Two Books

Sacred Wood

Bae Bien-U

Landscape is so broad a definition that every photographer has his own understanding and has a certain preference to a special portion of the landscape.

As for Bae Bien-U, the main objects of his photograph are landscape with focus on pine trees. The meaning of an object varies so much according to the place it comes from, the culture it relates to, or the people living in that place. Bae has been spending his life photographing and researching pine trees, it's definitely meaningful to dig deep about what's behind all the pine trees in his photo gallery.

Pine trees in Asia have symbolic importance. They contains the meaning of dignity. Countries like Korea and China, for example, have four distinct seasons and during the winter times most of the vegetation become yellow or bald. Pine trees, however,  are still full of vigor and vitality and outdare the coldness, the snow and the roaring wind.

When you look at Bae's gallery of pine trees you feel like Bae never regard them simply as trees; these pine trees all have emotions being delivered.

Most of his pine trees are black and white, building an atmosphere of solemnity, respects and mystery. Even there are several groups of pines tree photos that have colour, they are all cold colour less than three kinds with fog. His black and white pine trees are the most astonishing ones among all his work. Sometimes there's only one pine tree straight extending to the highest level of the sky and sometimes a group of pine trees scattered in a sequence twisting toward different directions in the forests. The light in the pictures are not strong but always being mysterious and cold, making the viewers feel what they see are holly and cannot have blasphemy.

From sunrise to sunset, from winter to summer, up and down, sunny and foggy. The different expression makes his pine trees his. If you see a photograph of the twisted powerful pine trees with different cold light containing a sense of dignity, it might be Bae’s work.



Waterpower

Christian Helmle

The photographer of this book is so fascinated with water. As Michael Jakob, who wrote the preface for Christian’s book said: “Christian Helmle invites the readers on a photographic journey along the European rivers, into the valleys where hydroelectric power stations stand proudly, and into mountains with their picturesque reservoir dams and power stations.”

When I saw the title of the book for the first time, I thought the waterpower here implies the natural power of water itself as what we usually see; a big waterfall or many streams gathering into the big ocean for instance. However, after I read through the whole book it turns out that the Christian delivered the waterpower through the man-made architecture and designs especially the hydroelectric power.

Christian’s photography at first sight is definitely beautiful landscape. You see stretches of huge green mountains gather around clear clam lakes; you see magnificent mountains with white snow on top embraces seemingly cold water flowing slowly. However, the more you see you figure out there’s always a dam stopping the water, perfectly being part of the natural landscape itself and even adds some sense of dignity and harmony.

In other words, the photographs in this book are landscapes with machinery dominancy. The nature here in Christian’s work undergoes fundamental man-made changes but are still regarded as nature. Also, the era of flowing, roaring, and raging representing power has become past; the impression of power now was took over by power generation. Waterways’ power eventually was captured by human beings and in most developed or highly developing areas the waterfalls of the past have disappeared.

In Christian’s book, pipes, reservoirs and power stations scattered all around in every piece of his photography showing a new form of waterpower to the viewers. It’s not only about the landscape but also about the structure and technology.