Stars of the Silver Screen

“What we loved was not the film, but the people in it.”

The 2025 Busan International Photo Festival special exhibition Stars of the Silver Screen presents portraits of actors captured by still photographers and scenes from the golden era of South Korea’s film industry during the 1960s and 70s. This exhibition goes beyond introducing photos of actors and sheds light on the social circumstances of that time that includes sentiments of Koreans during the industrialization, family-centered culture, and Confucian values. The photographs do not simply show scenes performed by actors but collective memories of the people who lived in that era that were reflected on the silver screen, which showed a condensed time and space of Korea. They reveal an emotional portrait of Korean society manifested through cinema—our stars. Still photos from film scenes also symbolize Korean culture and possess the artistic value as archival materials that deeply resonate even today. The portraits, scenes of daily life, and cultural items such as costumes and props offer a link to trace and revisit the times we have lived, becoming more vividly imprinted through photography.

Stars of the Silver Screen is a warm reflection on everything that we have collectively experienced, and it offers a chance to revisit our cultural identity in an era of rapid change. We sincerely thank photographer Woo Myung Ryul, Noonbit Publishing, CEO Lee Gyu Sang, Yang Hae Nam, and the Korean Federation of Film Technical Associations Still Photographer Committee for generously providing precious photographic materials.