Atta Kim’s book〈Doing Lee O-young〉ⓒ Atta Kim

World-renowned artist Atta Kim has published a book titled〈Doing Lee O-young〉, offering a renewed examination of the late Lee O-young, whom Kim describes as “the archetype of the creative human.”

Born in 1956, Atta Kim is a Korean artist who began his career in the mid-1980s and has since established himself internationally as a photographer. The book emerged from a relationship that began seven years prior between Kim and Lee O-young.

Kim describes Lee as a revolutionary figure and as someone who did not belong to any camp—a person “for the minority.” In〈Doing Lee O-young〉, Kim excluded all other attributes to focus solely on capturing Lee O-young’s inner life as a human being.

Like placing the final move in a game of Go, Lee’s final moments—forming words between inhalation and exhalation—are captured as if etched into an image. Kim stated, “Lee O-young never wavered for a moment. Like conducting an orchestra, like directing the universe itself, he controlled the moment—sometimes gently, sometimes passionately.”

Kim emphasized that Lee “revolutionized himself every day, every moment.” The book conveys life-affirming messages that comfort those who are wounded. Conversations between Kim and Lee span intelligence, the humanities, philosophy, and art, unfolding what Kim describes as an orchestra of intellect encompassing 21st-century bio-capitalism, the art of nature, and death.

Part 1, ‘Conversing’, recounts Kim’s motivation for photographing Lee; Part 2, ‘Corresponding’, centers on their philosophical dialogue. Part 3, ‘Artenon-ing’, introduces Lee’s advice alongside Kim’s work, philosophy, and the museum Art+Parthenon. Part 4, ‘Facing’, elaborates on the philosophy of ON NATURE and Kim’s photographic methods, addressing inner life, death, and the question of the true self. Part 5, ‘Existing’, likens Lee’s intellect and revolutionary spirit to a “volcano of poetry,” examining his inner being and existence.

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