Ssaum /Protest

Title: Ssaum / Protest

Photographer(s): Kwon Sun-ki, Park Seung-hwa, Song Hyuk, Lee So-hye e Lim Seok-hyun

Writer(s): Seunghwa Park 

Designer(s): Kwon Aju

Publisher(s): Listen to the City, Seoul, Korea

Year: 2015

Print run:

Language(s): English

Pages: 230

Size: 22,5 x 28,5 cm

Binding: Hardcover with dust jacket

Edition:

Print: Printed in Korea

Nation(s) and year(s) of Protest: Korea,1989-1993

ISBN: 979-11-952430-5-1

The chronology of this book ranges from the ‘Inaugural Ceremony of the National Democratic Movement Coalition’ on 21 January 1989 to the ‘Kim Byeong-gon Third Anniversary Commemorative Ceremony’ on 6 December 1993. Of these, 133 chapters are included in the main text and 139 chapters are included in the appendix.

In the panorama of black-and-white filled photographs, one can understand why that era was a time of ‘struggle’, why that era had no choice but to ‘fight’ against the absurd power of the state, and why this had to become the desperate ‘way of the people’ at that time.

Park Seung-hwa, who edited the photo book, calmly but clearly expressed his thoughts on the publication of the photo book ‘Protest’ after 27 years. ‘It was a battle I could have won, but I couldn't, and I couldn't lose either. I took this photo with the conviction that I would win, hoping that it would be used in the reportage that would be created that day of the victory. (...) That long-awaited day never came, and the photo has lost its usefulness and 20 years have passed. (...) This is a testament to the crazy days of those who constantly sought their way and returned to where they started, believing they had arrived in the right place, or who pretended to be weak and believed in themselves so as not to become ‘fools who think they are changing the world’, but ended up becoming fools instead.’