Little was spoken of my grandfather’s exploits while I was growing up. For some reason his life before coming to Canada was a taboo subject. He passed away in 1989 while I was alone with him in his hospital room. His death, like the death of my uncle, had a lasting effect on me.

I spent a great deal of time with my grandfather growing up. He had a workroom in the basement at his house where he fixed things and painted. I’d “make” things out of the odds and ends he had stowed away in green and yellow plastic bins while he painted. His paintings still hang in the house. For as long as I can remember, my grandfather was retired. He made his own cigarettes in a nifty machine that crammed tobacco into filtered cigarette tubes. He used to give me a few quarters for every pack I’d make. They were politically incorrect times, I guess. I lived with my grandparents for a few years, moved away with my mom, and then moved back  there after he’d passed away.

A few weeks after passing away, my grandmother called me into the living room. My grandfather’s death had a most unsettling effect on her; an effect I don’t think she ever really recovered from. Looking back, I think she felt guilty. After sitting down, she pulled something wrapped in a cloth out from beside her. She held it for what seemed like a long time. I am positive that it was difficult for her to hand it over. What she held was a key that unlocked doors she didn’t want unlocked. After a few drawn-out moments, she handed me the wrapped object and told me that it was something my grandfather wanted me to have. I took the cloth wrapped object from her, but didn’t unwrap it like I did presents at Christmas. I knew the object I was holding held more significance than a box of Lego. I asked, “what is it?”, to which she replied after clearing her throat, “it’s your grandfathers old passport”. Still wrapped, I queried, “why did grandpa want me to have this?” There was silence again for a few long seconds. My grandmother was uncomfortable. “Just open it”, she said. I unwrapped the cloth to find a faded purple Czechoslovakian diplomatic passport. It was intact, but it looked old and very used. If it had been a comic book, it would have been almost worthless. But it wasn’t worthless, it was magnificent. The entry stamps depicted a troubled time. There were Nazi swastikas, Soviet hammers with sickles, stamps in Chinese, Arabic, and French. It WAS a historical document. He had travelled and experienced a number of different cultures. The man I had known to just paint and tinker in the basement had seen and done things I could never have dreamt of. I wanted to know more.

As I leafed carefully through the pages, I asked my grandmother why my grandfather had been to so many places. She told me he had been a diplomat and that he had been stationed in a number of places. That was all she said. It was clear she didn’t want to unlock those doors with me, and I knew it would have been futile for me to press her for more information. I later learned, mostly through my mother and other available information (Campbells’s Soup Magazine), that my grandfather had been stationed in Bulgaria, Turkey, Yugoslavia, Russia,  and France, among other places. It was while he was living in France that the Soviets invaded and “took” Czechoslovakia.

A couple of years ago I returned home to Toronto for a visit at Christmas. Because of jetlag, I had more than a few hours in the wee hours of the morning to sift through boxes of old photos that had been packed by the insurance company after a small house-fire that had occurred a couple of years before while I was in University. Among all the things I found and saw was a newsletter that was published by Campbell’s Soup. I forget the exact date of the newsletter, but it was kept because it included a short story about my grandfather.

“When the communists seized power in Czechoslovakia, John was serving in the embassy at Paris. The Communists practically held a gun to his head to force him to return to his homeland and even trumped up false charges to get the Paris police to make him leave France.”

Well it appears that this story of my grandfather was both true and false. It was written during the heyday of the Cold War, so it was sensationalized in some parts, and not sensationalized enough in others. As far as I know, my grandmother, mother, and uncle were with him in France, and while the Soviets did recall him, if it weren’t for a friend of his in the embassy warning him not to return to his homeland, he’d have been dead a long time ago. This is what I know, and this is what makes my grandfather a great man.

Put simply, not because I want to, but because I don’t know much more than what I am stating here, my grandfather provided exit visas to intellectuals, homosexuals, and others wanted for trial and forced labour by the Soviet Union. When the Soviets found out about this, they called my grandfather back as though it were a routine trip back to the homeland. A friend of his at the embassy tipped him off, so instead of heading back to Prague, he sought asylum with the Canadians.

With tickets to a cruise ship in hand, my grandparents, mother, and uncle packed up whatever they could from their house across the road from the Eiffel Tower and headed to Canada. They relocated to a small northern city on the border of Ontario and Quebec called Rouyn Noranda where he worked as a miner.

