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2024–2025

Relationships

After losing the physical means that once allowed me to recall the past, I experienced a sudden sense of loss. As my memories gradually faded and everything seemed to disappear, I decided to search for traces of the memories I still carried within images found in the external world. I thought of the people from my past, their actions, and the bonds between them, searching for clues within the “relationships” that had once connected us. Following the unchanging cycle of twelve months in a year, I sought out the memories that returned most vividly with each season and recreated, in the present, moments that most closely resembled them. This work is an attempt to summon the remembered past through images made in the present, and a process of preserving only the scenes that come closest to the world I carry within me. At the end of this journey, I returned to the place where I was born, only to find that it was no longer the hometown I remembered. Realizing that most traces of my past had disappeared, I concluded the work by photographing my present-day hometown while mourning the one that now exists only in my memory and can never be reached again. If these images appear to resemble one another, it is because their original forms exist within me. They are what the past looks like as I remember it.

Relationships
SeptemberThis scene marks the beginning of the project. For the first time, I gathered the many relationships I have known and experienced into a single frame. Families, friends, and couples spending time in their own ways in the park overlapped like fragments of memory laid out together before me.
Relationships
OctoberIt was a day when autumn revealed itself in the clearest way. The vivid colors of the season brought back memories that had long remained hazy. Watching the scene from a distance, I felt as if I were observing a play unfolding on stage. Within the gestures and connections of the people, fragments of my own memories surfaced, and I chose to preserve that overlap in this photograph.
Relationships
NovemberAfter the October shoot, an old and vivid memory resurfaced. The red autumn leaves, the white ice rink, and the image of an old city center were so beautiful that I could no longer tell whether they were real or simply embellished by time. I doubted whether such a scene could even be found in reality, but after a long search I finally discovered this place. After four hours of waiting, I was able to capture it in a photograph. To me, this image is perhaps the one in this project that most closely resembles my inner self.
Relationships
DecemberWinter play has always drawn people outdoors. Spaces filled with snow and ice reminded me of childhood memories, yet they were simultaneously being reshaped by the ways people live and celebrate today. The path I took to reach this place was not easy, but the scenery before me—and the many stories unfolding within it—made the entire process deeply worthwhile.
Relationships
JanuaryWhen I was a child, the first snowfall always meant rushing outside with friends to have snowball fights and build snowmen. By the end of the day, our hands and feet would be red and stinging from the cold, yet full of joy. In the park I visited on this day, people were also enjoying the snow, but in ways quite different from what I remembered. For me, snow once meant snowmen; now, I saw people commemorating the winter snowfall each in their own way.
Relationships
FebruaryThis scene was one I encountered by chance, without any prior plan. Although the space was unfamiliar, there was something that resonated with my own memories. In this unexpected reality, I witnessed many people filling the scene in their own ways, and through them, I discovered a point where memory and the present intersect.
Relationships
MarchThis was a place I had once attempted to capture but failed, so I returned again. With the change of season, the same space appeared entirely different. On that spring day, the park was filled with people and relationships intertwined, and within it, I could sense how memories from my past and present overlapped with one another.
Relationships
AprilAmid the blossoms of spring, memories of being with my family naturally resurfaced. In the past, it was ordinary for several generations to gather and share time together, but such scenes have become rare today. What I encountered here brought back those memories once more. Flowers, like quiet mediators, reminded me of the enduring bonds that connect generations.
Relationships
MayWhen spring flowers bloom, memories from my childhood naturally return. The scene before me was filled with families and friends enjoying picnics among the blossoms, taking photos of one another, and sharing their time together. Relationships and memories are born from such simple acts of being together, and in those moments, new connections take root.
Relationships
JuneThe flowerbed where I grew up was once filled with nameless blooms that grew as tall as my waist. When they came into full bloom, it was the signal that spring had arrived in our neighborhood. The roses I saw this time were enough to remind me of spring, but the true spring I discovered lay in the stories of the people beside them. Flowers ultimately call forth love, and that love continues to live on.
Relationships
JulyAs a child, I would spend entire days at the beach with friends before heading back to the lodging to wash off the sand and salt. Looking at this scene now, I realize how much time has passed since those days. The exact places I once sought no longer exist, yet I find comfort in the fact that the way we spend our summers has not changed as much as I feared. The spaces may be gone forever, but the stories that unfold within them remain strikingly familiar.
Relationships
AugustThe sea has always been a place that holds good memories for me. I still cherish the scent of the ocean, the taste of the snacks, and the moments shared with others. On this day, the sea reminded me that all the things I have loved remain unchanged.
Relationships
HometownAfter a journey in search of memory, I returned to Seoul, the city where I was born. There, I realized that little remained of the hometown I once knew, and that most traces of my past had disappeared. Mourning the hometown I can no longer return to, I concluded this project by photographing my present hometown as it exists today.
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