• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.25
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• pp.35-54
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• 2011

Magnum Korea, a 2008 exhibit at the Hangaram Art Museum in the Seoul Arts Center, introduced representative images of Korea to commemorate the 60th year of the founding of the nation. Twenty photographers of various backgrounds participated in Magnum Korea. This study focuses on one of the exhibited photographers, the French photographer Bruno Barbey. Born in Morocco, Barbey occupies a special position in today's modern photography not to mention in the Magnum group of traditional medium of photography. His photographic world is affiliated with the humanism of Robert Diosneau, particularly as his photographic medium is based on communication and code. Among the photographs in the Magnum Korea collection, Barbey's photographs can be organized into six different subjects: industrial structures in nature, industrial buildings, traditional relics of culture, terminals, markets and restaurants, and daily life. This paper takes special interest in Barbey's unique perspective on Korea's traditional cultural assets focusing on 'Seoul, Jogyesa'. What is the uniqueness of our culture as contained in Barbey's works? In other words, how did he capture the special characteristics of our culture that are often overlooked or ignored because they are so familiar to us? A semiotic approach is used to discover what common but special situations and realities of Korea attracted this photographer and how he managed to capture them in his photographs.