The photography of Jungha Noh has a wonderful poetic presence, one which makes this viewer comfortable and contemplative. A first viewing of Noh’s work may lead one to see only ambiguous fields of colour, but further examination leads to a subtle feeling of recognition, not necessarily a recognition of a specific person or place, but a recognition of a feeling that one had in the past. By using a pinhole camera, the essence of Jungha Noh’s subject matter is depicted through blurred photographs conveying a lonely existence to the viewer’s gaze. Like the paintings of Mark Rothko, Noh’s photographs are more than recordings of moments in time, her works’ shimmer with a vibrancy that goes beyond the perceivable. Her silent environments radiate more than their visual identities, they radiate their “mortality.”

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After a few minutes of viewing “Carol’s bed,” viewers will likely recognize the captured space as a bedroom. A wooden headboard subtly juts out toward the audience and fades off into a darkened corner. An overly large—but almost unrecognizable-- red cap hangs in the center of the print, and with the empty bed, they emphasize that no one is there, all that exists are the memories within the room; and for the viewer, all that exists are the memories provoked by the room. In Noh’s own words, “The absence of people in my pictures makes one long for their own existence.” The empty bedroom seems recognizable, as more than a bedroom, it appears to be a photograph of loneliness itself.

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Captivating, stunningly beautiful and provocative of feelings, the “Nowhere but Anywhere” series by Jungha Noh contain more than recordings of light, they hold the memories of time, memories which go beyond the activities captured and memories recognizable by anyone. As Noh states, “What I want to share is empathy as human beings.”

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Don Ritter/ Professor Pratt Institute NY, 2003