Unperson exhibition in Daejeon South Korea
My series “ Unperson - Portraits of North Korean Defectors “ is part of the first edition of the Daejeon International Photo Festival. 9 portraits of defectors as well as landscapes from North Korea and the escape routes have been exhibited in the Art Center of the city for two weeks. Here some of the documentation of the exhibition.
Unperson exhibition in Cortona
This summer and despite the pandemic, I was lucky enough to travel to Italy for the opening of my Unperson exhibition in Cortona. The organizers, including Arianna Rinaldo, made amazing work at displaying my work in an old villa in the center of town. All the other exhibitions were also great and will be on until the end of September. If you are traveling in the region, go and check it out!
The book unperson is available here . Please contact me at timfranco@gmail.com for any information.
Exhibition in Pyeongchang for the PIPFF
The short film “ Reclaiming the negative” documenting my project Unperson is part of the official selection of the 2021 Pyeonchang Peace film Festival. The photos from my book are also exhibited as part of the festival and the team did a great job et curating the project. Here are some images from the exhibition.
More about this project:
In George Orwell’s 1984, an unperson is someone who has been vaporized, whose record has been erased. Similarly, the North Korean defectors that Tim Franco chose to portray have decided to disappear, fleeing sometimes for ideological reasons and often out of despair. The road to South Korea is dangerous and can take years, across the many different borders with Mongolia, Laos, Thailand and China. The travels of the ones that do are filled with the fear of being arrested and sent back to labor camps. Having arrived in South Korea, they often struggle to find a new identity; Lost between their North Korean past and South Korean future.
To reflect this incredible transition, Tim Franco used an analog material that is not supposed to exist: the negative of a polaroid reveals through a series of chemical purifications, resulting often in something uncertain, dirty and imperfect. Each portrait goes side by side with the story of how and why the subjects came to this radical decision. In order to retrace their trails, Franco travelled to the crossing points, aiming to capture the diversity of landscape that is the background of North Korean defection.
Illicit Ink Exhibition in Dresden
My series Illicit Ink was selected for the Hellerau Photography Award and I had the pleasure to be present for the opening of the exhibition at the Dresden Technical Museum last month. Here are a few snapshots from the exhibition.
Tim Franco’s work and prints are available for exhibition and sale - please get in touch : timfranco@gmail.com
Illicit Ink at KLPA | Korea Photographer
My series Illicit Ink will be exhibited as part of the Kuala Lumpur Portrait Awards and one of the photograph from the series was selected for the poster of the exhibition. Illicit ink is a series of intimate portraits of the underground tattooist community in South Korea shot on paper negatives.
The photos will be exhibited as part of a group exhibition from the 14th of september to the 27th at the ILHAM gallery in Kuala Lumpur.