Tim Franco’s solo exhibition, titled “Unperson,” will be held at The Sit Down Gallery from June 2nd to July 29th, 2023.
Tim Franco is a Franco-Polish photographer who has been living and working in Seoul since 2016. Known for his meticulous approach, Franco devotes considerable time, sometimes years, to his projects, focusing on social issues concerning marginalized communities and underrepresented minorities.

“Unperson” showcases a dual series created by Tim Franco, capturing the essence of North Korean defectors. In South Korea, he photographed both male and female defectors, while also capturing the landscapes of their homeland that they left behind. Utilizing traditional film cameras rather than digital ones, Franco’s images shed light on contemporary subjects that are often overlooked. He skillfully plays with the conventions of documentary photography.

From 2017 to 2020, Tim Franco met with North Korean defectors who had escaped the regime and sought refuge in South Korea. His studio, located in the heart of Seoul, became a space where he took their portraits using a Polaroid camera. This intimate process allowed him to build a connection with his subjects and delve into their stories. Instead of discarding the polaroid negatives as is customary, Franco preserved them and applied a unique chemical treatment to develop them again. The resulting images, framed within a green ring and often bearing marks of wear, reflect the arduous journeys undertaken by these individuals fleeing for their lives. This technique also enables Franco to move beyond a purely documentary approach, imbuing his photographic gesture with technical and aesthetic experimentation. Each portrait becomes a narrative, a distinct journey, offering insight into a lesser-known aspect of migration.

To gain a deeper understanding of what these defectors had fled, Tim Franco traveled to North Korea. He sought to capture the hidden aspects of the country, far from the authorized images portraying orderly crowds during regime celebrations. Fascinated by the beauty of North Korean landscapes, his photographs exhibit a remarkable harmony of colors and graphic lines. Vibrant hues from painted propaganda panels contrast with the softer tones found in the photographed spaces. Some urban landscapes, untouched by time and immaculate, prove disorienting to the Western eye. An underlying sense of anxiety permeates, evoking the fear of unintentional offense to North Korea. The regime’s presence looms large, depicted through monumental sculptures and propaganda posters.

Tim Franco’s images are meticulously composed, yet they retain an authentic quality, avoiding artificial staging. He blends a documentary approach with a minimalist aesthetic, allowing the subjects to speak for themselves. Portraiture has always held a central place in his body of work, and the portraits featured in this series exhibit exceptional sensitivity and depth.