Seoul Physiognomy - Eunjong Lee

In Seoul Physiognomy, Eunjong Lee explores the faltering identity of her rapidly changing city of birth. She concentrates on the city’s architectural evolution away from individualistic buildings that do not impede views of the striking natural environment to the unremarkable, identical high-rises that dwarf Seoul’s lush greenery and hide its magnificent mountain vistas. Lee’s work is a lamentation that the Seoul’s individual character is being lost due to capitalism and globalization without concern to the city’s long attachment to and interconnection with the natural world. The viewer can feel Lee’s anxiety over these changes in the crowded compositions of her large-scale photographic prints. New construction towers above older buildings while the green areas are gradually crowded out and the mountains are obscured. Physiognomy refers to judging the character of something based on its appearance; Lee uses this idea to expose how Seoul’s identity is eroding as new construction arises.