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PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARIE ANN HAN YOO
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By Heather Kim, associate photo editor
It started with a simple connection. I first heard of Marie Ann Han Yoo’s work through a Facebook group called Asian Creative Network.
Her daughter, Stephanie Han, had posted about her mother’s vivid breadth of photos featuring scenes of postwar Korea, all in color. The kicker? Yoo, now 85, was debuting as a photographer 65 years after these images were taken.
I was immediately intrigued, not only by the historical significance of these images, but also by the opportunity to witness Korea during this time through the eyes of a fellow Korean American woman. My grandparents could have witnessed these street scenes, such as these three finely dressed grandfathers (above).
How did these photos come to light more than six decades later? Yoo found a suitcase in Memphis when she was moving. Inside it were slides—her stunning (and rare) color images taken in 1956-57, in the aftermath of South Korea’s devastating and traumatic conflict with the North. (Below, a portrait of Yoo then, with her camera.)
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