The Photo Public in the Kwangjang

Abstract

In the twenty-first century, online viewing and sharing of photographs has become ubiquitous, as evident through images of the 2002 and 2008 candlelight vigils that swept South Korea; this is photography manifested as part of political activism. Continuing the discussion on the event of photography and the potentiality of new political subjectivity, chapter 4 focuses on the changes in the photo practices of social movements, namely the ascent of a plural, performative photography during the 2008 candlelight protests, through which the crowd becomes a “photo public.” The chapter examines what photography can do beyond its expected function of reportage in the 2000s, and how it converges with and diverges from the photo practices of 1960 and 1987 in collective memory. Through this exploration, the chapter reconsiders the relationship between polity, performativity, and the political event, as photography becomes the site/sight of the event’s political potentiality.