This talk delves into the nuanced portrayal of the Black population as depicted in Korean and Japanese photographic narratives. The Korean War and World War II precipitated the influx of U.S. military personnel into both nations, profoundly shaping the intersection of Black American presence in Asia and the perceptions of the Black community among Asians, including attitudes toward mixed-race children born to Asian mothers and Black GIs. Korean and Japanese photographers directed their lenses towards Black U.S. military communities stationed within their borders, while concurrently, the introduction of African cultures and peoples occurred through the inception of international photography competitions in the 1960s.
Notably, a captivating image of a Mucubal woman from Angola is featured on the cover of a prominent Japanese photography magazine, a submission to a competition by a Portuguese amateur photographer. At the same time, a significant contingent of Black soldiers found themselves mobilized for the Vietnam War. The postwar depiction of Black culture in Asia is entwined with the enduring legacy of colonialism and the geopolitical tensions of the Cold War era, factors that often complicated efforts towards Afro-Asian solidarity.
Speaker Biography: Dr. Jeehey Kim
Jeehey Kim is an assistant professor in the art history program at the School of Art, University of Arizona. She earned a Ph.D. in Art History at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. She has published extensively on Korean photography, including her first book, Photography and Korea, and has written on film and visual culture in relation to the Cold War and gender politics in East Asia. At the University of Arizona, Kim launched a series of symposia on Asian photography with the Center for Creative Photography in the Spring of 2022. She is currently working on her second book, a project on funerary uses of portrait photography in East Asia.
This public lecture is organized as part of the public program for the exhibition “Turning to the East: Intersecting Futures and Afro-Asian Connections in a Multipolar World” at Amelie A. Wallace Gallery, guest-curated by Dr. Reynaldo Anderson of Temple University. The exhibition will be held March 27–May 2, 2024.
For more information, please contact Dr. Hyewon Yi in Visual Arts Dept. / Director of Amelie A. Wallace Gallery at yih@oldwestbury.edu.