The Artist AHAE: Yoo Byung-eun Reinvented

[Peter Daley]

Note: The original thread on my previous siye that focuses on Ahae ran for five pages, so at present (April 1, 2026), I still have a lot to add.

April 24: Reclusive Owner Of South Korean Ferry Dubbed Millionaire With No Face Ran Cult (Mail Online)

April 29: Meet the Millionaire Tied to South Korean Ferry Sinking Probe (CNN)

He's known as "the millionaire with no face." And South Korean officials apparently have questions for him...
More recently, South Korean media accounts have identified him as a photographer and artist who goes by the name "Ahae."

A biography on the site describes Ahae as the chairman of 123 Farm, an organic lavender farm on the grounds of the Highland Springs Resort in California. A 2006 Los Angeles Times article names Yoo as chairman of the board of a South Korean company that owns the resort.

The biography also describes Ahae as an entrepreneur who once designed ships that traveled the Han River. True to Yoo's nickname, Ahae doesn't show his face on the website. He only appears from behind, photographing nature scenes in his trademark style -- out an open window of his South Korean studio.

According the website bio, Ahae was born in 1941 in Japan, where his family was during Japanese colonial rule of Korea. That would make him 72 or 73. The biography describes Ahae as "an inventor, entrepreneur, philanthropist, environmental activist, martial artist, painter, sculptor, poet, and photographer."

He also has an interest in farming. In addition to the California lavender farm, Ahae supervises two organic tea plantations in South Korea, according to the bio.

"Ahae has been a conservationist all his life and has done everything within his power to ensure that his business activities do not conflict with his endeavors to maintain the purity of the natural world," the biography reads. "His focus on organic products is a natural extension of his concern for the environment, and the individual in particular."

April 29: Yoo Tries to Protect Reputation as Photographer (The Korea Times)

June 4: Yoo Tried Using Clout in France (Korea JoongAng Daily)

Yoo and his family are believed to have connections with prominent French artists, collectors and museum officials thanks to the patriarch's exhibitions of his own photographs and other artistic endeavors and donations. Yoo's artistic pseudonym is Ahae.

From June to August 2012, an exhibition of Yoo's work titled "De ma Fenetre" (Through My Window) was held at a pavilion in the Tuileries Garden of Paris's Louvre Museum.

Yoo invited prominent artists and museum authorities to the exhibit. The Louvre engraved Yoo's pseudonym on one of its walls as a token of appreciation for a donation reported to be 1.6 billion won ($1.56 million).

The tycoon was also the sole patron to fund the remodeling of the Bosquet du Theatre d'Eau (Water Theatre Grove) on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles. He donated more than 1 billion won to the theater. The official website of Versailles recognizes Yoo as a donor.

The question now is whether Yoo's connections in France will help his daughter's legal case. They didn't seem to help his asylum bid. Local media outlets said Yoo's middleman also made asylum enquiries at the embassies of the Philippines and Canada.

[Peter Daley]

Although I haven't explored the music of Michael Nyman, this was one of the few times my interest in cults intersected with my love of music. Actually, it's not all that uncommon.

Seven months before the sinking of the Sewol, a symphony dedicated to Yoo Byeung-eun had its premier by the London Symphony Orchestra. The recording mentioned below may or may not have taken place, but the symphony wasn't released as planned.

News - Nyman Symphony No 6 Premiere

Friday, September 06, 2013
On September 8 the London Symphony Orchestra will premiere a new orchestral work by Michael Nyman, Symphony No 6 'Ahae'. The composer will conduct the performance, which takes place at The Royal Opera of the Palace of Versailles, Paris. The symphony in four movements represents the four seasons in nature as depicted by the artist Ahae in his photographic work "Through My Window". The piece will be performed to mark the end of an exhibition of wildlife photographs taken by the South Korean industrialist, known simply as Ahae. Several hundred of the 2.6 million images taken by Ahae have been on display; all photographs were taken from a first-floor window of Ahae's home near Seoul, which he rarely leaves.

The new symphony is part of a major series of symphonies that Nyman is composing which are intended for premiere over the next two years in celebration of his 70th birthday. Symphony No 6 is due to be recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra for release at a later date.

The above promo blurb was deleted soon after the sinking, and I knew this link was still available showing part of the musical score - correction, it's the full score - and how to hire it for performance, but I had assumed the symphony had been scrapped. However, I was just now - March 31, 2026 - as I finally get around to adding a little to this thread, noticed it was performed two years after the sinking in 2016 conducted by the composer. I know for a fact Michael was informed about the criminal and cultic history of "Ahae" and the horror that was the Sewol's sinking. The name "Ahae", the title of the symphony, isn't used here:

But it does appear on the score excerpts I linked to above:

I guess Michael liked the music he wrote for his dead cult leader patron.