When my grandparents saved up enough money, they moved to Toronto where my grandfather went to work in the Spice Department at Campbell’s soup. My mom told me that while they lived in Rouyn Noranda, CSIS (Canadian CIA) kept a close eye on him, as they weren’t sure if he was a spy working for the Soviets. The transition from diplomatic life to miner life was hard on my family. My grandparents, especially my grandmother, were die-hard Roman Catholics. If a Jehovah’s Witness came to the door of the house while I lived with my grandparents, my grandfather would chase them down the driveway with a broom as he firmly told them he was a Roman Catholic.

My grandmother never fully forgave my grandfather. He had, after all, in her mind provided exit visas to homosexuals, and as a Roman Catholic, she could not understand why, and that did not make the extreme and sudden change of lifestyle easy.

I remember, as a kid, my grandfather had a specially designed typewriter. I say specially designed because it was designed so that he could type in Czech. I remember that he had a white cardboard box with what I can say today was a manuscript of his life in it. After his death, queries of this box went unanswered, and even when I brought it up recently, I was told that it never existed. Sadly, I think it was destroyed. The unwarranted shame was too much, and while I don’t hold my grandmother responsible for its disappearance, it seems to have disappeared without a trace.

A few years before my grandfather died, he received a letter from the Soviet embassy. The letter was sent to inform him that the Soviet Union no longer had a warrant out for his arrest, and that it was safe for him to travel and visit his family in Czechoslovakia. The letter came too late. Cancer had set in, and it was impossible for him to travel. He was one of 13 siblings, and outlasted all but one of them. I can still remember his smile. It was warm and good hearted. He wasn’t perfect, but in my eyes, he was a perfect grandfather, and I loved him and miss him very much.

There is so much more I want to learn about my grandfather, but as the years wear on, it’s become harder and harder to uncover more information. Perhaps one day, when I have the financial resources available, I will be able to have professionals uncover more, but until then I am happy knowing that despite his religious convictions, my grandfather helped save a number of lives from Soviet persecution. For that, and things a lot closer to home, he is, in my eyes, a great man whose actions should never be forgotten.

]]> http://www.chiamattt.com/blog/2010/01/25/my-grandfather/feed/ 1 http://www.chiamattt.com/blog/2010/01/22/%ec%95%88%ec%83%81%ec%88%98ahn-sang-su-the-coincidence/ http://www.chiamattt.com/blog/2010/01/22/%ec%95%88%ec%83%81%ec%88%98ahn-sang-su-the-coincidence/#comments Fri, 22 Jan 2010 01:18:09 +0000 chiamattt http://www.chiamattt.com/blog/?p=3496

sinnfrei [deleted] says: 안상수 copy-cat (Posted 22 months ago.)

SMOKEHARD (Chiamattt) says: I really don’t know what that means. Is 안상수 a person? Are you drunk? (Posted 22 months ago.)

This is one of the fondest memories from my visit to SF in what seems like a really long time ago. When Seandon, Mark, and I left Vancouver with Happy and his VW bus, we pretty much drank 40oz’s the entire journey. Actually, we were all rather shocked when elly told us she’d never experienced the crisp, smooth, and refreshing aroma and flavour of King Cobra; one of the finest malt liquors around (sadly, not available in Canada).  When we finally convinced her to give it a try, it was one of those moments I knew had to be captured, documented, and remembered for eternity. If there was ever a textbook definition of “remembery”, this was it. I can’t be sure, but I’m pretty sure this was the first and last time elly consumed the beer that is malt liquor.

The above graphic displays the images chosen by people with Eyes I Respect. Images selected by more than one person are full strength, while images selected by only one person are 75% opaque. I did this because I was quite astonished at how many shots were chosen by more than one person, and I wanted to accentuate that.

I’d like to thank everyone who took part. It turned out to be quite an amazing project/experiment. The most popular choices are as follows:

With 5 picks each, we have a portrait of Sooky, a man sitting in front of a police line during the Beef Protests of 2009, and another a man sleeping after a day of mourning the death of former President Roh of Korea.

With 4 picks, we have a photo I snapped of the curtain flaps that hide people getting out of cars after parking outside of love motels. These particular curtains were in Busan.

And with 3 picks each we have a photo of an elephant at a zoo in Seoul, a man in Jongno-3ga subway station, an ashtray with a dead spider inside, and some kids in Busan.

Like I said above, it was surprising that so many of the same pictures were chosen by so many people. They all had over two hundred photos to look through. Another reason this project was surprising was because some photos I thought would be chosen were not, and photos I thought weren’t worthy of being picked, were. You just never know what eyes you respect will like, and this is yet another reason why you should never hide what you create or capture from your friends and family. You never know what they’ll love.

