Noh Suntag (b. 1971) has been exploring the meaning of Korea's division and the political violence it generates through his photography and writing. While addressing socio-political themes, Noh reflects on the nature and mechanics of the camera, as well as the significance of his own existence as a photographer. His works capture the intensity of real-life scenes while maintaining an aesthetic sensibility that elicits empathy through humor, subtly distorting our perceptions.

Before debuting as an artist, Noh was a photojournalist who documented various pressing events. Through his experiences in the field, he realized that the landscapes he witnessed differed from those presented by the mass media. This realization led him to capture what the media overlooked, missed, or deliberately ignored.

This journey resulted in his series Smells like the Division of the Korean Peninsula (2003-2010), which examines how the ideology of division operates within Korean society. Noh explains that through this series, he aimed to strip away romantic rhetoric surrounding the division and expose how bizarre and petty the division system truly is.

In short, Noh Suntag captures the landscapes created by the ironically malfunctioning division system. For example, he photographed scenes such as the tragic accident where two middle school girls were crushed by a U.S. military armored vehicle, North Korean children waving their hands, anti-war protests, and glimpses of South Korean society's excessive dependence on the U.S. Through these ironic landscapes, Noh prompts viewers to question both their internal and external realities.

the strAngeball series, created in 2006, also captures the bizarre landscapes in Korea born from the division system. This work began with the story of a weird ball standing on the fields of Daechu-ri (Paengseong-eup Pyeongtaek-si Gyeonggi-do), and the people living their life of farmer around the “ball”.

Daechu-ri in Pyeongtaek was destroyed by the expansion of a large military base driven by the U.S. under its “strategic flexibility” plan. The white ball, resembling a golf ball, is in fact a radome—a high-performance radar device used to collect and monitor information about the Korean Peninsula.

In the strAngeball series, composed of over 100 images, the radome blends oddly with the surrounding landscape, at times concealing its presence or making it stand out. The series also captures scenes of Daechu-ri farmers protesting, farming, and confronting riot police. Ironically, despite the U.S. military being at the heart of this situation, they do not appear in the photographs. Instead, the power and violence of their presence are symbolized solely by the radome, while the images depict the ironic scene of Koreans fighting amongst themselves.

Noh Suntag's Red House series, which began in 2005, presents various scenes of North Korea divided into three chapters. In the first chapter, he captures the orderly and glamorous images that North Korean society wishes to display. Noh mainly focuses on scenes from the Mass Games, also known as the Arirang Festival, one of the most iconic images representing North Korea. The photographs reveal slight variations between individuals within the precisely aligned formations, prompting viewers to imagine the hidden reality behind this outward display of order.

In the second chapter, Noh Suntag presents the unfamiliar time and space of North Korea, while also offering glimpses of the behaviors of those who have integrated into this foreign environment. The third chapter focuses on how the grand symbol of North Korea is reproduced and represented in South Korea.

At the end of this work, Noh wrote the sentence, "You are my mirror, and I do not deny that I am also your mirror." Through this act of "looking at North Korea," the artist ultimately reflects on South Korea. He suggests that if a problem cannot be solved by ignoring it, then “looking at it” might be the starting point for some form of resolution.

In his 2012 solo exhibition at Hakgojae Gallery, Noh Suntag presented a series titled Forgetting Machines, featuring photographs related to the Gwangju Uprising. Forgetting Machines includes images of the old cemetery at Mangwol-dong, where portraits of the deceased have been damaged by the passage of time. The series also depicts the landscapes of the "survivors" of the democratization movement, along with places and objects directly or indirectly related to the event, as well as images of the Maitreya Buddha statues at Unjusa Temple in Hwasun.

For an artist who has long addressed the realities of Korea's division, the Gwangju Uprising and the events surrounding it stand as one of the clearest historical examples of how the Korean War and the division continue to operate in today's South Korean society.

Through this series, Noh Suntag reflects on Gwangju, a day increasingly forgotten and distorted over the decades. He poses questions about what it means for us to remember or forget the Gwangju Uprising today, and how these acts of memory and forgetfulness manifest themselves in the landscapes around us.

