rain, carried it by folding it into the shape of a fan. Another title of this photograph is Reunion, from which we may assume that the photographer intended to capture the joy of meeting someone again after a long separation caused by the war that ended in 1953. The man on the left is found wiping away tears with his hands without an umbrella on a rainy day. The man leaning on a cane with the ipmo on the right is smiling at someone outside the frame of this image. In this sense, this photograph concurrently captures two dominant emotions toward the end of the war – joy and sadness. This image was included in Japan’s World Photo Annual 60 in 1960.
- Bongeunsa Temple lost most of its calligraphy decorations during the Korean War which lasted from 1950 until 1953. The once secluded mountain temple was reconstructed along with the renovation of the Gangnam district, and the temple now stands at the center of the building forest of downtown Gangnam. Limb eungsik captured the ‘One Pillar Gate’ of the Temple during the Korean War in 1953, where we find the old Temple that is vastly different from what we know now. In the photograph, the ‘One Pillar Gate’ stands isolated in the midst of dense vegetation with the Bukhansan Mountain in sight. The name suggests that the pillars are lined up as if they are one. Looking from the front, both two pillars are clearly visible. But when viewed from the side, the two pillars are structured so that they look like a single pillar. The Buddhist symbolism here is that the Gate, which is located between the Temple and the secular world, suggests that both the religious truths and secular truths are the same. Because of the symbolism, the Gate stands alone without any surrounding structures, and there is no ‘gate’, despite the name. Unlike Bongeunsa One Pillar Gate-2, the right pillar and the roof tile are missing, and the partially remaining signboard is also nowhere to be found. We may assume that this photograph was taken later than Bongeunsa One Pillar Gate-2 from such observations.
Bongeunsa One Pillar Gate-1, 1955
- Bongeunsa Temple was first built in 794 during the Shilla Dynasty, known as Gyeonseongsa at the time. It was renamed in 1498 during the Chosun Dynasty to ‘Bongeun’, which means to ‘receive grace’. The temple used to be in the mountains about 100 meters above sea level. It lost most of its decorations during the Korean War and was reconstructed afterward, assuming the ‘downtown Temple’ status that we know now. Limb eung sik captured the ‘One Pillar gate’ of the Temple during the Korean War in 1953, where we find the old Temple that is vastly different from what we know now. Similar to Bongeunsa One Pillar Gate-1, the second photograph features the Bukhansan and the Gate. Because it was photographed before Bongeunsa One Pillar Gate-1, the four pillars, the roof, and the signboard are all intact. The two ladies with their luggage, who are passing through the gate into nature, seem as though they are teleporting into the Buddhist world of healing and peace.
Bongeunsa One Pillar Gate-2, 1955
- At the center of Seoul Metropolitan City is Myeongdong, an area that captures the essence of modern Korean history. In the 1950s, after the Korean War, Myeongdong was reduced to ashes, but was soon revitalized in the 1960s and quickly became a cultural hub where intellectuals and artists gathered. In the 1970s, it became a luxurious fashion street and the center of the latest trend. During the 1980s and the 1990s, it evolved once again into a financial district. Limb eung sik consistently captured the changing face of Myeongdong from the 1950s until just before his passing in 2001. His works vividly documented the history of rapidly changing South Korea as represented by Myeongdong.
Myeongdong Bird Eye View, 1954
This work was taken in the 1950s when Limb just started capturing Myeongdong. His composition allows a bird eye's view of Myeongdong's main street, where the beginning of the congested street and the end on the hill on the right where the Myeongdong Cathedral is located. The main street and the cathedral have not changed much from the 50s, allowing viewers to compare the area's past and present. The Myeongdong Cathedral, boasting its sharp gothic bell tower on the top, was established in 1898. It has served as the symbol of Korean Catholicism and the living history of Myeongdong's history of development.
On the Way to Work, 1958
- Going Out portrays women dressed in fine traditional flower shoes and hanbok for outing. Judging from their looks, we can imagine the vibrant revitalization of Seoul. Unlike the men in the background dressed in Western suits, the women are dressed in full traditional Korean attire including jeogori and skirts, rubber shoes, and handbags. This scene symbolizes the resilience of Korean tradition that still survives to this day amidst the waves of modernization.
Going Out, 1958
- On the Way to Work portrays two men carrying Jige (a traditional Korean A-frame wooden carrier for heavy loads), and the women walking in the distance who are wearing baskets on their heads. Jige was a tool that helped men carry loads for hundreds of years. The practicality of the jige came from its simple design and utility in carrying heavy loads across any terrain, making it a popular mode of supply transport during the war. Due to Korea’s mountainous geography, transporting supplies by jige was much more time-efficient and cost-efficient than building transportation infrastructure such as roads, and resulted in many men carrying food supplies, ammunition, etc. to mountaintops using jige. Even after the war, jige was employed by many porters until the roads were restored. Women carried baskets on their heads for trade or transport. The image offers a peek into people’s strong will to life, photographed in the early morning and the people moving forward into a new day.
Snowy Day, 1956
- Snowy Day features a pedestrian walking through a snow-covered street in one winter. Unlike Limb’s other works, which often portray the faces and their expressions, Snowy Day depicts only a distant black silhouette which stands in contrast to the snowy, white background. We see bare tree branches in the distance, a traditional Korean house with its roof covered in snow, and other pedestrians with their heads down and slouching. The image evokes a quiet, desolate atmosphere.
Washing Place, 1958
- Rainy Day shows three children walking without umbrellas on a day of pouring rain. They are sharing a coat to hide from the rain. Their rubber shoes are muddy, and their overalls are drenched. The sight of the three young boys hiding under a coat to struggle through the weather raises pity. One child wide-opens his right eye to peer out. Another has worn a hat so big for his head that even his face is hidden. And the last child barely covers his face due to the small size of the coat. This image is contrasted sharply with the seemingly disinterested automobiles that pass by in the background, drawing the viewer into Limb’s empathetic perspective.
Rainy Day, 1955
- Streams or rivers with clear water have long served the purpose of community gathering and washing. In the 1970s, most Korean households were equipped with laundry machines and washing places began to disappear, but many still brought bundles of laundry to wash in the clear flowing water in spring. The washing place was not only a shared space for laundry but also a place for housewives and women to gather, talk, share comfort, and exchange information. Limb eung sik captured the women sitting in a row along the stream in a slightly diagonal vertical composition, making the stone laundry boards recede and disappear into the distance to create a sense of rhythm and a figurative aesthetic.