Somehow it’s been almost a year since the last post here and, a year on, we’re back to Photoville. MUG Publishing again has two containers showing the work of several Korean photographers as well as a dozen or so publications. Jinhee Bae’s follow up to her What a Wonderful Day portraits is a lovely set of portraits that revisits her original subjects as their lives have continued onwards. Kim Gyosik’s photographic experiments are intricate and beautiful; I’ve been a fan of his work since I saw Pla-Wars at Trunk Gallery in 2009. Jaegu Kang’s (anti-)portraits of Korean soldiers are a stark reminder of the social machines within which individuals are made part of the whole as well as within which social bonds flourish between individuals.

The publications are simple and clean in their design and presentation of the photographs and explanatory texts–more reference catalogs than fetishistic photo-book objects.

Photoville itself is overwhelming in the amount of work being presented. It’s almost impossible to see anything given the weight and noise of the festival’s volume. Kim’s, Bae’s and Kang’s work stood out from much of the work in the festival.