"Face ( Subtitle : Winter ) - Limited Edition 3 of 5" Photograph

The name G.Ryu comes from the Korean word “지류”, meaning a tributary or branch of a river. Just as water divides, flows, and returns to its origin, my art follows the endless cycle of life — from nature to animals, from animals to humans, and ultimately, back to nature again. My works explore this flow — the subtle rhythm that connects existence and disappearance, life and death, memory and silence. A central part of my practice involves withered trees, especially dead yews that endure for decades even after life has left them. By placing light inside these trees, I photograph them as if revealing the remaining pulse of life within death itself. This approach began with my work in Molundae, Jeongseon, where I captured close-up images of ancient trees now gone — each scar, curve, and surface preserving the memory of what once lived. My representative series, “Their Lives – Cameroon”, extends this philosophy from nature to humanity. While staying among various tribes in Cameroon, I witnessed how people live with joy, tradition, and art, even amid scarcity. Through them, I saw that life’s beauty does not depend on abundance — that happiness, like a tributary, finds its own path through the smallest streams of existence. Through both trees and people, I trace the same truth: Life continues to flow. Every being, whether rooted in earth or walking upon it, ultimately returns to the great river of nature.