The title of the photographic series Wolmyeong, which means a bright moon in Korean, comes from a local district named Wolmyeong-dong in Gunsan city, South Korea. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of The Japanese colonial era, the town was built as an open fort district and a residential area for Japanese landowners. In 1950, 5 years after Korean independence, the Korean War broke out, and refugees from North Korea flooded into Gunsan harbor. In the next few decades, outsiders such as the refugees and fishermen from other regions were living in bad housing in Wolmyeong Park located on Wolmyeong mountain. As this old town had become rundown and shabby due to a decrease in its population after the 2000s, a local government planned to develop the site as a tourist attraction. Many dwellings labeled faulty houses by the local government were demolished, and Japanese residences were remodeled into cafes and restaurants. I have photographed traces of the past, how the town is changing, and some local people living in the district for many decades. I made this photographic series with the belief that although people leave their hometown on account of its change, their memories are obviously what makes the past and the present conjoined.
