The Images of Children Seen through the Lens: Korean Children of the 20th century and Visual History

Abstract

Since the introduction of moving image technology from the Western world in the early 20th century, many moving images depicting children have been produced in and outside Korea by various subjects with various perspectives. Although many of them had not survived into the 21st century for various reasons, various archives and institutions, including the Korean Film Archive (KOFA), have steadily preserved and digitized these early moving images since the 1990s. However, there has been little academic consensus on the methodologies and techniques on how to contextualize these materials from a historical perspective and use them as historical sources.BRBased on the surviving moving images of Korea made during the era of “Analog” media (films, videotapes, etc.) produced over a century, this paper will initially give general discussions and descriptions on the surviving moving images of Korea and Korean children, which reveal changes, continuity, competition, and connection of perspectives and understanding of Korea and Korean children with the changing sociopolitical and sociocultural aspects in the 20th century Korea.