What Remains Between Us

Artists have long turned to photography to explore the many forms of intimacy and human connection. From some of the medium’s most iconic images like Eisenstaedt’s V-J Day in Times Square, capturing the exuberant embrace of an American sailor and a nurse, to Nan Goldin’s pioneering chronicles of struggles for intimacy, photographers have documented the complex emotional connections between people while relationships are still unfolding.

But what, if anything, remains after a relationship has ended? How do past lovers continue to shape the ways we see and move through the world? And can an emotional bond, once severed, ever truly recede into the past?

Moving beyond Western notions of a singular, intense, and finite love, South Korean artist Yokko Seungyoun explores these questions through hazy, dreamlike images captured within private moments shared with his past lovers. Yokko’s work is grounded in the Korean concept of in-yeon (인연), a subtle and enduring awareness of the unseen threads that connect people over time—a concept that has also found resonance in recent Western discourse through Celine Song’s award-winning film, Past Lives.

Shot over the span of sixteen years, 14 Memories traces these lingering connections through a visual language shaped by the unique aesthetics of a wooden pinhole camera. In Yokko’s practice, intention, technique, and outcome are inseparable. The slow, deliberate process of pinhole photography’s long exposures allows moments of interaction to unfold gradually before the lens. What is preserved is not a literal record, but the essence of shared experiences through fragmented bodies and layered movement.

The technical “imperfections” inherent to pinhole photography; softened focus, overexposure, fading edges, and luminous flares, become expressive tools within Yokko’s work. These qualities dissolve clear boundaries between subject and environment, amplifying the sensation of emotional afterimages rather than fixed moments. What once occurred begins to blur, reshaped by how it is remembered rather than how it happened.

Pinhole photography also introduces a distinct way of seeing. Using the camera’s small '“image circle”, Yokko presents his subjects through a seemingly voyeuristic lens. At first glance, the photographs may feel intrusive, as if trespassing on private moments of couples’ quiet play in the bedroom, sharing a bath or wandering city streets together. Yet, the sitter is always revealed through what appears to be the lover’s gaze. We see how he saw.

The circular framing of the camera suggests peering in, but the gaze emerges from relationships built on trust. Even moments that might feel voyeuristic exist within a shared, mutually permitted distance. This deliberate tension becomes a central device within 14 Memories, revealing the complexity of intimate relationships, where closeness and observation coexist.

Embracing the visual language of pinhole photography, 14 Memories unfolds as a meditation on in-yeon and the persistence of emotional bonds. Yokko visualises intimacy and the lingering bonds of past lovers, gently inviting the viewer into these private moments, encouraging reflection on our own memories and the ways they continue to shape us. Yokko’s photographs hold what is easily lost: fleeting moments shared between two people.

Neither fully present nor entirely gone, the moments captured in 14 Memories persist, transformed and alive in memory. Yokko’s work becomes both a personal archive and a visual meditation on connection, time, and the subtle imprints we leave on one another long after touch has faded.

A heartfelt thank you to Yokko for taking the time to share her thoughts with me!

All photographs in this exhibition are available to purchase. Please contact Elliott Gallery for availability and prices.