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Eugene Song

Dr. Tabitha Clark

ENGW1111: Profile

25 October 2021

Kwon O Chul:

Kwon O Chul, from NASA Photo of the Day “Auroras over Northern Canada

Green and red fluorescent lights dance across the horizon of Yellowknife in northern

Canada. The Hunter-shaped constellation, the Orion, can be seen in the background. Two tourists

are gazing across the night sky watching the brilliant and vibrant lights. They are staying in

teepees for the night just to get the chance to watch the aurora and the Orion constellation
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displayed. The Auroras over Northern Canada were taken by astrophotographer and filmmaker,

Kwon O Chul. Kwon O Chul is a great national figure of South Korea and is fighting a political

battle between Japan and South Korea with one of his photographs.

Political battles aren’t only fought in Korea though: the commemoration of Indigenous

People’s Day instead of Columbus Day in the United States has been an ongoing movement

since 1977. The national holiday held on the second Monday of October celebrated the discovery

of the Americas by the Italian explorer, Christopher Columbus. However, this discovery started

the generations of oppression and violence toward Indigenous People in America. This

movement wanted to depict a more accurate version instead of a “white-washed” history. These

explorers brought over lethal diseases (smallpox, influenza, measles), livestock that is not native

to the land, and weapons to the ‘New World’. During the Spaniards colonization of the

Americas, Native culture was destroyed, and Indigenous people were enslaved and killed.

Approximately 95 percent of Indigenous people were killed during this time. It was only October

11, 2021, that President Biden proclaimed this day as Indigenous People’s Day. This day is “to

honor Native Americans, their resilience, and their contributions to American society throughout

history, even as they faced assimilation, discrimination, and genocide spanning generations”

(Prang).
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Kwon O Chul, from NASA “Auroral Snowstorm over Yellowknife”

Political battles can be furthered by representations in forms of media and art. Kwon O

Chul is an astrophotographer that does this type of photography for a living and is the first South

Korean featured in the National Geographic and Astronomy Picture of the Day in NASA. Born

in Seoul, South Korea, Kwon O Chul specializes in time-lapse footage which captures using

visible exposure for only 1.3 seconds. His work combines intricate nature with the vast night sky

creating a harmonious picture. He started photography late in his career. He described his work

life as absolute hell. He has worked multiple, miserable jobs over the span of a decade in the

engineering field. He was working every hour of every day, having no time off for himself or his

family. The stress that he accumulated from his job manifested into mental and physical

symptoms. He was at risk of developing liver cancer. At this time, he decided to go see an

Aurora Borealis. Against his company’s wishes, he took time off of his work knowing that there

was a risk of getting fired. Kwon O Chul believed that watching an aurora is worth the risk. In a

2021 interview with Yoo Jae Suk and Jo Sae ho from You Quiz on The Block, he said “I fell in

love with it. Watching it is a form of catharsis that everyone needs to experience at least once in

their life. I was almost crying, people were frozen. It is the greatest wonder in nature that a

human being can experience”. The day he came back to work, he turned in his letter of

resignation. This was the day he decided to turn his hobby of astrophotography into a full-time

job.
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Kwon O Chul “Dokdo Island”

Kwon O Chul has taken his skills as an astrophotographer to take one of the most

memorable and influential pieces he has taken for South Korea. Taken over the course of three

years, this picture depicts a small island in the center of a sunrise. The rising sun cast an orange

hue across the horizon. This picture was taken on Ulleng do island, a known South Korean land,

and the island in the picture is Dokdo Island. Lining up Dokdo Island, Ulleung do island, and the

sunrise needed precise calculations. He used the Pythagorean Theorem to calculate the exact

location, angle, and height needed to capture this picture. In his first two years, he failed to take

this picture. He was not able to see Dokdo island in his view. After much thought, he failed to

realize that he did not account for the fact that the Earth is not flat in his calculations. He used

the Pythagorean Theorem again and in his third year, he succeeded, capturing this beautiful

image above.
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The political turmoil between Japan and Korea started when the Japanese Empire

imperialized South Korea during 1910 and 1945. During the generations of occupation by Japan,

horrible and atrocious war crimes had been committed. The Japanese Empire worked to destroy

all of the Korean culture: destroying historical buildings, banning people from speaking the

language, burning historical documents, and even going through the lengths of destroying

Korea’s landscape. In addition, “anywhere from 50,000 to 200,000 women – many of them

Korean – were forced into service in Japan’s military brothels” (Reynold). These times are a

painful part of Korean history and these traumatizing old wounds all still contribute to the tense

friction between South Korea and Japan today.

