29.~5.16. – Lotus 4 Seasons Photographs

29.~5.16. ‘Lotus 4 Seasons Photographs’ Exhibition at Jogyesa Temple’s Namu Gallery

Photographer Lee Yong-ha (73), who has been taking pictures of nature, including trees, mountains, and birds, for over 40 years, is holding his first solo exhibition of photos featuring lotus flowers to commemorate Buddha’s birthday in the year 2568 of the Buddhist calendar.

Under the theme of ‘Hyanggyeol Cheongjeong (香潔淸淨)’, this exhibition, which will be held at Namu Gallery (inside Jogyesa Temple) from Friday, April 29 to Monday, May 16, has been designed so that the four realms of the lotus can be viewed in one place like a panorama, allowing people to naturally feel the essence of the Buddha’s teachings – the three causes of impermanence, suffering, and non-self – and the truth of cause and effect with their body and mind. Hyanggyeol Cheongjeong refers to the four virtues of the lotus: ‘beautiful fragrance, nobleness, clarity, and cleanness’.

The works on display are photos taken by photographer Lee Yong-ha in Yangsuri every morning at dawn for the past two years. You can enjoy mystical scenes of mountains, rivers, mist, waves, and lotus flowers reflected in the dawn, revealed in colors such as yellow, red, purple, and blue.

Photographer Lee Yong-ha said, “While watching the lotus flowers every morning without missing a single day, I came to the keen realization that ‘the life of the lotus flower is exactly the same as life. ’” He continued, “I decided to hold this exhibition to capture the mysterious world that the lotus flowers and nature demonstrate, and to share with more people the impermanence, selflessness, return, reincarnation, and joy that I have captured.” “I especially remember taking pictures of the lotus fields in late autumn and early winter,” said photographer Lee Yong-ha. “People’s busy footsteps had stopped, but I realized with a heavy heart that there was true truth in that sight.”

The Diamond Sutra was completed by Master Jeong Jae-chang over the course of approximately six months in the year 2553 of the Buddhist era ( 2009 AD ), when he was  86 years old.

In his recommendation, author Lee Hak-jong said, “Artist Lee Yong-ha has been capturing the mystical ensemble created by the light, water, fog, and shadows blending with lotuses in Yangsuri, a place with lotus fields, mountains, rivers, and mists rising from the water like a dream, holding his camera like a Zen practitioner every morning for the past two years.” He added, “The photographer has succeeded in capturing the ultimate harmony created by nature, which is often vague, with his inner strength to compress space when the naked eye is insufficient and split time when it is excessive.”