“Why does a Japanese man take photos of Korea?” Kuwabara Seisei’s “Face of Photography” opens on Sept. 2

A film titled 〈Face of Photography〉, which confirmed its release for Sept. 2, will unveil a teaser poster and a teaser trailer. 〈Face of Photography〉 is a photo documentary that follows the life and work of Kuwabara Seisei, a 90-year-old master of Japanese photojournalism who documented modern history on the Korean Peninsula through 100,000 photographs over 60 years. The film was invited to the 17th DMZ International Documentary Film Festival in the Korea competition section and made its debut there. It is directed by Ko Heeyoung, who has captured a deep understanding of human beings and a warm perspective through documentaries such as 〈Mulsum〉 and 〈Siso〉, and the director carefully presents Kuwabara Seisei’s life and the world of his photographs. Kuwabara Seisei burst onto the scene as a promising figure, winning the Japan Photo Critics Association’s新人 award for a photograph documenting the devastation of Minamata disease in 1960. After first visiting Korea in 1964, he spent about 60 years traveling back and forth about 100 times, capturing on camera various “faces” of the Republic of Korea—from the now-gone scenery of Cheonggyecheon to the democracy movement, the Dongducheon base-area red-light district, and Vietnam’s troop dispatch. Recognized for the excellence of his photographic works and the value of his records, he has since established himself as a leading figure in Japanese photojournalism, winning the Kodansha Publishing Photo Award (1965), the Japan Photo Society’s annual award (1971), the Ina Nobuo Award (1982), and the Domon Ken Award (2014), among others.

The teaser poster released alongside the film spotlights Kuwabara Seisei’s representative works at a glance, while also drawing attention with a distinctive visual that evokes the “contact printing” process during film photo development. The teaser poster, which highlights Kuwabara Seisei’s viewpoint as it examines countless “faces”—workers and citizens, students and children, soldiers and demonstrators—prompts us to revisit the everyday lives and dignity of ordinary people we might have easily passed by. In addition, the tagline “The faces of Korea contained in 100,000 shots, a record by a master of Japanese photojournalism” sparks curiosity about what faces of Korea he found through his camera lens as a third-party Japanese identity over the past 60-plus years.

The teaser trailer released together grabs attention in an instant with Kuwabara Seisei’s intense yet beautiful black-and-white photographs. Starting with the photojournalist Kuwabara Seisei, still roaming around different parts of the scene while holding a heavy camera at age 90, the teaser trailer shows his relentless attitude and steadfast convictions—showing that he would not stop recording even while enduring harsh criticism such as “X bastard” and “jerk.” In particular, after his representative works that captured tumultuous modern Korean history unfold one after another, curiosity rises about what led a Japanese photographer to Korea for as long as 60 years, at the moment the powerful tagline “Why does a Japanese man take photos of Korea?” appears. The trailer then delivers a line—“It is absolutely impossible to look back at the past and record that scene again with photographs”—which reveals the philosophy of recording that the master of Japanese photojournalism Kuwabara Seisei has protected his entire life, prompting admiration. Finally, the tagline “What did he see in Korea?” lingers as a question about what Kuwabara Seisei ultimately wanted to keep recording, and what the real “face” of Korea captured by his camera looks like, raising expectations for the film.