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| Mexican Ambassador to Korea Bruno Figueroa poses next to his photo, "Seoul, Bauhaus style," at the "#ATribute2Korea" exhibition, featuring some 30 photos taken during his tenure in Korea since 2017 at Yehyangjae Cultural House in Seongbuk-dong, Seoul, Wednesday. Korea Times photo by Kwon Mee-yoo |
By Kwon Mee-yoo
Mexican Ambassador to Korea Bruno Figueroa, who will wrap up his five-year term in Korea in July, organized a photo exhibition of his photography to pay a tribute to his country of sojourn.
Titled "#ATribute2Korea," Figueroa exhibits some 30 photos out of thousands of photos he took since he arrived in Korea in April 2017.
"For me, it's a privilege to go to so many places and take pictures. So after having thousands of pictures and knowing that I was going to leave Korea soon, I asked myself ― what can I do to show my appreciation to Korea, the country that has received me so well for five years," Figueroa said at Yehyangjae Cultural House in Seongbuk-dong, Seoul, where the exhibition is being held, Wednesday.
"I learned photography through my father who had a Leica. In those times, cameras were manual, so you had to (adjust) the speed, the aperture, the light all by yourself. You had to learn each step in order to take a good picture," the ambassador recalled.
"Today cameras are all automatic, so you only push the button. There is a democratization of photography and everyone can be a very good photographer," he added.
Upon his arrival in Korea, Figueroa bought a camera and took it wherever he went and kept shooting.
"As an ambassador, I am pretty lucky, because I can go anywhere, even to places very few Koreans can visit," he said.
The subjects of his photography vary, from views of Gyeongbok Palace and Cheong Wa Dae from his office, to apartment complexes in Seoul, to industrial plants he visited with Mexico's secretary of Energy and the surreal scenery of Muuido Island.
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| Mexican Ambassador to Korea Bruno Figueroa's "Metal is Art" / Courtesy of Bruno Figueroa |
His friend, photographer KT Kim, helped Figueroa select the pictures and organize the exhibit in a professional way.
"I did not want to show something that people would say, 'Oh, this ambassador is nice. He should keep on being an ambassador.' So (Kim) helped me a lot and we had discussed which to keep and which to remove from the thousands of pictures until we got to 30 pictures," Figueroa said.
The first photo that greets visitors is "Palaces of the Past (Autumn)," which features Gyeongbok Palace and Cheong Wa Dae, seen from his office in a high-rise building right across from Gyeongbok Palace.
"This is a view from my office. I have the supreme privilege of having one of the best views even in Korea and KT decided to put this as the first picture, even though, artistically, it's not that meaningful, but he told me, 'This is a view that was impossible to see in Korea for dozens of years,' as it was forbidden to take pictures of the Blue House. So to me, this is a view so unique that you have to start the exhibition," Figueroa explained.
Some of the photos unveil a more personal side of the ambassador, featuring his family and friends.
"It's not only about beautiful views of Korea. I also wanted to translate my emotions. Some pictures are so simple, such as of my family. In this picture is Anmyeondo Island. In Mexico, our beaches do not have stones. We have sand. So my kids were very happy to play with the pebbles, throwing them into the water, and that was a moment that I decided to take a picture of," Figueroa said.
Lee Bok-hyung, Korea's former ambassador to Mexico and other Latin American countries about three decades ago, who now serves as the director of the Latin American Cultural Center and Museum, visited the exhibition to cherish his friendship with Figueroa.
"Shakespeare left a work titled, 'A Man for All Seasons.' Precisely the role of a diplomat is that of the 'man for all seasons.' He has been busy during a little more than five years," Lee said.
"As a former Korean ambassador to Mexico many years back, I'm very proud to have known him and he is really a man for all seasons as you can see in the photography... We're going to lose him soon in late July, because our professions come and go. We are all aware. We are very sad to lose someone like him, but I know that he is going to be having another great day in Portugal."
The exhibition runs through June 21 at Yehyangjae Cultural House.
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