The Intimacy of Making: Three Historical Sites in Korea

In The Intimacy of Making Swiss photographer Hélène Binet takes us on a visual journey through a world of stone, walls and gardens that define and celebrate the Korean art of making. In pure and calm black-and-white photographs we discover traditional Korean architecture through a Western lens. The purity of the motifs sharpens one’s eye for the often-overlooked beauty and harmony in our own environment and history, as well as for the care of craft and composition. This book is a reminder against our often fleeting and careless perceptions. In her photographs, which were taken over the course of the last three years, Binet looks at three typologies of traditional architecture in Korea: the Confucian school and sacred place Byeongsan Sewon; garden and tea house Soswaewon; and the Jongmyo Shrine. Her camera combines both the nature and the built structures and reveals the soul of the three sites. The photographic essays are accompanied by two texts: Korean architect, Byoung Cho, offers insight into the cultural and architectural history, while art and design critic and teacher, Eugenie Shinkle, focuses on the “making.”