Wilson’s Korean Photographs

Wilson visited Jeju and Ulleung Islands and took these photographs.

A group of four buildings with rocks on their roofs, surrounded by planted fields with a rocky coastline in the background.

Wilson explored extensively in what is today North Korea, preserving views of a landscape that is inaccessible today.

A man stands to the right of an Asian black birch and leans against the trunk, an Amur linden grows on the left just behind, a path cuts through the foreground center of the image and herbaceous and woody vegetation fills the foreground and background.
A man stands to the right of a Korean willow tree resting his right hand on the trunk, herbaceous vegetation grows on the flat ground surrounding it and vegetated hills are seen in the distance.
A man wearing white clothing and holding a sickle stands to the right of a birch tree, rock covered land slopes towards the tree, cultivated mountain sides are seen in the distance and a road cuts across the upper part of the mountains beyond.

Wilson was entranced by the landscapes of the Geumgang Mountains (also known as the Diamond Mountains) and took about 80 photographs there.

An upthrust rock formation surrounded by mixed deciduous and conifer vegetation with mountain peaks in the background.
A waterfall between two steep cliffs with trees in foreground.
Tall rock formations with pine woods on their slopes and a mountain peak in the background.
A small stream in valley with mixed pine and oak vegetation on both sides, to the left, a man stands on a wooden support next to a rock face, he holds a hat in his right hand.
Herbaceous and woody vegetation growing on, and around steep lichen covered rock formations.

Wilson visited many of the Buddhist temples, monasteries, and hermitages dotted around the Geumgang Mountain region. He turned his camera on those buildings as well, leaving us a visual record of a cultural landscape that was sadly destroyed by the U.S. Air Force in the Korean War.

A building with a clay tile roof in the center of the image with three small buildings with stones on their shingled roofs in front of it, in a valley with wooded hills surrounding.
Wooden buildings in the foreground, the one on the left with stones on its roof, the one on the right having a tiled roof, with wooded mountains behind.
Trees growing on rocky cliffs with a small structure built on a rocky outcrop halfway up the rock face.
A Korean man (left) and a Japanese man (right) stand on a stony hillside in front of a wooden building with a curved tile roof, beside the building are two men and three pack frames, in the background are craggy wooded peaks.
A man in a broad brimmed hat stands in the right foreground, a low fieldstone wall runs from left to right behind him, in the middle distance a formal wall and stone staircase divides the image and five buildings with curving tile roofs sit on this upper area, mountains are seen in the distance.
A Korean man standing in front of monastery buildings with clay tile roofs with wooded mountain peaks beyond, a small tree grows in the left foreground.
View from a higher vantage point of a complex of buildings with tile roofs, a treeless area may be seen beyond with a wooded hillside in the background.

Wilson also explored extensively through the southern part of the Korean peninsula, in what is today South Korea. His portraits of trees from his travels are magnificent. They highlight the beauty of their structure and help us see the impressive size of the living organisms.

A man in a white coat stands with his right hand on a trunk of a David hemiptelea tree, buildings with straw roofs are seen in the middle distance, with vegetation and hills beyond.
A man stands on sloping ground to the left of a willow, a path run beside him to the left and a road behind him, two structures are seen beyond and hills rise in the distance.
Tree habit with a man in light colored clothing on a hillside with a peak beyond.
Tree habit with Korean man standing to the right, on a hillside.
A man stands in front of a large Manchurian fir, to the left, a Korean man stands in front of a small building with a tile roof.
Three young men standing to the left in front of a David hemiptelea tree