[Let’s Read Books] Lessons Learned While Walking the Mountains.. Park Nohae's Photo Essay 'Mountain Light'

[Financial News]  "The mountain always holds the path. When a ray of light briefly descends through the clouds, the mountain quietly reveals the path and silently watches over my back. For those who walk to find their own path, there will surely come a time when their own light arrives." ('The Mountain Holds the Path')

Poet Park Nohae, who also works as a photographer, has published a photo essay 'Mountain Light' (Neulin Georeum). It is the seventh book in the 'Park Nohae Photo Essay' series, discussing humanity and life through the people and landscapes of highlands.
For the past 20 years, Park, who has lived as a 'wanderer of the Earth era', has captured moments encountered while searching for a 'different path' in photos and words. It is a record of scenes he encountered while walking in highlands, from the mountain ridges of Ethiopia to the deep valleys of the Andes Mountains and the perennial snow mountains of the Pakistani plateau.
The essay includes 28 black-and-white photos and 9 color photos, with the stories and meanings behind each photo explained in 37 writings. For international readers, English translations by Professor Emeritus An Seonjae of Sogang University are included.
Park states that in the rapidly advancing modern society, humans are also rapidly changing. He diagnoses that in a society where ups and downs have disappeared, humans are chased by competition and suffer from psychological epidemics of anxiety and lethargy.
To overcome this, Park confesses that he sought the mountains. The book also includes the appearances of mountain village people he met during his walking journey. It shares the lives of people living by farming at the mountain's edge and children who walk at least an hour to school through words and photos.
All the photos included in the book can also be seen in an exhibition. The exhibition will be held at 'La Cafe Gallery' in Seochon, Jongno-gu, Seoul, until March 29 next year.


rsunjun@fnnews.com Yuseonjun Reporter