The series really Good, murder (2008-2009) was inspired by a blog post written by a senior student at the Korea Air Force Academy, who expressed concern about the F-15K, South Korea's next-generation fighter jet. Although he regarded it as a "good machine," he was troubled by its nature as a killing weapon.

Noh Suntag focused on how this student’s confession was misinterpreted as a statement of dissent, documenting the societal landscapes surrounding these killing machines through his photography. really Good, murder features disquieting scenes, such as the South Korean Armed Forces Day celebration, where military personnel proudly showcase their fighter jets, and children experiencing fake guns. The series prompts reflection on our society's attitudes and perceptions regarding weapons and their violence.

The series Sneaky Snakes in Scenes of Incompetence (2008-2014) raises questions about how South Korean society has operated and how the camera functions within it. Noh Suntag captures the scenes of individuals pointing their cameras at people in political and social contexts, such as protest sites, in order to commemorate or document specific situations.

Through this series, he illustrates how the camera can be wielded as a weapon that attacks its subject while also highlighting the limitations inherent in photography. The term "Scenes of Incompetence" in the title refers to brutally realistic scenes that are beyond remedy, while "Sneaky Snakes" signifies the cunning nature of photography, which, despite having a relatively short history compared to other media, has rapidly absorbed and expanded its influence.

Thus, while photography may seem to capture and reveal truth, it can actually present a superficial and cunning perspective by only showcasing the scenery within the frame, devoid of context. This work reflects the artist's self-reflective viewpoint on how photography should be perceived.

The central theme that runs through Noh Suntag's photography is how the ideology of division operates within South Korean society. Instead of approaching societal issues through ideological conflicts, he addresses them as universal human problems, continually posing questions to the audience about our society and ourselves as individuals within it.

"Photography, while it brings someone joy, also transforms even someone’s pain into a 'beautiful scene.' However, just because a photograph is beautiful, does that mean the process of making it is also beautiful? Just because a diamond is beautiful, does that mean its production process is beautiful?

Scenes of social conflict and confrontation are even more so. While someone is crying, angry, or collapsed, another person hides behind the camera, concealing their expressions, creating 'beautiful photographs' in their own way. This is both splendid and ugly, naive and wicked."

Noh Suntag received his B.A. in politics from Konkuk University and studied Photographic Design at Hongik University, Graduate School of Industrial Art. Starting as a photojournalist, Noh Suntag has held solo exhibitions at major domestic institutions, including the Art Sonje Center, the Goeun Museum of Photography, the Donggang Photo Museum, the Gwangju Museum of Art, and Hakgojae, as well as international venues in the UK, Spain, and Japan.
 
He has participated in group exhibitions at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, the Seoul Museum of Art, the Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Atelier Hermes, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Canada, and the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts.
 
In 2014, he became the first photographer to receive the Korea Artist Prize award from the MMCA. He held a large-scale solo exhibition titled “State of Emergency” at the Württembergischer Kunstverein in Germany in 2008, and in 2009, his photo book published by Hatje Cantz received the Silver Award for German Photo Book Prize in Germany. In 2012, he was awarded the 11th Dong Gang Photography Award.

References

• 노순택, Noh Suntag (Artist Website)
• 올해의 작가상, 노순택 (Korea Artist Prize, Noh Suntag)
• 학고재 갤러리, 노순택 (Hakgojae Gallery, Noh Suntag)
• 박건희문화재단, 노순택, 얄읏한 공, 2006 (Parkgeonhi Foundation, Noh Suntag, the strAngeball, 2006)
• 리얼디엠지프로젝트, 노순택 (REAL DMZ PROJECT, Noh Suntag)
• 국립현대미술관, 노순택 | 무능한 풍경의 젊은 뱀 | 2008 - 2014 (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Korea (MMCA), NOH Suntag | Sneaky Snakes in Scenes of Incompetence | 2008 – 2014)
• 오마이뉴스, 사진가로 첫 '올해의 작가상' 노순택 "나는 넝마주이… 현장 더 떠돌고 싶다", 2014.10.08