He doesn’t even open delivery boxes with a knife. He uses a German-made cutter (Photo 1) made of stainless steel, which looks dainty like a seahorse but is safe and strong. The hook-shaped blade cuts off anything that gets in the way without touching the hand, so I feel a strange sense of pleasure every time I use it. Not even a sip of beer can pass his lips. The quality of pleasure is discussed in the subtle difference in thickness of the glass between the beer and the lips.
This man with a detailed taste that appears in a Haruki novel is Yoon Gwang-jun, a ‘living luxury lover.’ He is a ‘photographer who writes’ famous for his bestsellers ‘A Well-Taken Photo’ and ‘Aesthetic Lessons’ and an ‘art worker’ who makes it his business to discuss all kinds of beauty in the world, including audio criticism.
He has published the final edition of the ‘Life Luxury’ series that he started in 2002. 『Yoon Gwang-Jun’s Living Luxury 101』 (Eulyu Munhwasa) carefully selected 101 of the contents that were serialized three times in this magazine, and he declared that he will no longer write articles on the same topic. This is because the intention behind creating the term ‘lifestyle luxury goods’ 20 years ago has been fulfilled.
“A review of the first book in 2002 said, ‘It appears to be the start of an era of diversification where individuals can talk about their tastes.’ I was influenced by that strangeness while traveling to Japan to report in the 80s and 90s, when Koreans were buried in higher worldly values. When you go to a bookstore, you will find many books from a microscopic perspective, such as stories about things, rather than large-scale discourses such as history or philosophy. “I started thinking that this kind of attention was needed because the diversity was so refreshing, but now there are more people who have experienced more diverse things than me.”
Do not open the delivery box with a knife.
Q: Did you discover individuals in the stories of objects?
A: “There is no original object in the world. It was created by someone, but it started with an individual, not an organization or country. The myths of Google and Silicon Valley also started from the head of one talented person, and objects are the most accurate tool to reveal an individual’s life. However, we live our lives ignoring the meaning and value of things. “I argued that these seemingly insignificant everyday items are very important components of one’s life, and that they should be beautiful above all else.”
Q: You said, ‘You have to spend money on everyday life,’ but you usually save money for special occasions.
A: “I feel foolish to believe there is a special day. If birthdays are important, even if you live 60 years, there will only be 60 of them. It’s not like I feel anything special on a special day. I need someone to share the warmth of a cup of tea on a cold day, so what good is Kim Tae-hee over there? (Laughs) I think that human happiness should take on a specific form and is not a state, but the power of repetition. “It’s important to keep those moments going, not to enjoy them once in a while, so you have to keep the prettiest things in front of you.”
Although he is a sophisticated person who lives in ‘luxury life’ and even measures the weight of coffee on a special scale when making coffee, he spent his childhood in a potato field in Hoengseong, Gangwon-do. “Even at a young age, growing up in a barren countryside, I envied the city. The only entertainment tool he had was books, and he dreamed and developed curiosity by reading the 12-volume encyclopedia that his father bought for him at a low price, from ‘ㄱ’ to ‘ㅎ’. “That became the driving force behind my encyclopedic life.”
He majored in photography and worked as a reporter for the monthly ‘Madang’ and ‘Guest Seok’ before publishing the 70-volume 『Natural Exploration in Korea』 complete collection at Woongjin Publishing. However, he was known as an unusual person who left his job at the peak of his career and wandered around the world. “I’m sorry, but one day, all of a sudden, none of my seniors seemed attractive. When I realized that this is where I will be in 10 years if I keep working hard, I resigned the next day. Her wife asks, ‘Is there any solution?’ There is no way. I was afraid that if I tried to come up with a plan, I would lose the courage to come out, so I ran out. “I just said out loud that I wanted to do something new and become a writer.”
Q: Was it attractive outside of work?
A: “The reality was bleak.
It was absurd that the IMF exploded when there was no income . It wasn’t the picture I wanted. Fortunately, her wife, who was involved in her daily life, was good at business. So, she offered to pay him back 10 times if he looked after her for at least 10 years. She was blinded by 10 times, so thankfully, she accepted. Did she keep her promise? “I’ve published about 20 books and it’s still in progress (laughs).”
Q: You were greatly influenced by Hwang Seok-young and Yoo Hong-jun, who you worked with during the monthly ‘Madang’ days.
A: “It was a magazine that covered culture in general, including music and art, so it was a textbook that showed the direction of life. However, the principles I set as a writer were that I would deal with the world of reality, not ideas, and that I would only do what I liked. As a result, only photos, objects, spaces, and audio were left, but as I lived by my principles, there were people who recognized my sincerity. It may be hard to believe, but many of my friends are presidents and chairmen, and I met them all as readers and became friends. “They approached me saying they wanted to live like me, but I learned about the world from them drawing big pictures.”
The person who made a breakthrough in the dark reality of freelancing was also a reader. It is no exaggeration to say that his relationship with Taechang Steel Chairman Yoo Jae-seong, which began with his first book, “The Ecstasy of Sound,” made him who he is today. “I met him because he was a reader, and I guess he felt like we could communicate. Korean men usually maintain an iron wall when it comes to culture and arts that have nothing to do with their livelihood, but I answer no matter what they ask. From then on, it was he who took me to a world that ordinary people cannot experience. Thanks to you, I, a poor person, was able to travel around the world and learn about the true beauty of the world. He is a person who supports many people, saying, ‘Repaying myself is by revealing your talents to the world.’ “The behavior of businessmen who understand the importance of culture is so different.”
If the risk of blindness due to retinal detachment while reporting on Germany
led me to indulge in beauty thanks to Chairman Yoo, the experience of going to Germany to cover the Bauhaus for 10 years with cultural psychologist Kim Jeong-woon, who recently published 『Creative Perspective』, became an inflection point in my life. “Interest in the Bauhaus arose because of Steve Jobs, but Germans neglected it and didn’t have much information about it. After hitting the ground running for about 5 years, I started to see a direction, and for the next 5 years, I studied really important things. “I was able to look into the inner world of the Western world, a place I would never have dared to think about before.”
Q: What was it like when you looked into it?
A: “I witnessed the fundamentals of Western civilization메이저놀이터 overpowering the East. They dealt with reality at a time when we were confined by Confucian ideas. Why does the wind blow and how do ships float? I think that specificity is what has created modern Western civilization. Dealing with reality and substance develops the power to ask questions. This means that interest in a world that can be proven is superior to the idea of discussing a world that cannot be proven. If you are uncomfortable, you should try to find out what the discomfort is, but we did not do that, which is why there is a difference. “Once I learned that, my inferiority complex disappeared.”
Q: While reporting in Germany, you suffered from a detached retina and suffered from blindness.
A: “I saw so many good things that I wondered who would be jealous and that I should stop coveting them now. I almost lost all my means of life, but fortunately the surgery went well. “The disability remains, and I see the world a little differently than others.”
Q: You went through great trouble and were reborn.
A: “I live with the mindset of moving toward better things and doing more of a sharing role. My expectations for good things have grown bigger, and now my eyes can no longer hurt or die (laughter). You might think that such risks and accidents are someone else’s problem, but everyone, without exception, experiences them at least a few times in their lives. Since we do not live in concrete terms, we accept even risks abstractly, but we can prepare for them when we make them concrete. When it comes to a crisis, the difference between those who are prepared and those who are not is very big. “This is why I always keep a car escape tool, one of the 101 luxury items in life, in my car.”