Korea Herald 20090616

18 COMMUNITY

TUESDAY JUNE 16, 2009

KOREAN CURATOR Expat Living is a section dedicated to the daily living of expatriates. It is printed on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. To share stories about your life abroad, send stories or story ideas to Matthew Lamers at

[email protected] Submissions may be edited for length or clarity.

IN LIVERPOOL By Rob Mcgovern

LIVERPOOL, England — In October 2007 Dr. Lee Sookkyung was hailed as one of the world’s new art pioneers by British Sunday newspaper the Observer. The Seoul native has been curator of exhibitions and displays at TATE Liverpool since October 2007 and is one of the very few experts on Korean art in the United Kingdom. Lee first arrived in Britain more than 10 years ago to work on a masters degree at City University in London, supported in her studies by her thenemployer the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul. Her first encounter with Britain was to turn into a long standing relationship. After her initial year in the United Kingdom, she returned to Seoul, putting on an exhibition based on her time in Britain. The show was called Distinctive Elements and

was the first major museum exhibition of British art in Korea. It caused quite a stir in the international art community but Lee admits it may have been “too early for Korea.” As far as settling into a new culture, Lee was fortunate because she had a working knowledge of English, making the transition easier. “Because I was working as well (in) education, I learned to read and write and my actual conversation skills were okay. It was okay for working with foreign artists but because in Korea we are usually taught American English, It took me about three or four months to get used to the British accent, which sounded more like German to me.” Even after living in England for more than 10 years, she still finds the regional diversity of British accents a challenge. “Particularly the Liverpool accent. I lived near London when I first came, but when I came to

Liverpool, it was like another language. I still look at waitresses sometimes and wonder what they just said. “The accent is one thing but I quite like Liverpool as a city because the people are different from London people. They are more open and they’re quite friendly in a more traditional way. It’s a bit less formal and I find it more welcoming. Overall my experience has been very good.” Being an internationally recognized curator, however, does not mean you do not have to deal with mundane, everyday tasks that being a resident calls for. “When you try to settle in a place you find quite different, things that you don’t necessarily find as a tourist or visitor. The whole culture of writing letters, setting up bank accounts and dealing with utility companies, they are practical difficulties.” Lee can see the positive side

to a system that seems rigid, inflexible and quite different from Korea. “The system is very well defined in the U.K. and it is easy to follow once you know the system and how it works. In Korea it seems more informal.” The Korean community in Liverpool is very small and as such Korean restaurants are almost nonexistent. Korean expatriates in need of spicy comfort find themselves either having to try and recreate their mother’s food at home or making a long trip to London to pay for expensive and often unauthentic food. “Liverpool is quite good because there is a big Chinese community and so the grocery stores have lots of ingredients. “I do try to have Korean food regularly, it’s quite healthy and I do cook at home; I often make bibimbap. I like to eat out too, but the Korean food is not as authentic as I expected. There are more restaurants now that sell things like tteokbokki and

ramyeon, as well as high-end barbecue restaurants, especially in London. Unfortunately they don’t really compare with home because you can’t have the table full of food. London is a bit expensive and I go to Koreatown in New York when I am there, which is cheaper and more like Korea.” Besides food, friends are the other home comfort that Lee misses most. “None of my school friends are here, obviously, and people need that comfort, really old friends, girlfriends to talk to. I usually spend most of my time with family and friends when I go back to Korea, which I try to do once a year. I did go back three times last year but all for work and even when I go back for a holiday it isn’t at a specific time, just whenever I can take time off work.” As a veteran expat Lee offers some advice for other Koreans going abroad. “Be flexible about your own virtues and pre-exist-

In focus: To edit or not to edit? The Photo Challenge is sponsored by Hyosung Camera (English: 010-7203-9599) and Babo Shirts (www.baboshirts. com). Winners of the weekly competition receive a 50,000 won store credit at Hyosung Camera and a Babo Shirt. To take part in the competition, simply upload your photo at www.flickr.com/groups/seoulph otoclub — Ed. By Aaron Raisey

PHOTO CHALLENGE winner — Walking the dogs with a camera at Nicolette Oliver 6:30 a.m. brings photographic rewards.

PHOTO CHALLENGE runner up — A cat on the streets of Osan, Len Payne Gyeonggi Province.

