Everyone sees what one wants to see and listens to what one wants to listen. Like all others, photographer JOO Myung Duck reveals in his photographs only what he wishes to see in eccentric ways. He refuses to photograph the conventional beauty, joy, and sadness if those fail to move his heart. This time he captured lotus. He photographed, rested, and looked again repeatedly. It must have been an effort to overcome the popular belief and renew himself. Lotus stood there as it always has, but as he comprehended the laws of nature lotus became yet another Korean landscape.

Lotus is flower that roots and blossoms from the abyss. It stretches the roots deep into the earth, grows wide, broad leaves, flowers fragrant buds above the water on which they fall, and in the end returns to water to nourish the seeds there. JOO's PADMA contains the cycle of life circling in the water following the laws of nature. It does not rely on the extravagant form of flowers or the beauty in the subject. It is meaningful as landscape because it notices not just the lotus but also the energy of water surrounding the plant. Water is like a mother carrying life in her womb. It embraces all filth, purifies, blossoms, and grows seeds with almighty power of life. The strength of abyss timelessly guarding the flowers and roots of lotus is not like the energy we sense from the land, but it lies in the unveiled quietness. It is not dynamic as the waterfalls and not indifferent like the ocean. It embraces the elegance free from the extravagance of fully blossomed flowers, and even the sorrow of dying. Instinctively the leaves reach out towards the sun and when the vividness of summer fades away the flower dries and crumbles way to have a desolate death. However the light falling on the surface with the flower assures and comforts us for returning to nature. It blooms in the early morning to be the fancy blossom momentarily, only to put itself together to greet the winter and finally, recoil into the water it came from. The lotus JOO sees is a new interpretation of Korean landscape which he still is affectionate about.

PADMA is a full presentation of the photographer's expertness, facing directly at the beauty of how all things perish and disappear as time goes by. Lotus is itself nature that holds life and it becomes part of the bigger nature that is water. The tranquility of being worn out in time to finally return to nature provides the reason for new creations that overcomes the common beauty available to anyone. The bright light shedding on the lotus floating on the glistening surface is the vain aspects of expiration as time flows, and also the compassion for the land that has kept its place here and forever. It is the force that brings our attention to JOO Myung Duck's PADMA . Now he has captured lotus as the base of Korean culture and roots of all civilization. His roots are in Korea but he takes a big step into a wider world, like the lotus expanding its territory through the wide waters although its roots are anchored in one place.