Interview #10: Yaroslava Pakulova (2020)
“The Night of the City”／Interview by Paul Rowland
Yaroslava Pakulova, known by her pseudonym “the night of the city”, loves exploring the huge living organism of Seoul, recording the dark beauty of urban decay on its streets. She combines her excellent eye for colour, texture and composition with a curiosity about the stories of everyday objects, creating figurative images that expand the definition of abstract photography. Through her photos of the “night of the city”, she encourages us to see differently and to imagine more.
PR／Please tell us about yourself and your background.
YP／I am a linguist and translator of Korean. These days I teach Russian to Korean students. My fascination with language shows in my interest in typography or things that resemble letters or characters. I come from an artistic family. My dad was an artist who worked in many fields of art. My mom, though not related to art professionally, has been always encouraged by dad to try creative activities like embroidery. Naturally, I have been into art since being a kid and for a while even considered pursuing a career in it. But then I switched to languages which were my second biggest interest and never regretted my choice. I still do art as a hobby, lately mostly sketching en plein air, usually traditional architecture in Seoul.
PR／How did you get started in photography?
YP／I have always been carrying a camera with me. The closest to what I am doing now was probably during my trip to London in 1996 when I took mostly photos of garbage and gloomy back alleys. This spring I rediscovered Korean indie music. A musician I am particularly fond of, Bek Hyunjin, who is also an artist, sometimes posts on Instagram his random photos of everyday objects. When I saw them, they reminded me of my own photos I never shared because the subject matter seemed so unconventional. So, I thought maybe some people might find them interesting, and thus created a public account.
PR／Who and what are your influences and inspirations?
YP／My main inspiration is Seoul. My influences are all the talented photographers I encounter through IG. Every single photo I see in my feed influences me in a microscopic way. With time influences accumulate and result in a new approach to photography or a sudden interest in a previously unexplored subject. I am a person of habit. When I go for a stroll, I prefer walking the same streets. But due to those influences and subsequent changes I undergo on a daily basis I always find new things to shoot because, while the streets remain the same, I change.
PR／What is the story behind your Instagram username?
YP／I did not think much about my username. I decided on “the night of the city” straightaway. It is the English title of one of my favorite songs by Jeon Ki Sung, the latest project of my other favorite Korean musician who is also an artist. I think it is a perfect name for my account because it combines two things my photos are about — night and city. Night does not only mean nighttime as such, but also darkness, despair and decay. This is what I am most interested in — urban decay.
PR／How do you choose your subjects?
YP／It may look as if I am particularly interested in certain subjects like lonely standing chairs or random garbage. But in fact, it is the colours that decide whether I shoot or not. If the colours do not feel right, I will not take the photo no matter how interesting the composition or texture is. However, I would find it difficult to define the right colours. There are no colours or shades that I particularly dislike. But some combinations of colours put me off or fail to pique my interest. For example, I can not appreciate the combination of yellow and red or red and brown. Also some combinations look banal or lack sophistication.
PR／In what sense do you consider your photos to be abstract?
YP／If you narrow your eyes any image turns into lines and blots. Vice versa an abstract picture can be restored back to a figurative image — with some effort of imagination. I believe abstract art is a form of expression that gives most freedom to interpretation. In my photos I only suggest the vector of thinking by picking a title, but it is the viewer who does the bulk of interpreting. I try to show scenes and objects from everyday life differently, and make people reimagine them as something else. So, in that sense I like to think of some of my photos as of abstract ones.
PR／I often see narratives in your photos. What is the relationship between your photos and narrative?
YP／I always title my photos because I believe it helps the viewer to discover the narrative the picture conveys, especially in case of abstract or texture images which otherwise may be difficult to interpret. I think image and title work together and create a narrative. I would postpone posting a good shot, sometimes for a long time, until I come up with a proper thought-provoking title for it. Some of my photos are easy-to-interpret scenes, while others may require more work of imagination to be enjoyed. This may be the main characteristic of my photos — they are narrative-centered. I would not share a photo if I cannot imagine a story behind it.
PR／What is special about the place where you live?
YP／I love Seoul. From the very first time I came here as a student it felt like home and I never thought of myself as an alien here. Some people look down on Seoul for being inferior or secondary in comparison with Tokyo or Beijing. But I think Seoul has its own unmistakable individuality. It may be noisy, smelly, untidy, but it only makes it warm and human. I see it as a huge living organism that has good and bad days as we all do. I can walk its streets for hours and it is the most enjoyable part of my life here.
Yaroslava Pakulova, known by her pseudonym “the night of the city”, loves exploring the huge living organism of Seoul, recording the dark beauty of urban decay on its streets. She combines her excellent eye for colour, texture and composition with a curiosity about the stories of everyday objects, creating figurative images that expand the definition of abstract photography. Through her photos of the “night of the city”, she encourages us to see differently and to imagine more.
Interviewed by Paul Rowland.