Paul G: You know, this is one of your better photos. But as much as I want to look at it, I want to look away… You’ve become a chronicler of what is dark, and ought to be oddly curious; but which in fact is, for chronic exposure, mundane. Nightmarish banality? You fit in Korea–but “fit” as a watchman at the fore of a vessel in a cold, northern sea: looking out at the same/different grey waves, as life, real and fantastic, emerges from and then disappears back into the shadows.

Chiamattt: I’m not sure what to make of that comment, Paul. hmmm

Paul G: Well, it wasn’t meant to be insulting to you, or a negative appraisal of the photography that you’ve shared on Flickr. I worried that you might take it as such; and I considered deleting the comment. But, you’ve been [according to all the evidence that I've seen] working at a bit of artistic self-analysis: trying to better understand your own work. And in the process, you’ve proposed curatorial experiments in collaboration with sincere viewers. In that spirit, I’ll try to explain…

I think that the elements of your style are gelling. And I wonder which of the elements is dominant, or if there’s a sort of unplanned synergy that’s responsible for the drive–meaning both direction and force. It seems reasonable to wonder: Are you imposing a certain look upon Korea? Or, is Korea coming out through you and the lens? Maybe it’s Nikon?

• The objects and people with which you seem to do best are…real. I mean that when I think of you, I don’t imagine props, or stages, or make up and models, i.e., you’re not fashion or commercial stock. Nor are you landscape in the traditional sense. You shoot what we see every day–ordinary and flawed. Your ash trays are brilliant.
• Ash trays: They might be warm and dry. Someone else might wait for, or “fake” the presence of, fire and smoke. Fire, burning, can be associated with cleansing, with purification. Your ash trays are usually cold and wet. And, frequently, they’re filled with trash.
• Cold, wet ash tray, filled with trash: The materials in your shots are, to begin with, unforgiving and sharp, e.g., concrete, metal, glass. And the condition in which you present those materials enhances the appearance of their “dangerous or deathly” qualities.
• Processing: Pulling out color, and pumping-up blacks.
• Nikon: Not Minoltian concern for bokeh and saturation. Nikon’s about sharpness and contrast.; Nikon’s military and medical.

I’m sure that somewhere, someplace, in the past, I’ve written something about the Korea-Chicago dynamic. Beyond the immigrant communities, there’s something in the hustle of work under heavy skies, something about being in the middle, feeling chilled in the Winter, etc. When your stuff comes together, you’re something more than a “street” shooter. You’re describing a place and a people at a certain time–not exactly as they are, but amplifying a certain aspect of their being. The image above isn’t a flattering portrait; it’s a transmogrification. The pulling down of the tattooed lip is analogous to the treatment of the ash tray. The Nikon optics and the post-processing heighten the effect. Above, you’ve left behind the bright detritus of Wolfgang Tillmans and entered the world of Cindy Sherman. It’s art. And it’s sort of scary too! Better or worse, I’ve shared it!

Chiamattt: I really enjoyed reading what you had to say and anticipated word after ever word. I am sincerely flattered. You took quite some time out of your everyday schedule to write what you wrote above, and for that I am thankful. I am quite terrible at putting how I feel about my work into words. Perhaps you could be the voice I have been looking for! Anyway, I really appreciate your comment. Thanks, it made me feel warm and fuzzing in this world of “gray waves” and “shadows”.

Billy Gomez is a dope LA native who, while working in Seoul, takes some of the best photography I have seen in a long time. He has a few prints up for display at Berlin Bar in Itaewon until January 3, 2010. If you’re in Seoul, you should def go and see it. If you aren’t in Seoul, check out his flickr. There are a lot of great shots.

If you don’t know where Berlin is, click to enlarge this map:

]]> http://www.chiamattt.com/blog/2009/12/14/the-billy-gomez-exhibit/feed/ 0 http://www.chiamattt.com/blog/2009/12/09/some-random-chairs-for-le/ http://www.chiamattt.com/blog/2009/12/09/some-random-chairs-for-le/#comments Wed, 09 Dec 2009 04:07:07 +0000 chiamattt http://www.chiamattt.com/blog/?p=3429

LE, of elly.org, has been snapping pictures of random/abandoned chairs for quite some time; though I think she’s abandoned the project. It is/was a great project, and I like to remind her of how great it is by snapping pictures of the random chairs I find in Seoul. Here are just a few. Check out her entire set, it’s great.

