Daesung Lee is a korean photographer based in Paris, France. He has graduated in B.F.A from Chung-Ang University in Korea 2003. His career has begun in commercial photography industry but he turned into a documentary photographer since 2007. His project has followed in the theme of ‘Globalisation and it’s impact in contemporary world’ to raise awareness for changes. His work has been awarded in Sony World photography awards, environmental photographer of the year, Lens Culture visual storytelling awards and internationally reconized on CNN, Le monde,Courrier international and Huffington Post. Also participated in photo festival in Milan, Organ Vida photo festival in Croatia and Pluie d’images in France. Today we take a look at Daesung’s series titled Futuristic Archaeology.
Futuristic Archaeology
“Nomadic life has been central to traditional Mongolian culture throughout history. Even with changes brought about by urbanisation in recent years,
35% of Mongolians are living a nomadic life and still depend on their vast, open land for survival. This is increasingly difficult because their traditional way of life is now being threatened due to serious changes in the land. According to a survey made by the Mongolian government, around 850 lakes and 2000 rivers and streams have dried out.
This loss of water is contributing to the desertification of Mongolia, as 25% of its land has turned into desert in the past 30 years. Potentially 75 % of Mongolian territory is at risk of desertification. These environmental changes directly threaten the Mongolian nomadic way of life, which has been passed down from generation to generation for thousands of years. This project attempts at recreating the museum diorama with actual people and their livestock in a real place where desertifying in Mongolia.
It is based on an imagination that these people try to go into museum diorama for survival. This is accomplished with printed images on a billboard placed in conjunction with the actual landscape horizon. By doing this, I hope to accomplish a sense that the lives of these nomadic people occur between this reality and a virtual space of a museum. Mongolian traditional nomadic lifestyle might be only existed in museum in the future.”
To view more of Daesung’s work please visit his website.