The Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) has opened a new branch dedicated to photography in South Korea’s Dobong-gu district. According to a statement announcing the project, the Photography Museum of Seoul (Photo-SeMA) is the country’s first public museum dedicated to photography, and aims to provide a central venue for cultivating and promoting the medium.
The 7,048 sq. m. Photo-SeMA will draw from SeMA’s existing collection of over 20,000 relevant artworks and archival materials from the 1920s to the 1990s, starting with two exhibitions themed around “light obsession” (both 29 May to 12 October).
The first, Storage Story, is made up of commissioned photography-based works about the museum’s founding process and identity by six contemporary artists: Dongsin Seo, Won Seoung Won, Jihyun Jung, Joo Yongseong, Melmel Chung and Jooyoung Oh. The second, The Radiance: Beginnings of Korean Art Photography, showcases Jung Haechang, Lim Suk Je, Lee Hyungrok, Cho Hyun, and Park Youngsook—five artists instrumental in establishing the history of Korean art photography.
“Together with Buk-Seoul Museum of Art, we hope that Photography Seoul Museum of Art will become a new cultural anchor in the northeastern region of Seoul,” said Choi Eunju, the general director of SeMA. “By exploring photography as one of the most accessible yet critically positioned mediums in both the history of art and contemporary practice, we aim to establish this institution as Korea’s leading museum of photography and a prominent presence in Asia and beyond.”
Once the Seo-Seoul Museum of Art opens later this year, Photo-SeMA will be part of an eight branch network run by the city-level museum. Since 2000, SeMA also hosted the Seoul Mediacity Biennale, which this year will be organised by Anton Vidokle, Hallie Ayres, and Lukas Brasiskis around the theme of Séance: Technology of Spirit (26 August to 23 November, 2025).
