Photographer Pyo Ki-sik's solo exhibition 《Every Light Shines Differently》 (빛은 어떻게 떨어졌길래 모두 다르게 반짝여서) opened on September 23, 2026, at GROUNDSEESAW Central. The organizer says more than 460 works are on view. What draws the eye before the count, though, is how these pictures piled up over time. This piece is based on the materials the organizer has made public.
According to the organizer, the artist photographed one tree through all four seasons and chased the light on the Han River for more than ten years. The willow photographs the organizer features as the show's signature work number 180 on their own. That is one tree, standing in one spot, photographed 180 times.
Anyone who shoots film will recognize the method. You go back to a place you care about, set the last picture beside the new one, and look for what changed. Usually, though, that comparison stays on a contact sheet or in a scan folder. Judging from the installation photos the organizer released, this exhibition spreads it across the wall. Small photographs of the tree are tiled in a grid that covers an entire wall.
Choosing is harder than shooting a lot
Shooting for years does not make the pictures better on its own. Returning to the same place again and again only gives you more to choose from. The artist's eye shows in deciding which of them to keep.
At the top of the official detail page, 27 photographs of the same tree run in three rows of nine. Some days are foggy; on others there is frost on the grass. On some the leaves are all gone, and on others the sun sits behind the tree. The tree mostly stands in the middle of the frame, but its size and height shift slightly from picture to picture. The last one is tinged red along the bottom.
The materials do not say how these 27 were chosen from the 180. We can't tell whether they follow the seasons, the shooting dates, or a progression of color. That is what we most want to know. How many times did the artist go back to that tree, and how many frames did he cut?
How the photographs reach the wall
The detail page presents the exhibition in four parts: the willow, morning forests and flowers, 〈Apartment of Cats〉 (고양이들의 아파트), and the light on the Han River. In installation photos of the Han River section, panels large and small carrying photographs of rippling water lean at an angle on the floor and hang vertically on the walls. Each panel differs in the size and density of its glints.
Going only by the published photos, the two bodies of work are installed very differently. The willow photographs are printed small and hung close together, so visitors move from one to the next looking for differences. The Han River photographs are enlarged, and visitors stand in front of them. The willow invites comparison; the river pulls you in. That is our reading. We have not yet confirmed how the panels were produced, how big they are, or whether any video is included.
The organizer describes the show in terms of waiting and immersion. What caught our attention more was the choosing. Deciding which of ten years of Han River photographs go up in the gallery matters as much as taking them. Of all the frames of the same river, some get a whole panel to themselves and some are never hung at all.
According to the organizer's introduction, the artist has long observed everyday landscapes such as trees, rivers, forests and the sky. He has continued projects including 〈bIT〉 and 〈Apartment of Cats〉, and his photographs have appeared on album covers and in collaborations with a number of brands.
96 scenes shot on film
In an article dated October 7, Design+ reported that the final section of the exhibition pairs 96 scenes shot on film with short texts. We could not find any description of this section in the organizer's official materials. Nor have we confirmed whether 96 is the exact count or which cameras and film were used. So we have not leaned on this section to describe the exhibition as a whole. For now there is also no basis for calling it a film photography exhibition.
Pick the spots you'll shoot again
Readers who shoot film can take one habit away from this show. Pick the spot you will come back to, shoot it again from about the same distance, then lay the results side by side and choose. With film, where a roll holds 24 or 36 frames, that kind of comparison is slow and costs money. All the more reason to decide ahead of time what you will reshoot. How many of your rolls this year caught the same spot twice or more?
The exhibition opened on September 23, 2026, at GROUNDSEESAW Central. Check the official GROUNDSEESAW page for hours, admission and dates.
