In Flowers StudiesIn 50 paintings where the body becomes a flower, Cho Gi-Seok creates a haunting dialogue between petals and skin. A look back at a series that celebrates vulnerability and resilience with the grace of a visual haiku.
Cho Gi-Seok, 31, grew up in Seoul in a metalworking district that he transformed into makeshift studios for many years. A self-taught photographer, he established himself in just a few seasons as the new voice of Korean photography, courted by Billie Eilish as well as... Vogue Italy. In September 2024, the independent publisher Post Poetics published Flower StudiesThe artist's first book features 50 images created between 2019 and 2023, accompanied by a special print and a large-format poster. The launch took place at Pop Seoul, providing Cho with an opportunity to sign his book and discuss the importance of the materiality of paper in a screen-saturated age.
At the heart of the series lies a simple yet hypnotic structure: diptychs that juxtapose the portrait of a flower with that of a human model. Cho always begins by photographing the flower, sometimes repainted, sprinkled with water droplets, or stripped down to its stamens. He then seeks a face, a complexion, a gesture that echoes the lines and colors of the plant. The eye traces the curve of a petal, then that of a cheekbone, moving from a scarlet pistil to a carmine lip. In this interplay of correspondences, "things reveal their true nature when juxtaposed," he explains.
This alchemy between flesh and chlorophyll is not a mere passing fad. For Cho Gi-Seok, the flower symbolizes both the fragility of existence and the strength of rebirth. In a recent interview, he confided that beauty is not a veneer but a path to self-discovery. His compositions, of almost scientific precision, transcend traditional vanity to tell the story of his generation's quest for identity. The artist also draws on Korean folklore, where the peony is a harbinger of prosperity and the chrysanthemum a messenger of eternity, while injecting pop reminiscences inherited from K-culture.
The series follows on from "Coexistence," an exhibition presented at Fotografiska New York and then Tallinn, where Cho already questioned the place of humans in an environment in crisis. With Flower StudiesHe refines his concept: the flower becomes an organic double, an avatar capable of bearing our dreams as well as our wounds. The result, both gentle and tense, recalls the dreamlike sensibility of a Tim Walker, but with a chromatic rigor reminiscent of contemporary Korean art.
As you turn the pages, you leap from a violet iris to a pensive gaze, from a broken stem to a tattooed arm, never losing sight of the central theme: revealing the extraordinary within the ordinary. Post Poetics offers these images a simple yet elegant setting, underscoring Cho's desire to maintain control over the entire publishing process, from shooting to printing. For the photographer, seeing his photos come to life in readers' hands is like a second bloom. This gesture confirms that, in the age of digital media, the physical emotion of a book remains unparalleled, just as the power of a flower to express what words often leave unsaid.
