Honbul, Light of the Abyss

There is a saying: “A nation that forgets its past has no future.” It is a warning that remembering and preserving history is the very key to a nation’s existence and future. Honoring and reawakening the memories and spirit that form the foundation of cultural identity for both individuals and society also serves as a vital principle that links past and present while guiding us toward the future. Yet beneath the dazzling progress Korea has achieved since the Korean War, we also find troubling realities: the alienation and isolation of individuals, the worship of material wealth, the erosion of humanity, and the destruction of nature. Our reflection upon these issues has, over time, grown faint.

The 2025 Busan International Photo Festival seeks, through the theme Honbul, to revisit the spirit and culture that contemporary society has neglected, to recover the essence of human existence and the value of community, and to open conversations around the future values our society must embrace, such as reconciliation with history, collective resilience, and coexistence with nature.

Honbul, Light of the Abyss confronts the profound and shadowed depths of both the individual and the collective, while discovering within them a hidden light— hope and vitality—through the sensibilities of Korean culture and tradition. The exhibition highlights the possibilities of cultural reflection and renewal by recalling pain, evoking enduring cultural spirit, and inviting works that explore the vitality and energy of the Korean people as well as the pursuit of spiritual value and inner essence. By bringing together newly reinterpreted works under the shared theme of Honbul, the exhibition endeavors to embody its meaning in multiple dimensions and to shape an unwavering collective memory.

The works in Honbul complement and overlap with one another, weaving a narrative of hope and awakening drawn from the depths, while also encouraging contemplation beyond the image of Honbul, a concept impossible to define in a single phrase. Through the inherent abstraction of photography, the exhibition conveys memory that bridges the present and the future. In doing so, it fulfills what Walter Benjamin called the true task of history—restoring “the memory of the oppressed”—while also marking a turning point in the evolution of Korean photography, presenting a renewed identity for photographic art in Korea.

Curator Jeongeun Lee