It’s nice that this article about NORTH Korea’s currency revaluation displays the new SOUTH Korean 5,000 won note. Seriously, talk about lazy journalism. I’ve included the ACTUAL new North Korean currency below. I grabbed the picture from one of Korea’s least shoddy, and least lazy media sites, the Chosun Ilbo.

Well, the iPhone was released in Korea about a week ago, and despite all the nay-saying in the media, it has been a successful release, to say the least. Prior to its launch, the media was full of quotes from “industry insiders” who “didn’t want to be named” who were saying the iphone would not be successful in Korea because Korea has four distinct seasons and 5,000 years of monopolistic and draconian market dominance by domestic handphone manufacturers and domestic handphone service providers. One “expert” who did allow his name to be published, should probably start thinking about a new career path.

“I am very skeptical of the iPhone’s success in Korea,” said Oh Sung-kwon, a telecommunications analyst at Kyobo Securities Co. “Koreans have waited too long for its launch. Most people who were tired of waiting bought the iPod Touch instead.” The iPod Touch is basically an iPhone without mobile phone capability. “Also, KT will not give up one of their biggest money sources [content services] that easily,” he added. (Link)

I didn’t think Korea had a crack problem until I read that above quote. In my opinion, and I could probably be a telecommunications analyst at this point, a lot of people didn’t buy the iPod Touch because it lacked the mobile phone capability. There were other quotes like this in the media prior to launch, but I’m too lazy to search for them. They all boiled down to “Koreans won’t buy the iphone because the iphone isn’t made by LG or Samsung”.

Over at the Marmot’s hole, there is a post, and much more active comment thread, regarding the success of the iPhone in Korea. In one of the two comments I wrote, I mentioned that:

There are already iphone aps for bus/subway routes/schedules. There is probably a Korean version of twitterific on the horizon, and the aps that SK developers have been making for the iphone for quite some time now will probably be translated into Korean very quickly. Expect an explosion in the number of aps for the Korean market for the iphone.

The best thing about aps on the iphone is that Korean conglomerates cannot control who develops them (Apple can, but that’s another story), and I think that is GREAT NEWS for small businesses, and bad news for operators like SKT…who’ll never be able to maintain their draconian controls if they want to compete. All in all, even if you don’t want an iphone, better services and functionality on other phones in the very near future is to be expected.

To which “some in the industry” replied:

“The iPhone already has its basic software, and so the role of local software developers in creating something new for the iPhone will be limited,” said one software developer in Korea who declined to be named for this article. (Link)

I didn’t think Korea had a PCP problem until I read that above quote. At no other time in my eight-or-so years here have I witnessed a “foreign” product stirring up so much hype. Furthermore, at no other time have I believed so strongly that a watershed of change was on the horizon. For the release of the iPhone has far-reaching effects. It isn’t just a sexy and hip device that “early adopters” want. It’s a platform that promotes compliance with international standards; something that the Korean web-monoculture (and here) desperately needs and requires if it wants to stay competitive in the global marketplace. With more and more people choosing the iPhone and computing alternatives to Microsoft products like MacOS, Linux, Ubuntu, and non IE browsers like Safari, Firefox, Opera, Chrome, etc., the Korean government is going to come under increasing pressure to change, among other things, online banking regulations and offer cross-platform verification tools. ActiveX, which is, for the most part, only accessible through Microsoft products, and has serious security flaws, is going to have to be dropped in favour of SSL/TLS. This is long over due.

Another change I hope occurs, will be the questioning of domestic manufacturers over what is often called “the Korean discount”. The fact that a product manufactured in Korea is cheaper outside Korea is, to say the least, retarded. The fact that the iPhone is more expensive in Korea than it is in the United States isn’t hard to believe. What is hard to believe is that products manufactured in Korea to compete with the iPhone are actually cheaper overseas than they are in Korea. It isn’t just phones. You can buy a “better” Hyundai Genesis in the US and ship it to Korea at a lower cost than purchasing a “toned-down” version of the car in Korea. That simply does not make much sense. Koreans, who are becoming more and more leveraged and indebted, need to start protesting this tactic. A Korean should not pay more for a product here so that it can be sold cheaper somewhere else.

In Korea, the iPhone costs 814,000 won, and is imported. The Samsung Omnia™ II , which is manufactured in Korea, costs 924,000. Even if the Omnia™ II is better and comes with more features, it’s more expensive than anywhere else in the world. For example, Bell Mobility, in Canada, is selling the Omnia™ II for just $549.95, or 603,273KRW, without a contract. That’s quite a bit cheaper than in Korea, no?

]]> http://www.chiamattt.com/blog/2009/12/08/iphone-the-obama-of-korea/feed/ 6