我们时代的面孔
——林昤均

我的肖像摄影是我对我的拍摄对象的个人解释。当然，一张肖像照片
也多方面地揭示了对象自身的性格、哲学以及摄影者的背景与教养

韩国摄影家林昤均(Lim Youngkyum，1954－)，其作品《我们时代的面孔》用标准像的形式给当代韩国年轻人造像。

他以最简朴的却又是最集中的方式给韩民族绘制了一个集体肖像。他的这组肖像排除了肖像摄影中最容易出现的美化人物的倾向。对林昤均来说，他要以肖像摄影这种视觉方式来探索韩国人的文化认同与身份认同。为实现这个目标，任何惯用的美化人物的手法都不能对他有所帮助。他意识到，直取民族精神的本质，这个目标只能以一种最简单的却又是最本质的方式来达成。结果，他是以一种悖论的方式来完成给出韩国人原型的任务，即通过不同来求取一种本质的同。

这些韩国人的形象各有不同，但如果我们仔细观看，便会获得一种一致的“观”感：他们的眼神、他们的神情、他们的气质都在时刻提醒我们，他们来自同一个民族，他们是有着相同血脉的一个族群。他们以一种直接的眼神坚定地要求我们的关注，这种要求关注的迫切性显然与一个经济发展势头正向上的民族心理相吻合。

当然，林昤均的这些照片还牵涉到摄影表现的本质问题。正如林昤均自己所说的，格式化的肖像照片既是摄影的基本形式，同时又直接关系到摄影的本质。他恰到好处地寻找到了一种切合本质的基本形式来表现民族的原型，一切的一切，都在这个简单而又基本的形式中了。他的摄影也证明了艺术表现中的某些法则，比如最简单的是最有力的等这样的法则仍然是有效的。

林昤均是当代韩国在国际上非常活跃的摄影家，对韩国摄影的发展也颇具影响。他于1974年进入中央大学摄影系学习并获得学士学位。1982到1984年，他在纽约国际摄影中心研习摄影。1985到1987年在纽约大学学习艺术并获硕士学位。1985年获得史密森学会策展人玛丽·福斯特的“十位顶尖摄影家”的提名。1987年，被纽约州艺术委员会授予“艺术家空间”奖。2000年获得富布莱特奖金。他现为韩国中央大学摄影系教授，韩国纪实摄影协会名誉主席。

Lim strives for an objective portrayal devoid of moralizing or sentimentality. In this Sander and Lim both provide a contrast to such documentary projects as the WPA works of Walker Evans or Robert Frank's" The Americans" in which figures are portrayed in ways that tell a story.

Interestingly, earlier in his career, Lim produced a series of portrait photographs which did partake of this narrative impulse. As a young photographer newly arrived in New York from his native Korea, he photographed members of the New York art community in their studios, homes or urban landscapes. In these portraits he chose environmental settings that could be
read as clues to the personality of the subjects.

In his recent work, he has eliminated these clues in order to delve more directly into the nature of photography. Enlarged many times, these stark black and white images become almost abstract. Within the rich interplay of light and shadow, we become aware of pores, stray hairs, slight irregularities of skin or clothing. In some ways, these photographs bring to mind the works of Chuck Close, who has explored similar territory from the vantage point of painting.

In radically simplifying his format, Lim intends to make an important political point. He wants us to consider a new way of thinking about the differences of gender, age, and ethnicity which so often seem to divide us.

His photographs remind us that in the midst of so much variation, we remain essentially similar. He reconciles the universal and the particular, the global and local and the homogeneous and the diverse. A future series, which will treat young people from America in the same way, will reinforce this point.

In the meantime, these young Koreans demand our attention. Their portraits are at once devoid of romanticism and full of humanity. They remind us that what we share as human beings is much greater than what we do not.

Eleanor Heartney, critic.
Art in America
New York