'For the past 15 years, I have passed through innumerable hotel rooms, capturing the peculiar feelings of these unfamiliar spaces and times through photographs. That said, these weren't photos I took with the intention of showing anyone. Without pretense or skillful intention, I simply clicked the shutter to capture the scenery out of my window, not much different from how I might see it when I wake up in the morning feeling dazed and jetlagged. - MJ Kim
From 9 January to 8 February 2024, ONE AND J. Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of photographer MJ Kim(b. 1972, Korea) titled Rooms Without A View. After studying Media Studies in London College of Communications and receiving a MA in fashion photography from the London College of Fashion, MJ Kim began working as a photographer for such institutions as The Telegraph and Getty Images in UK. In 2007, MJ Kim began working with international stars such as Michael Jackson, Spice Girls, Johnny Depp, and BTS, capturing their lives in the public eye. Currently, he is Paul McCartney's personal photographer. On his journeys following Paul McCartney on tour, MJ Kim has used photographs to document not only the concerts themselves but also the scenery he sees out of his many hotel room windows. While constantly moving between concert venues and hotels in cities across the globe, the one thing he is consistently presented with is the view out of his hotel room window. Despite staying in hotels that would be the envy of many, he is regularly overcome by a feeling of loneliness when entering each new room, and he confronts these emotions through the scenery out the window. This exhibition features over twenty photographs selected from a photo series of the same title that he began creating in 2009.
The photographs from the series of 'Rooms Without A View' __have an entirely different focus from that of landscape or travel photography. That is, these are not photographs intended to document eye-catching landscapes or scenery. Instead, MJ Kim uses his camera to capture the emotions he feels at that very moment. He has also largely avoided any digital touchup or editing, instead capturing the scenes in front of him as they are. This attitude is also reflected in the names of the works themselves. For example, Sao Paulo, Brazil #423 __(8 Dec 2023) lists the date the photo was taken, the name of the city, and the hotel room number, emphasising the time and place of the photograph and inviting the viewer back to that space/time to share in the emotion of that moment.
MJ Kim uses the medium of photography to communicate with the world. He is most well known for taking photographs of famous people. However, during the period of decreased opportunities for communication created by the COVID-19 pandemic, he engaged in various photography projects that involved sharing space with everyday people, allowing him to keep his lines of communication open in his own way. For both his exhibition Baemin Euljiro Photo Exhibition (Sejong Culture & Art Center, 2020), which featured his photographs of small machine shop owners in the Euljiro neighbourhood of Seoul, and a project that involved photographing 1,000 employees of Korea's largest food delivery company, Kim conducted interviews with his subjects before photographing them, making the ordinary life of each individual feel like that of a protagonist in a film. By rooting his work in humanistic exchanges with his subjects, Kim captures the fleeting moments of their lives through photographs. In his career as a photographer, Kim has observed the inner lives of his subjects and listened to their stories; however, with this solo exhibition, he shares his own story with the audience in an attempt at communication and exchange.
Press release courtesy ONE AND J. Gallery.
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