Bae Bien-u

Bae Bien-u (born May 22, 1950) is a South Korean photographer. He is a professor in Seoul Institute of the Arts.

Early life and career
Bae was born in Suncheon and grew up in Yeosu, Jeollanam-do in 1950, and graduated from Hongik University's College of Arts in 1974 and the graduate school of the same university in 1976.

Renowned as a professional photographer with themes especially concentrated on pine trees, he has become a representative photographer with the reputation of capturing the characteristic sentiments of Korea including the pine trees, oceans and mountains with his camera rather than a brush.

He became better-known outside of South Korea after selling one of his pine tree photographs to English singer Elton John in 2005. Former South Korean president Lee Myung-bak later gave a collection of Bae's pine tree photographs to U.S. president Barack Obama during a summit held in Washington.

He served as professor of the Department of Photography at Seoul Institute of the Arts.

Selected solo exhibitions
Some of his solo exhibitions are listed below:
 * 2008: Sacred Wood, BOZAR - Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles, Brussels
 * 2009: Sacred Wood, Aando Fine Art, Berlin
 * 2009: Sacred Wood, Galerie zur Stockeregg, Zurich
 * 2009: Soul Garden, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Korea - Deoksugung, Seoul
 * 2011: ConvexConcave, Axel Vervoordt Gallery, Antwerpen
 * 2012: Windscape, Aando Fine Art, Berlin
 * 2012: Windscape, Christophe Guye Galerie, Zurich
 * 2014: Counterbalance, Axel Vervoordt Gallery, Antwerp
 * 2015: Dans un forêt l’autre, Château de Chambord, Domain national de Chambord
 * 2016: Bae Bien-U -分合 Part:Meet, Axel Vervoordt Gallery, Hong Kong
 * 2016: Bae Bien-U - L'Esprit du Lieu, Musée de la Mer, Cannes

Collections of photographs

 * To live in a thickly forested mountain (청산에 살어리랏다), 2005, ISBN 9788930101769
 * Changdeokgung (창덕궁), 2009, ISBN 9788992074353