Kim Hong-nam, director of the National Museum of Korea, talks to reporters at an exhibition titled “The Image of Joseon Palaces on Gelatin Dry Plates,” which will run through Feb. 10. / Yonhap


By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter

Five hundred photographs of the Joseon Kingdom palaces and people of the time, which were taken during the Japanese colonial rule (1910-1945), are on display for the first time.

The National Museum of Korea is holding an exhibition titled ``The Image of Joseon Palaces on Gelatin Dry Plates,'' which will run through Feb. 10.

The museum sorted out 500 pieces related to the royal palaces among a collection of 38,000 gelatin dry plates containing photographic images of historical and archaeological sites, people and scenes of daily life.

The gelatin dry plates are made by coating glass plates with a photosensitive emulsion containing silver halide and then drying them, before making a plastic film base such as cellulose nitrate. This was the original and modern photographic emulsion technique used for black and white photographic film, and is still used today.

The images were part of the ``cultural policy'' established by the Japanese Government General of Joseon to tighten its control over the nation at that time.

Although the colonial government created these plates, they now offer valuable historical information about the Joseon royal palaces as they were in the early 20th century.

Some of the previous images of the palaces show their original beauty and identity before Japanese colonial rule damaged them.

The significance of the rare images of the palaces is that the images captured on the plates provide specific clues for Korean historians to restore the original shapes and patterns that existed during the turbulent times of the first half of the 20th century.



Also, the images are regarded as part of an important academic survey of the Korean Peninsula and Manchuria conducted by the Japanese as the collection provides valuable information about various disciplines including archaeology, architecture, art and natural monuments.

The images include the Folding Screen in Geunjeong Hall, the Ceiling of Jondeok Hall in the backyard of Changdeok Palace, and the Jeweled Covering in Myeongjeong Hall.

Along with the images, the museum also displays cameras, which were used during colonial times, the gelatin dry plates and other relics.

``The images are very old but their clearness and composition are superb. These images will offer the opportunity to look back on the original beauty of the royal palaces,'' Kim Hong-nam, the museum's director, said.

The gelatin dry plate appeared in 1871 when English photographer and physician Richard Leach Maddox (1816~1902) invented a dry plate made by coating a glass plate with silver bromide gelatin emulsion.

The gelatin dry plate was found to create more beautiful, and durable, photographic images than those captured by the traditional wet colloid plate. Photographic speed and convenience were also dramatically improved, and photographers were able to reduce the exposure time to a fraction of a second, helping them to take snapshots.

The demand for gelatin dry plates fell sharply in the 1930s when Germany made great strides in the precision machinery industry and began to mass-produce small cameras, notably the Leica and Contax, designed to use roll film.

chungay@koreatimes.co.kr