Geographical Records of Sejong Chronicle, 1450

Dokdo Islands are two small islands that are located equidistant between Japan and South

Korea. This piece of land has been a matter of dispute since World War Two. Both Japan and
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South Korea claim to have sovereignty over the two islands. In Japan, it is called Takeshima

meaning ‘Bamboo Island’, while in Korean it is called Dokdo Island meaning ‘solitary islands’.

According to the Geographical Records of Sejong Chronicles published 560 years ago, “the two

islands, Dokdo Island and Ulleng do island, are located in the ocean west of the Korean

peninsula. The two islands are not far apart, so when the weather is clear, it can be seen from the

other island” (King Sejong the Great). Japanese people deemed this as impossible as Dokdo

island is almost 60 miles away from Ulleng do island and it cannot be seen with a naked eye.

However, with this one photograph, Kwon O Chul was able to prove Japan wrong. Similar to

renaming the national holiday, both Kwon O Chul and Indigenous people were able to right the

inconsistencies of history.

Astrophotographer Kwon O Chul sent a photograph to the South Korean government in

hopes that in the video of the national anthem, this photograph can be seen as the first scene of

the national anthem as a source of national pride claiming ‘Dokdo is our land!’. This pays tribute

to soldiers and Korean independence activists sacrificing their lives to fight for SouthKorea.

Through the work of artists like Kwon O Chul, the public is truly able to understand and spread

awareness of the extremity of certain social issues, which goes to show exactly why this type of

art/work is necessary in today’s ever-changing world.

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Work Cited

Blakemore, Erin. “Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples' Day? How the Holiday Has Been

Shaped by Oppression.” History, National Geographic, 9 Oct. 2021,

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/why-some-celebrate-indigenous-

peoples-day-not-columbus-day.

Bloomberg, Isabel Reynolds |. “Analysis | Why Japan's Feud with South Korea Isn't Going

Away.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 3 Aug. 2020,

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/why-japans-feud-with-south-korea-isnt-going-

away/2020/08/02/c782b184-d53b-11ea-a788-2ce86ce81129_story.html.

Bowman, Emma. “Goodbye, Columbus? Here's What Indigenous Peoples' Day Means to Native

Americans.” NPR, NPR, 11 Oct. 2021,

https://www.npr.org/2021/10/11/1044823626/indigenous-peoples-day-native-americans-

columbus.

Genova, Alexandra. “Japan and Korea Disputed the Dodko Islands for 300 Years.” Travel,

National Geographic, 3 May 2021,

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/history-dispute-photos-dodko-rocks-

islands.

“Kwon O Chul.” TWAN, 1 Nov. 2014, https://twanight.org/profile/kwon-o-chul/about/#tab-

content.
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“Kwon O-Chul - an Astrophotographer from South Korea.” Sony Asia Pacific,

https://www.sony-asia.com/alphauniverse/pros/kwon-o-chul.

Lee, Seohyun. “‘울릉도에서 찍은 '독도를 품은 일출' 보고 좋은 기운 얻어 가세요’(영상).”

에포크타임스, 2 Jan. 2021,

https://kr.theepochtimes.com/%EC%9A%B8%EB%A6%89%EB%8F%84%EC%97%90%

EC%84%9C-%EC%B0%8D%EC%9D%80-%EB%8F%85%EB%8F%84%EB%A5%BC-

%ED%92%88%EC%9D%80-%EC%9D%BC%EC%B6%9C-%EB%B3%B4%EA%B3%

A0-%EC%A2%8B%EC%9D%80-%EA%B8%B0%EC%9A%B4-%EC%96%BB_557757.

html.

Nemiroff, Robert. “APOD: 2014 July 14 - Auroras over Northern Canada.” NASA, NASA, 14

July 2014, https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140714.html.

Prang, Allison. “Indigenous Peoples' Day and Columbus Day: What to Know.” The Wall Street

Journal, Dow Jones & Company, 11 Oct. 2021, https://www.wsj.com/articles/columbus-

day-indigenious-peoples-day-what-to-know-

11633787027#:~:text=The%20movement%20in%20the%20U.S.,11%20Indigenous%20Pe

oples'%20Day.&text=In%20many%20places%2C%20the%20day%20has%20replaced%2

0Columbus%20Day.

Quiz on the Block, You. [#요즘뭐봐] 사진을 찍을 때도 삼각 함수가 필요하다면 문과는

지나가겠습니다... 독도 사진에 3 년이 걸린 작가님만의 이유! | #유퀴즈온더블럭

#디글. You Quiz on the Block, 17 Mar. 2017,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgyG3z3fh28. Accessed 2021.

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Shin, Mitch. “South Korea's Fight against the 'Sea of Japan' Pays off .” – The Diplomat, For The

Diplomat, 24 Nov. 2020, https://thediplomat.com/2020/11/south-koreas-fight-against-the-

sea-of-japan-pays-off/.