Myung yi shick's 4x5 inch-sized view camera focuses both downtown buildings with aluminium frame and curtain wall structure made of glass, and industrial ones built with prefabricated concrete. The Structures are built with construction method of module for efficiency and economy, which are also their ultimate purpose after completion. They are the core of mega-cities or newly constructed cities which expand without any limit. They all have appearance of regulation and repetition. On the highest vantage point, Myung clearly represents morphology of contemporary architectures with austere frames. 

The frame of his photographs corresponds to the features of functional buildings of our times. He emphasizes two dimensional flatness by aligning horizontal and vertical lines completely with mechanical movement of the view camera and engaging the square frame of photographs with grid of the buildings. He repeats the frame regularly minimizing the gap between the photographic representation and the building itself. 

What are transcribed on his strict photographs of contemporary functional structures? You can discover some signifiants of technocratic society which adjusts time and space mechanically, suppresses individual deviation and maximizes economical values. They are symptoms of consumption community which makes the members repeat labor and leisure like a clock for getting economical profits. They are symbols of dizzy contemporary life encouraging production and consumption with permission of a minimal controllable and expectable aberration of personal desire. Repeating structure of the huge buildings with systematic frame and matrix of crossing straight lines are the cool emblems of global capitalist society pursuing maximum profit and efficiency. Technocratic and consumption society not only controls manual and intellectual labor of our contemporaries but also rearrange our common lives. The buildings in which we work manage our whole lives functionally as well as practically with force. On the one hand they are the product of industrial society, on the other they construct the society. Myung says, "All subjects of my photographs are the buildings located in a mega-city. You can find similarity and necessity of contemporary city life in the monolithic structure and repetition of horizontal and vertical cubes."      

Grid and repetition of modern architectures can be read as equalitarianism, but they just pretend to permit the equality of individuals. Actually repetition needs difference, discrimination  and replacement. Repeated component can be replaced with another one  which has different location of central, peripheral, high or low class and role. Every single individual locked in grid of building is equal only in the meaning of efficiency of economy. Repeated structure of modern architectures conceals unequality, standardization and domination of economic logics. 

In the meanwhile, in architectural morphology transcribed on Myung's sheet film, you can catch sight of coincidence breaking the rules and unconventionality deviated from repetition. He captures the moment when the repetitional uniformity is distracted by shadows, reflection of light or floating clouds. He says, "The buildings of city covers all surroundings which have coexisted; those are floating clouds, overgrown weeds beside of building, dancing leaves with wind and landscapes reflected on the surface of building. I try to represent the objects which exist there but are not perceived at the first glance....I intend to take a picture of geometrical structure of city, in which the unseen beauty's finally revealed."  

He has enjoyed aesthetical discovery of coincidence and deviation behind regular repetition, which makes him immerse himself in the structure of city since 2007. His neutral photographs don't stop making the audience realize the repressive effects of technocratic society even when they provide them an opportunity of being amused with instant beauty of insignificance. 

All sub-components of the buildings he presents belong to their superordinate. A breakaway like random ornaments can be expected. A cleaning man clinging  or advertisements on the glasses of grid, some blinds of different height, diverse reflection of lights and other buildings, a variety of windows' colors, irregularly peeled-off paint from old buildings and construction equipments disorderedly laid around the buildings look a kind of aberration from an underlying mathematical rule at the first glance, but they are not resistance nor freedom any more. They don't mean diversity nor decentralization. They are just an instant coincidence and spots which can be removed. They are doomed to belong to conformity. We, nevertheless, still stop and look into his works to enjoy a delusion of instant freedom or deviation from mechanical repeating system and standardized rules. 
- Bong-Lim Choi (photograph critic, artist) 

*image (left) 
Banpo 201209, 180x148cm
courtesy of the artist