Atta Kim

He cites inspiration from the concept of interconnectedness in Zen Buddhism, the focus on temporal existence in the writings of German philosopher Martin Heidegger (1889–1976), and the teachings of the Russian-Armenian mystic G. I. Gurdjieff (1872–1949) on transcendence.

Kim is careful to explain that he is not a practicing Buddhist, despite the prevalence of Buddhist iconography and concepts in his work.

Kim's work is in the permanent collections of the following institutions:

Atta Kim (born 1956) is a South Korean photographer who has been active since the mid-1980s.

He has exhibited his work internationally and was the first photographer chosen to represent South Korea in the São Paulo Biennial.

His early works were black and white portraits of subjects including psychiatric patients, individuals designated as "cultural assets" by the Korean government, and his own family.

His later and most notable series of works have been exhibited as full color, large scale prints: The Museum Project, which depicts people "preserved" within Plexiglas cases placed in various settings, and ON-AIR, which uses long exposures and image compositing to make individual people and objects dissolve.

Kim's work has been heavily influenced by Zen Buddhist concepts of interconnectedness and transience, and he commonly uses Buddhist iconography.

Kim was born on Geoje Island, one of the southernmost islands in South Korea, and completed elementary school there before continuing his education in Busan.

He studied mechanical engineering at Changwon University and earned a Bachelor of Science degree.

His application had been submitted on his behalf by a friend, who had also chosen his major for him because it offered a good prospect for a job after graduation.

Kim's decision to become an artist caused conflict with his father, a schoolteacher who wanted Kim to become a college professor.

Kim began experimenting with photography in junior high school, though he never studied it academically.

His work during college was mostly abstract; dissatisfied with the results, he decided to explore the outside world and to photograph people from various backgrounds and stages of life.

Kim's Psychopath series (1985–86) consisted of black and white portraits taken of patients in a Korean psychiatric hospital, that were shot during long, interactive sessions.

His interest in the patients was inspired by his reading of Sigmund Freud, and he intended to use his photography to reveal their consciousness; however, Kim ultimately concluded that the images "revealed nothing more...than the insanity of the patients."

Kim claims to have burned all 1,200 copies of the published collection, after the wife of a patron had to be hospitalized for a relapse of depression after seeing the book.

Kim began his next series, Father (1986–90), after he reunited with his father following the success of Psychopaths.

He didn't consider the series, which depicted "the continuity of time" from generation to generation within his family, to be a significant artistic achievement, but thought it helped him "return...to [his] roots" and become "mentally independent."

His first exhibited series was "Psychopath" in 1987, which were portraits of mentally ill patients.

Human Cultural Assets (1989–90) is a series of black and white portraits of people designated "national cultural assets" by the Korean government.

He met 150 individuals that had been so designated, which included elderly dancers, musicians, and monks, and spent between one and seven days with each trying to learn their personal philosophies.

Kim's In-der-Welt-sein (1990–91) consists of black and white images of natural objects near a Buddhist temple, which are revealed only by a dim light.

Kim made the images with exposure times of one to two hours, taken between 3:00 am and 5:00 am, which are the hours known as the time of the Buddha's enlightenment.

The name of the series (German for "Being in the world") is a concept of the German philosopher Martin Heidegger intended to eliminate the distinction between subject and object.

Kim recounts that when his father would walk him home from school as a child, he would point out small details such as flowers, insects, or stones.

These observances taught him that all things were of equal significance to his own existence.

Deconstruction (1991–95) consisted of black and white photographs of groups of nude men and women positioned lifelessly in desolate landscapes.

These were described as "cinematic performance-based pictures."

The subjects’ faces are rarely visible, instead obscured by hair or by turning away from the camera so that they do not read as individuals.

In a few images, however, the nudes are standing.

Kim did not yet work with assistants, and so personally scouted the locations, recruited the models, and moved the equipment.

Kim noted that the series "created quite a shock" because the critics were unable to accept it.

His later participation in a group show gained him enough recognition that he was named Korea's representative to the twenty-fifth São Paulo Biennial in 2002, becoming the first photographer to represent Korea in that venue.

Kim entered The Museum Project, which became his first work to be widely exhibited outside of Korea.

The series was not exhibited until 2002.

ON-AIR, his first solo exhibition in the United States, was shown in 2006 at the International Center of Photography in New York City to positive critical reviews.

In contrast to his attempt at capturing permanence in The Museum Project, Kim now focused on transience in ON-AIR, with large-scale images created through very long or multiple exposures.

As of 2009, Kim lives and works in New York and Seoul.

Kim has described his photographs as merely "byproducts" of his attempt at a personal philosophy.