Seoulful visions

By C.M. | VERSAILLES

IN THE last four years Ahae, a Korean billionaire, has taken more than 2.6m photographs. More remarkable still, he took them all in exactly the same spot: the view from the 4x5 foot window of his studio, in a disused aircraft hangar next to a busy road in a semi-residential area near Seoul. Each image is of two ponds in a meadow, surrounded by a wood. Some are now on view at the Palace of Versailles.

Called "The Extraordinary within the Ordinary", this show highlights the many animals, insects, birds and trees that dwell in an ordinary Korean field. At a time when the country is enjoying a building boom, with a 42% rise in residential-building permits granted in 2011, Ahae is chronicling a landscape that is increasingly vulnerable to development.

At first glance, the view from Ahae's window appears unimpressive. Yet these images reward patience. Ahae’s forensic attention to detail reveals the stoicism, dignity and minor dramas of the animals going about their daily business, and raises these pictures to the realm of poetry.

One photo captures a jay nodding in deference to a sparrow hawk that has landed on its branch. Great tits hang upside down like acrobats, and waves ripple the surface of ponds, the colour of which ranges from liquid gold to gun shot depending on the season and time of day.

Aged 72, Ahae (whose real name is unknown) showed a talent for drawing and painting from a young age. He became an entrepreneur in his 30s, developing artistic products; he then invented sheets of paper soap and moved into designing ships.

Over the last two years he has shown his photographs in important venues around the world, including Grand Central Station in New York, the Louvre, Kew Gardens and Clarence House in London.

“This is a place that has clearly been protected and preserved by the determination and stubbornness of one person,” says Ahae’s son, Keith Yoo. By conserving the area's natural habitat, without pesticides or artificial cultivation, Ahae has ensured that it continues "to draw in an abundance of living creatures. This is a special place.”

"The Extraordinary within the Ordinary" is on view in the Orangerie of the Palace of Versailles until September 9th 2013