FRIEZE SEOUL 2026

In the late 1950s, Han became an early member of Shinsunghoe, Korea’s first photographic group to advocate realism. Rejecting the pictorialist tradition of the time, he developed his own visual language by recording the changing city of Seoul through its streets, markets, cafés, department stores, parks, public transportation, and the people who inhabited them.

In 1966, Han founded Han’s Photo, establishing a successful career in advertising and fashion photography while continuing his personal practice. Through this dual career, he became one of the leading figures in Korean commercial photography.

Since the 2000s, Han’s photographs from the 1950s and 1960s have received renewed attention both in Korea and internationally. Founded by Han’s daughter, Han Sunjung, the Han Youngsoo Foundation has played a central role in preserving and promoting his legacy through publications, exhibitions, scholarly research, and the development of his archive. Today, Han’s work is recognized as an important record of postwar Seoul and the development of modern Korean photography. It is held in the collections of major institutions, including the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA), the International Center of Photography (ICP), and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).