“Why would a Japanese person photograph poverty in Korea” Despite criticism, he pressed the shutter···The master documented ‘60 Years of Korea’ - 경향신문

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Japanese photojournalist Shisei Kuwabara. Provided by Sumbi

Shisei Kuwabara (90) is a master of Japanese photojournalism. Beginning in 1960, he visited patients in Minamata, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan, who had contracted Minamata disease from mercury poisoning. Debuting with photographs that laid bare the horrors as they were, he went on to capture upheavals across the world, including South and North Korea, Cambodia, Vietnam, and the Soviet Union (Russia).

Korea is the subject Kuwabara explored the longest. First coming to Korea in 1964 as a correspondent, he traveled back and forth more than a hundred times over some six decades. He is also the only photojournalist who followed and photographed the Vietnam War in which Korea participated. The documentary film <The Face of the Photo> (directed by Ko Hee-young), opening on the 2nd of next month, shines a light on Kuwabara, the photographer who documented the modern history of Korea. When we met on the 26th in Jung-gu, Seoul, he smiled modestly and said, “The protagonist of this film is my photographs. I am nothing more than a supporting role.”

The photograph ‘Silent Demonstration’ (1965) by Shisei Kuwabara. Provided by Sumbi

Kuwabara’s photographs convey the atmosphere of the scene without exaggeration, just as it was. In the photo that opens the film, ‘Silent Demonstration’ (1965), the grim determination of Seoul National University students opposing the Korea-Japan talks comes through. In the film, Kuwabara recalls, “It was a very solemn protest. With faces wetrain or tears, I could not tellthey walked the streets in silence. Alongside the students were a jeep clearly marked ‘MP’ and soldiers wearing steel helmets.” For him, Korea at the time was “a country where unbending aspiration burst forth despite the oppression of public authority.”

Kuwabara said that “because I was a foreigner,” he was able to leave photographs of rallies and protests under the dictatorship as well as of Korean soldiers dispatched to Vietnam. “Korean reporters were under intense surveillance by the Central Intelligence Agency. Amateur photographers would be told, ‘Are you colluding with the North?’ As a foreign press reporter like me, if you had a press card, you could work with a certain degree of freedom.”

Photographs he took in the Cheonggyecheon shantytown in Seoul in the late 1960s and in the camptown of Dongducheon in Gyeonggi Province remain as records of those sites. Yet many naturally showed hostility to a camera thrust forward by a Japanese photographer. “The words I heard most were ‘son of a b*tch’ and ‘J*p.’ The question was, why would a Japanese person, of all people, photograph poverty.” Kuwabara would also get rebuked by fellow Korean reporters: “You will present these in Japan, will you not. Do not photograph scenes of poverty.” But after the Cheonggyecheon shantytown was torn down and time passed, he came to hear, “You left many good photos. You did well to take them.”

A street scene in Korea photographed by Shisei Kuwabara. Provided by Sumbi

Shisei Kuwabara (right) and his wife Choi Hwa-ja (Kuwabara Kazuko) in <The Face of the Photo>. Provided by Sumbi

The film also highlights his wife, Choi Hwa-ja (Kuwabara Kazuko), who stood behind Kuwabara, supporting their home and livelihood. A Korean, Ms. Choi became his spouse after serving as Kuwabara’s interpreter in 1969 when he was photographing the rapid economic growth in Korea. She began life in Japan trusting her husband, but thanks to his frequent business trips, it was common for her to keep the household alone. Sitting in on the interview that day, Ms. Choi heard Kuwabara say, “It has been 56 years since we married. Because it was hard to support a family by photography alone, my wife worked until she was 75. I am grateful.”

Kuwabara said, “I wanted to capture in photographs the wailing of those who became the bedrock for the modernization and economic growth of Korea.” His greatest regret is not having photographed the May 18 Democratization Movement in 1980. Interested in Korean ceramics at the time, he was in Mungyeong, North Gyeongsang Province. “Because I was in the mountains, it was hard to get the news, and by the time I learned of it, it was already impossible to enter Gwangju,” he said. “Conversely, when the Soviet Union was collapsing, I was in Moscow, Russia, so I was able to capture those scenes.” His second regret is not yet having fulfilled his wish to photograph the moment when South and North Korea are reunified.

“From the 1960s to the present, I have watched the democratization and economic development of Korea,” he said. “I am very pleased with the growth built by the blood, sweat, and tears of Koreans.” To mark the film’s release, a photo exhibition is also being held. It runs at CineCube Gwanghwamun (through September 16) and CGV Yongsan IPark Mall (through September 8) in Seoul.

In <The Face of the Photo>, Shisei Kuwabara lies in his room. Provided by Sumbi

On the 26th, at a venue in Jung-gu, Seoul, after finishing an interview with Korean reporters, Japanese photographer Shisei Kuwabara stands on a platform behind a sofa and photographs the Korean reporters. Asking, “May I take a picture?” he added, “I leave photographs as a matter of habit.” Jeon Ji-hyun, reporter