Simmani - signed

Iannbooks

Hardcover, 144 pages

260 × 240 mm

2021

Lee Jungjin is a prominent Korean female photographer renowned globally for capturing vast natural landscapes on *hanji* (traditional Korean paper) in a style reminiscent of ink-wash painting. She early on moved beyond the objective stance of documentary photography—rooted in realism and documentation—to dedicate herself to establishing a subjective photographic realm that functions as both a visual medium and a form of fine art. The photobook *SIMMANI* is a masterpiece featuring rare documentary work created during her time as a staff photographer for the magazine *Deep-Rooted Tree* (*Ppurigipeun Namu*); it primarily showcases early documentary photographs she took of an elderly couple she happened to encounter on Ulleungdo Island over 35 years ago.

Jungjin Lee majored in crafts at university and taught herself photography before working as a photojournalist for the magazine *Deep-Rooted Tree* (*Ppurigipeun Namu*). She moved to the United States in 1988 and earned a graduate degree in photography from New York University; since then, she has maintained an active career, working between the U.S. and Korea for over three decades.

In 2011, she participated as the only Asian artist in *This Place*—an Israel-based project led by documentary photography master Frédéric Brenner, who invited twelve world-renowned photographers, including Stephen Shore and Jeff Wall—and presented the series *Unnamed Road*, garnering significant international attention. Her work is held in the collections of prestigious institutions worldwide, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea.

 Her major monographs include *Wind* (SEPIA INTERNATIONAL INC, 2009), *Unnamed Road* (MACK, 2014), *Everglades* (NAZRAELI PRESS, 2016), *Opening* (NAZRAELI PRESS, 2017), and *Desert* (RADIUS BOOKS, 2017).