Bizarre factoid: Before honouring Yoo with a symphony, Michael Nyman scored a film called Drowning by Numbers.

[Peter Daley]

Ahae's website then, and now.

Then - before and soon after the sinking.

Some sentences I highlighted when first reading it:

A vague reference to perhaps his time in jail:

It was during the 1970s that Ahae first became active in the photographic field; he started collecting cameras and taking photographs, and this continued through the 80s. In those years, however, time and other commitments would not allow him to pursue this art form with the intensity that he desired. He was forced to apply his hand elsewhere and had to wait a couple of decades before he was able to take up his camera once more.

And then his taking of millions of photos out of the same window. Do the maths:

Recently, in the course of four years, Ahae took more than 2.6 million photographs—all from just one window of his studio—recording the countless episodes that took place within his view amongst the creatures with whom we share our planet. It was selections from these photographs that were on display at the first Through My Window exhibition at Grand Central Terminal in spring, 2011.

During these four years Ahae was to be found at his window every day, come rain or shine, recording every natural feature and scene that catches his eye. Most of these episodes go unnoticed. Ahae not only sees them, but through his art, he attempts to bring them to the view of the rest of the world. Scenes pastoral and comic, dramatic and tragic, dynamic and serene, enchanting and breathtakingly beautiful are captured through his lens.

Again, do the maths - or "math" if you're American:

Since Ahae takes an average of 2,000 to 4,000 photographs every day, it has become necessary to establish a photo-processing station to facilitate the archiving of the constant flood of photographs. This is operated by Ahae Press, Inc. During processing, in keeping with Ahae's philosophy of maintaining natural integrity, there is absolutely no manipulation of photographs, such as colour alteration, cutting and pasting, combining of photographs, or introduction of foreign elements into the images; only clean-up of photographs (aligning, spot-removing, and minor contrast and light correction) is allowed before the final works are printed.

The amazing accomplishment of producing one million photographs in two years through just one window has never before been attempted, let alone carried out.

I wonder why?

Now - It has been trimmed and mention added of the ferry tragedy and his jailing, which helped inspire his photo project. The jailing was significant in that respect, but was not mentioned until after his death.

In 1991, after an intense and sensationalist media campaign against him, Ahae was convicted of financial crimes that he firmly maintained throughout his life he did not commit. Ahae was incarcerated for four years. In his cell, there was a window through which he would watch a tree with a bird's nest wisely built between the tree's thickest branches. He spoke about this scene occasionally after his release. In 2009, in the countryside of South Korea, as Ahae set out to sketch the nature scene outside his studio window, he noticed the stirrings of the various fauna and began photographing them. This soon evolved into what is now known as the Through My Window project, in which from one window each day and night continuously for five years, Ahae took 3.3 million photographs of the natural world just beyond his window. Throughout all hours of the days and nights of the four seasons, he captured the birds, water deer, land and sky, nightscapes, and water reflections. The project revealed itself to be Ahae's opportunity to regain the four years he had lost by sharing with the world the seemingly obvious and yet commonly unnoticed natural universe. This insight into nature could only be gained through Ahae's unbroken observation, through the camera lens, of the natural world over the course of years, battling with the ceaseless elements of his internal and external conditions, to ultimately reveal the infinity of the natural world. This discovery could not be suppressed by physical confinement (the involuntary confinement of his imprisonment), but rather was made possible by it (the voluntary confinement to one window in his studio).

On April 16, 2014, at the end of Ahae's fifth year into the project, the sinking of the Sewol ferry resulted in the tragic deaths of 304 passengers, the majority of whom were children. The Sewol was owned by a company that emerged during the East Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s from a separate company that was originally founded by Ahae. Once again Ahae was engulfed in controversy. In the summer of 2014, while he was being pursued by the authorities as the alleged ultimate cause of this tragedy, Ahae was found dead under mysterious circumstances. Those close to Ahae maintain that he was neither the owner of the ferry company nor involved in its day-to-day operations. And, in August 2016, a three-judge panel of the Seoul Administrative Court unanimously rejected the argument that Ahae owned an interest in the ferry company, finding that there was insufficient evidence to connect Ahae to the company.

Now we continue to carry out the mission of the project started by Ahae in the last years of his life and, in accordance with the artist's wish, to share the beauty of the natural world with others; to emphasize the importance of clean air, fresh water, and natural food to maintain a healthy body and mind; and to help people incorporate these elements in their lives to the greatest extent possible.