Ambassadors’ wives are showcasing their snapshots of Korea at a special exhibition in Seoul.
The spouses of envoys posted here are sharing 52 pictures taken by them and their predecessors at the Raemian Gallery until April 6.
Maria Ligaya Fujita, who is married to the Brazilian ambassador, was inspired to start the project after a Brazilian photography exhibition in Seoul last September.
She decided to organize another exhibition to show Koreans the images that diplomats show their families and friends back home.
Maria Ligaya Fujita, wife of the Brazilian ambassador, stands between pictures at the exhibition she organized with other ambassador’s spouses in Seoul. (Kirsty Taylor/The Korea Herald)
“It would be a wonderful way of thanking our Korean friends for their generosity in providing us with countless opportunities to explore Korea,” she said.
She proposed the idea at the Association of the Spouses of Ambassadors’ November meeting. The wives of the Irish, Italian and Serbian ambassadors all joined her to organize the show to which a total of 42 spouses contributed.
Fujita said the “Korea through the Eyes of the Spouses of Foreign Ambassadors exhibition” was “an amazing convergence of astonishing images.”
“As we are all amateur photographers, the choice of object, theme and subject of the pictures is more important than the photographic technique. The subjects and themes echo the varied backgrounds and cultures of the countries represented. And most important, the aim of the exhibition is to show how we feel about Korea and its people.”
As well as the images snapped by spouses who are currently in Korea, the exhibition also displays old photos of the country taken by spouses of the Brazilian, Hungarian, Italian and Japanese ambassadors posted in Korea between 1984 and 2006.
Maria Giovanna Fadiga Mercuri, spouse of the Italian ambassador, who is also a professional framer, made special frames for the old photos.
She said: “It is an old belief that an image is able to capture part of the soul of the subject portrayed in it. If this is true, we all have captured in our shots the energy of this country. What seems a simple reproduction of reality, like the landscape or the place you are watching, when printed becomes alive again and gives you back the moments stolen at the time. Thanks, Korea!”
And Mira Gnjatovic, who is married to the Serbian ambassador, said that during their stays in Korea, diplomatic families come face to face with the Korean “gibun,” the sense of mood, spirit, humor or temper.
“This exhibition shows how we respond to all these, especially to the politeness of the Korean heart,” she added. “It contains an extensive collection of sentiments of us citizens temporarily settled in Korea, sentiments that have burst into fireworks of colors shown in the images captured by more than forty nations represented in this exhibition. And to paraphrase an old saying: ‘Who sows kindness reaps friendliness.’”
And Mary McGillis-Mckee, wife of the Irish ambassador, called the project “an exciting and rewarding experience.”
By Kirsty Taylor (kirstyt@heraldcorp.com)
