Kang Yang-mi: Tangent

This photo book introduces the photographic work of Yang Mi Kang. The photographer documents cities as a member of the photography collective ZINGONG and also takes part in publishing projects. The subject of this work is “connecting lines.” Old residential neighborhoods, winding alleys, and houses of unknown age hold traces of lives patiently accumulated over as many years as the buildings have endured. The aesthetic discovery the artist captures among those traces is the line. Following the many connecting lines that begin and continue while leaning against something, the artist reads the old stories of life held by each place. In her artist’s note for “Connecting Lines,” she says that she suddenly encountered a “maze” among the branching paths of a complicated alley. Pipes crossing walls, old cracks in buildings split open precariously, gas lines jutting out without any apparent reason, and severed electrical wires whose original destinations were impossible to guess were tangled together. Suddenly, she lost her way, stopped in dismay, and stood still. But she did not simply sit down. As she had done at countless crossroads in life, she paused and caught her breath. At that moment, when the “obligation” to keep going weighed on her heart as an indescribable burden, she thought of Ariadne’s thread. Like someone grasping a ball of thread to follow, she held on to the many lines running across the walls. Just then, the sun, hidden behind a tall building, moved into view and shone into the alley. The pipes across the walls, gaps in old buildings, protruding gas lines, and casually tied, severed power lines began to emerge vividly, as if showing her a shortcut out of the maze.

Korean title: 접선(TANGENT)

Korean author: 강양미

Korean publisher: 헥사곤

ISBN-13: 9791192756394