Do you post-process your images on the computer using an image-editing program? Or do you prefer to let your talent and creativity stand as the photo comes out of the camera? It’s a question that excites opinions on both sides of the fence, and one that we’ll try to get a balanced handle on this week. The first thing to understand is that every image has been processed, it’s just a matter of to what degree. From a photographic perspective, there is no such thing as a “natural” or “unaltered” image — the moment you hit the shutter, different levels of, for example, contrast, saturation and sharpening are all applied in-camera according to factory presets or user defined parameters. Even film is processed, of course, yielding different results depending on where and how it is processed, and it also has to be scanned — another form of processing leading to various outcomes — before being view-

able online. Some photographers proudly proclaim that they never “process” their images on the computer. We can now see that this is patent nonsense. Images do get processed, be it with the camera’s software, or using different chemicals and then via the scanning software. It’s a matter of how much processing has been done and how much control you have had over it. Having said that, you should become familiar with your camera, exposure, light and color, depth of field, composition and how all these things interact and combine to produce an image. The goal should be to get that image out of your camera in the best possible shape. I know I always feel a sense of satisfaction when I have to do a minimum of post-camera processing to achieve the vision I have for a particular image. However, sometimes your vision for an image goes beyond what you can achieve in-camera, and sometimes a considerable amount of work in an image-editing program becomes necessary. A great example of this is low available light (very low light

with no flash) photography. Noise (grain) can be removed and exposure and color saturation can be increased dramatically by using high quality image processing software, producing results that are otherwise unobtainable. Quality black and white images from digital shots are likewise only obtainable via post-processing. I’ve touched on the idea of cropping several times in this column, and I’ll do so once again. The goal should be to get the perfect composition before you hit that shutter, but until we’ve achieved that zen-like status, a bit of cropping can’t hurt. Actually, cropping images in the computer to create better compositions is a great way to improve your ability to compose effectively through the viewfinder. You learn what to look for and how the elements in the frame interact by moving that frame around after the fact. The point is that you absolutely cannot get an image you have captured with a camera in front of anyone without it being processed somewhere, somehow, along the line, so there is absolutely no shame at all in indulging in and admitting a bit of “Photoshop.” For some great pointers with regards to composition and processing from some of the best and most helpful expat photographers in Korea, check out the Seoul Photo Club on Flickr. ([email protected])

ing thoughts about certain things. Be as open as possible and don’t be fixed in your thinking, look at other cultures as different and not better or worse. I see that a lot in Korean people. They can be very unfriendly about other cultures. Be open about things and be objective about what you experience and don’t try to over generalize. Your experience is your experience.” And on the reverse side, Lee has some advice for people moving to Korea or already living here. “Trust what Korean people say and do. They are very direct and really show what their intentions are. Be very direct and deal with people and situations as directly as you can. You may feel uncomfortable being confrontational, but once you go beyond that first confrontation, people are very friendly.” Lee seems to have settled in Liverpool for the time being and is enjoying her tenure at TATE; she has bought a home and has

admitted that she now refers to her family home in Seoul as her parents’ home. Being an international curator and working at the top end of the business, she is open about where the future might take her. “I will probably stay in Liverpool for the next few years but I don’t know what is next. It will probably be related to work.” Lee is the co-curator of a cooperative exhibition called “Colour Chart: Reinventing Colour, 1950 to Today,” on display in Liverpool from May 29 to Sept. 13. For more information about this exhibition or Tate Liverpool visit their website www.tate.org.uk ([email protected]) On the Web www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/ exhibitions/colourchart www.creative-choices. co.uk/server.php? show=ConWebDoc.2643 www.cige-bj.com/en/event1.html

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Re: Going abroad By Lee In-wha

I went to a boarding school in the United Kingdom for three years, and these three years became a very important period in my life. English society is very diverse; it contains Indians, Chinese, Black and of course, English people as well as many more ethnicities. Despite having a diverse amount of races mixed into their society, there rarely seems to be discrimination against each race. When it’s a holiday for a particular race, for example, Rosh Hashanah or Diwali (Divali), they are all respected for their belief, and are allowed to celebrate on a major scale. After living in this type of society, the prejudices I used to have about other races disappeared and I began to respect other people’s beliefs, regardless of what they believe in. By contrast, in Korea the single-race society is still viewed proudly by many, and seeing foreigners in the streets of Korea is a rare sight. Additionally, English people do not care much about what we do to ourselves, for example, about we do to our hair, what we wear, and other things. In Korea, we often get left out by people if we do not follow the current trend or do what is considered “right.” In spite of the fact that the United Kingdom might sound like a perfect place for everyone to live, it has some defects, as does everything. It is quite inconvenient to live

in the United Kingdom, as it requires reservations for things such as calling maintenance. When I planned to get my braces in England, I had to wait for a few months just to get my teeth checked. After this, I also had to wait about a year, during which I came back to Korea and got braces after a week. This tells us the difference between how fast the service is and how convenient Korea is compared to other Western countries. Because I was in England when I was quite young, I began to feel that I was losing my identity as a Korean, while I wasn’t totally English. As the time I spent in the United Kingdom increased, my Korean skills decreased noticeably, while my English skill enhanced. Rather than viewing England as a foreign country, it felt more to me like a second home after Korea. If I didn’t come back from England, and continued to live and go to St. Helen’s School, I might have been in a great tumult about which country I really belong to. Living abroad may seem like a perfect life, but it is not. Living in Korea, as well as living abroad, both have advantages and disadvantages. Living abroad in countries such as the United Kingdom teaches us to respect others, regardless of ethnicity. On the other hand, living in Korea is very convenient compared to living abroad, and we are able to retain our identity.