Unallocated Space
I was obliged to serve as an evidence photographer for the riot police team of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency for two years. The main task was to take photographs of the illegal activities of the protesters. Being disguised as a news media photographer, I recorded evidence on the spot to identify their illegal activities. Because of the nature of my work, I lived a different life than my fellow cops. I gradually began to question the police station and my identity. I stumbled upon places such as closed spaces and restricted areas inside the police station. And I began recording these spaces. The distinctive feature of these locations is that they are located within the police station but maintain separate spatiality. It can be interpreted similarly to the concept of concealed spaces in the military, meaning that they are real places but invisible. But the appearances of these spaces had nothing to do with their function. The closed gymnasium and the passages under the building are already independent spaces. These spaces have unfamiliar structures and forms to be in a police station. These pictures do not reveal the structure of the police station. However, these pictures symbolize the structure and order of the police station like the invisible order in our society.
I was obliged to serve as an evidence photographer for the riot police team of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency for two years. The main task was to take photographs of the illegal activities of the protesters. Being disguised as a news media photographer, I recorded evidence on the spot to identify their illegal activities. Because of the nature of my work, I lived a different life than my fellow cops. I gradually began to question the police station and my identity. I stumbled upon places such as closed spaces and restricted areas inside the police station. And I began recording these spaces. The distinctive feature of these locations is that they are located within the police station but maintain separate spatiality. It can be interpreted similarly to the concept of concealed spaces in the military, meaning that they are real places but invisible. But the appearances of these spaces had nothing to do with their function. The closed gymnasium and the passages under the building are already independent spaces. These spaces have unfamiliar structures and forms to be in a police station. These pictures do not reveal the structure of the police station. However, these pictures symbolize the structure and order of the police station like the invisible order in our society.
