Angela Lyras

Angela Lyras photographs document a journey that begins Seoul, S. Korea and ends in Bousan and Ulsan, for the official delivery and naming ceremonies of her family’s new LPG carrier vessel, the Captain Nicholas ML (after her father). Through the lens of her camera we follow the narrative of her weeklong trip. From the official events and celebrations of the ship naming, we progress to the in-between-times that more fully inform the experience of her visit to this ultra-modern country. Her observations are at once humorous and tinged with melancholy. Her eye is drawn to incidental events, the tarnished high-gloss of hotels, the pop-culture of TV, billboard advertising, and corporate icons and slogans in a foreign land. In these photographs, portraits of power figures might occur along side provocatively ribald or straightforwardly strange images – yet they all convey the alienating sense of the relentless passage of time and the destructive tendency of mankind in his insatiable desire for comfort and consumer ecstasy.

Untitled 2010, digital photograph

Untitled 2010, digital photograph

Untitled 2010, digital photograph

Untitled 2010, digital photograph

Untitled 2010, digital photograph

Untitled 2010, digital photograph

Untitled 2010, digital photograph