Chang Sook

Chang Sook reveals profound insights into the human existence and the passage of time through the body of an elderly woman. Capturing her back as it is in black-and-white photographs, Jang shows the weight of life and thoughts about living and death through her wrinkles, calluses, and bent spine. The sagging, wrinkled skin is a testament to a body nearing death, yet it resonates more as a metaphor for return and acceptance—a home to which one may always return, embodying the presence of the mother. These marks carry the burden of our pain, offering solace that covers our shortcomings, while simultaneously testifying to histories of suffering and regrets of the past. Though distant from aesthetic pleasure, these truthful images reveal the will and energy that have endured time and history. Through the elderly woman’s body, the photographs confront viewers with the present life, invoking human dignity and the depth of existence that must not be overlooked, and let viewers reflect on the profoundness of life that our era must embrace.