Memories of the Gaze, in production since 2009, is the artist’s most representative series. By accumulating photo images, it represents forms of existence that are subject to change due to time or visual alterations. Rhee experiments with the basic concept of photography in the series, restoring in a single photograph numerous moments lost to time by taking pictures of a single object in the same location over a prolonged period of time and layering them into the final image. He identifies the act of taking a picture as that of making a kind of “image memory.” The simultaneous images of each passing moment are transformed into memories of the past; each subject seen through the viewfinder, which initially shares the photographer’s time zone, becomes a record of the past at the very moment at which the shutter is closed. The collection of repeated documentations of a fleeting moment constructs a comprehensive cognitive awareness of the subject. In Memories of the Gaze, Rhee captures elaborate and ongoing changes in his subjects' surroundings, such as landscapes, city construction sites, flowers and rice mills. This process represents a new means of recognizing existence by revitalizing the past.

Rhee’s Memories of the Gaze series reflects the artist's long-term interest in capturing a medium or a moment capable of triggering once-lost memories. The idea of involuntary memory—of reminiscence triggered by a certain catalyst—comes from Marcel Proust’s novel In Search of Lost Time, whose narrator uses a “madeleine cake” as a conduit for the past, to bring back memories formerly believed to be lost. A recent subject of the Memories of the Gaze series is Rice Mill, as Rhee returns to redevelopment sites in Seoul pictured in his earlier works. Old-fashioned rice mills symbolize the disappearance of rural culture in modern Korea, which, like so many Korean traditions, is being eroded by rapid development and excessive urbanization. Another recent subject of the series, Forest, is more intimately related to the artist’s childhood memories. Layered images created from various scenes of a forest at different times and in different lights reflect Rhee’s vague memories and impressions of the nature he saw in his hometown when he was young. As he layers the numerous images of his subjects, which are photographed over time, an absolute time zone is created in which the present is brought together with its past and future traces. Rhee invites his viewers to enter a dream-like space that revives dormant memories in the present moment.

Born in Yeosu, Korea in 1969, Jae Yong Rhee majored in Visual Communication Design at Hongik University, where he also completed his MA in Product Design. After working as a commercial photographer for several years, he returned to the fine-art scene in 2008. His first solo show was held at Olive Gallery, Seoul (1998), followed by a second at De Chocolate Gallery, Seoul (2010) and a third at Gallery EM, Seoul (2012). His works have featured in group shows at a number of museums and galleries, including Hongik University Museum, Seoul (1997), Sai Gallery, Seoul (1999), Hallim Museum, Daejeon (2000), Gallery EM, Seoul (2010), Insa Art Center, Seoul (2011), Culture Station Seoul 284, Seoul (2012). As a finalist in the 2012-13 Sovereign Asian Art Prize, Rhee’s work was also shown at Espace Louis Vuitton, Singapore (2013). Rhee has participated in art festivals such as the 1999 Arles Photo Festival in France. His works feature in the collections of SK Networks, the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Art Bank, Korea, and the Seoul Museum of Art, Korea.