The Photosema museum, entirely dedicated to photography, opened its doors in Dobong-Gu, in the northeast of Seoul. The 7,000 m² complex spread over six exhibition floors, designed by the architects Mladen Jadric and Yoon Geun-Ju adopts the form of a shutter. The building welcomes more than 20,000 works by Korean photographers, from public collections, recent acquisitions and the Seoul photography festival.
This institution is the new antenna of the Seoul Museum of Art network, which today has seven museums. Public and municipal organization, it is part of a very rich cultural landscape. The city has more many museums, including national or private institutions such as the Museum Hanmi, a private museum dedicated to photography.
Photosema far exceeds most of the museums specializing in photography. In France, the Nicéphore Niépce museum in Chalon-sur-Saône has 3,500 m² while the International Center of Photography in New York is deployed on 2,500 m². The museum is however still young and does not yet keep a collection equivalent to that of the Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam, with five million works.
Two major inaugural exhibitions indicate the orientation that the museum wishes to take. “The Radiance: Beginnings of Korean Art Photography” presents the work of five active Korean photographers from 1920 to the end of the XXᵉ. “Story Story” brings together six contemporary Korean artists.
