A Compelling First Look 4/21/13

This photo of a Shimpaku that appears to be growing out of the side of a lava rock, came out better than most of the photos from Korea Bonsai Museum’s Exhibition at theplace gallery. Though some of the trunk is too dark to allow for any detail, the lower section is pretty good. Good enough to show off the rich cinnamon bark that you often find on Shimpaku.

I realize we have never featured bonsai from Korea. An oversight for sure. Once it dawned on me to do something about this oversight, it turned out that there is a little problem finding quality bonsai photos from Korea. When you search Korean Bonsai, you’ll get a host of Korean hornbeams along with a small handful of sites/blogs/facebook pages that actually feature Korean Bonsai. Some of the best bonsai photos (that I found at least) are from the Korea Bonsai Museum. Actually it’s the Korea Bonsai Museum’s 1st Exhibition of 2012 that took place at theplace gallery.

It’s not that often you see bonsai featured in a gallery setting where a lot of attention has been paid to the environment as well as to the trees. Unfortunately, the lighting at theplacne gallery isn’t all that good for shooting bonsai. The biggest problem is the lack of illumination inside the trees (a very common problem). Still, I think that overall, these photos provide us with a compelling first look at some intriguing Korean bonsai.

 

The shot gives us a pretty good idea of the gallery setting.

 

I’m going to guess that this untitled tree is a Korean hornbeam.

Bonsai silhouettes.

 

Though this tree appears to be a Literati at first glance, you don’t usually see a Literati bonsai with such a smooth trunk (it’s hard to tell just how smooth in this photo) and such lush foliage. Maybe it’s best to just say that we like the movement and overall feel of the tree and leave it at that.

 

Another example of a Literati-like tree. Only this time with two trunks.

 

Looks like the pine in the center of the circle is the feature tree in this shot. Maybe in the whole exhibition.

 

A close of the pine above. It’s not really falling over, it’s just the photo.

 

Nice shot. This looks like it might be one of the most interesting trees in the whole exhibition. Unfortunately, no close-ups are available.