Every day, for four years, from the window of his studio, through his lens Ahae has captured the cycle of life. A single vantage point and over two-and-a-half million shots that bear testimony to the extraordinary beauty of nature immortalized throughout the seasons. Two hundred photographs by this unique artist are on show until September 9 at the Orangerie of the Versailles Palace.
Simple Photos From South Korea Light Up the Grand Galleries of Versailles
For the past four years, morning till night, the South Korean photographer Ahae, 72, has taken up to 3,000 digital photographs each day of nature, undisturbed — the setting sun, ripples of water, foraging deer, woods dusted by a snow flurry — from a single window on the first floor of his home near Seoul.
AHAE: “Fenêtre sur l’extraordinaire” at the Versailles Palace
Standing at the window of his studio, South Korean artist Ahae daydreams. Over a three-year period, this wealthy businessman and inventor has captured the pageant of nature as it reveals itself before his eyes: the flight of a grey heron, the setting sun, rain on the pond or a cloud floating by. In short, the seasons as they unfold in the light of the primordial world. His son, Keith Yoo, driven by “tender obstinacy”—as Catherine Pégard notes—provides continuity to his father’s project by showing the works in leading museums throughout the world. After having shown at the Louvre (“I thought nothing could match this exhibition”) the Orangerie at the Versailles Palace has opened its doors to this enlightened benefactor.