1 of 6 | Polish photographer Marcin Ryczek points at his famed “A Man Feeding Swan” image during an exhibition of his work on Wednesday, May 29, 2024, at the International Convention Center, Jeju Island, South Korea. His work was being exhibited during the three-day Jeju Forum for Peace and Prosperity. Photo by Darryl Coote/UPI
Award-winning Polish photographer Marcin Ryczek is known for his minimalist, symbol-rich pieces that create a sense of peace through harmony, but for his latest exhibition on display for world leaders and geopolitical experts congregating on a South Korean island, he included images that resonate with the current moment of conflict and war.
Presented by the public diplomacy Korea Foundation nonprofit, Harmony: Marcin Ryczek’s Photography is being held Wednesday through June 14 at the International Convention Center Jeju, on South Korea’s resort island of Jeju. Advertisement
Its opening was planned to coincide with the start of the three-day Jeju Forum for Peace and Prosperity, which began Wednesday.
World leaders, government officials and experts, totally some 3,000 in all, are expected to attend the forum, and Ryczek told UPI he took this into consideration when choosing which of his pieces to line the walls of the center’s gallery. Advertisement
“First, I thought to put peaceful photos, like buddhists, like this photo with the swans,” he said, referring to his best-known piece, A Man Feeding Swans, a harmonious black-and-white image of white snow and swans contrasted by a man seen in the same black as the water the birds he is feeding swim on.
Though that yin-yang image is included in the exhibition, Ryczek said he wanted to also showcase beautiful images that are weighed with historical significance.
“For example, the border of our neighbor, Ukraine,” he said.
Hanging on the wall across from Swans was a vertical image of a soldier mid-step over a white line painted on cobblestones entitled Border – road to Maidan Nezalezhnosti, Kiev – Ukraine.
The symbolism of the piece is clear — a man crossing a “border” or line. Ryczek took it in 2014. But Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, and the ongoing war has given its meaning even more significance, he said.
Piotr Ostaszewski, the Polish ambassador to South Korea who attended the gallery’s first day, told UPI it was the image that most resonated with him.
He said it represents borders in our own lives that we cannot go back after crossing. But because of where it was taken, it is also imbued with historical significance. Advertisement
Russian President Vladimir Putin “crossed the line, there is no way back for him,” he said, while adding that for Ukrainians it could mean “somebody crossed the line and they have to defend themselves to recover the line.”
Ryczek explained that the image — like all his images — is not “reportage, it’s metaphorical” and its meaning is up to the viewer.
Yang Jeongsun, curator for the Korea Foundation’s KF Global Center in Seoul, said this is what caught her attention about his work.
“[His] photos are characterized by leaving room for each viewer’s interpretation,” she told UPI in an email.
“We hope that through the photographs of Marcin Ryczek, everyone can explore the possibilities of ‘Acting Together for a Better World,'” she added, referencing the theme of the forum.
Ryczek said this element of leaving room for the viewers’ interpretation is why he redacts the locations of where the photos were shot from the information that accompanies his photographs in galleries.
“I don’t put too many information with this photo because I would like to put something universal,” he said.
However, with Border and other historical war-connected images donning the center’s walls during the peace forum it was important for him the viewers knew where it was shot. Advertisement
“It’s good to remember this situation,” he said.
