Spanning nearly three decades of work, Anthology of Light chronicles internationally acclaimed photographer Sue Park’s continuous exploration of light and its formal and emotive effects across different genres and subject matters. The primacy of light in Park’s works underscores the artist’s central preoccupation with its ephemeral qualities and its capacity to evoke the brief moment of serenity in the pause between breaths.
Anthology of Light presents a selection of works from different series in Sue Park’s long career, highlighting the diversity of approaches and techniques with which she interrogates the transformative potential of light. The works in the “Inverted” series, for example, are experiments in tonal range. By producing negatives of black and white photographs of flora on textured rice paper, Park creates images that closely resemble classical ink-wash paintings from East Asia. In contrast, in the series of photographs taken in Palouse, Washington, Park departs from her usual reserved use of color and embraces a maximalist palette in order to overwhelm the viewer with the vibrancy of the region’s landscape. Rolling green hills are rendered with highly saturated hues within a subtly flattened plane of focus, creating striking works that press on the edge of representation.
Beyond form, Anthology of Light is an evocation of life itself. Whether it’s a murmuration of starlings spilling across the sky in undulating parabolas or a solitary grove of ancient trees in light fog, there resides a quiet equilibrium in all of Park’s work; this stillness is not one of inanimate inertia, but that of a life at rest, like the gentle pause following an exhalation.
Sue Park is a Los Angeles based photographer who has won many international accolades for her contemplative compositions and intimate interpretations of the natural world. Central themes of her works include stillness, light, and poetic introspection. Park has held numerous solo exhibitions around the world, including Sounds of Silence at the Palazzo del Duca Contemporary Art Museum in Senigallia, Italy; Sue Park’s Trajectories at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Uzbekistan; and Sue Park’s Photography at the Gallery of Classic Photography in Moscow. More recent exhibitions include Poetry of Stillness in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia; Anthologie de la Lumière in Paris; and Anthology of Light in Umbertide, Italy.
In addition to her exhibitions, Park has published several photo books, including Anthology of Light (2024) and Monovision (2021), the latter of which received gold awards in five international photography competitions. Her work has been widely celebrated by critics and curators, earning her numerous accolades, including the prestigious Photographer of the Year award from the International Photography Awards.