shashasha

Korean photographer Yoon Seung Jun photographed half-finished buildings in South Korea – not ruins, and not buildings in the process of being constructed either, but buildings whose development has stopped (for one reason or another).

In “Code Blue,” Yoon records these buildings in the manner of a status report. The title itself is borrowed from the medical field, where it is used to assemble all available staff in the case of an urgent emergency. As if “Yoon wants to gather every one of us reading his photobook” in the (absurd) hope that these buildings can still be rescued.

The book itself – designed by Yoshihisa Tanaka – mirrors the state of the buildings: half-finished. The complicated fold-out layout of the pages not quite complete, the book not completely bound, the hardcover glued on but not yet hidden behind cloth – yet the book itself manages to tell of all the work that went into its creation, and its unfinished state does not detract from its beauty.

Includes an afterword by the artist and an essay by Japanese curator Hiroshi Suganuma in Korean, Japanese and English translation.