Vice Chairman Tae Young Chung of Hyundai Card Makes Photographer Debut... Expands Management Horizons with Inspiration Beyond Finance

A Veteran Photographer with Over 20 Years of Experience,
Focusing on Relationships Between Subjects

Insights Gained from Art, the Source of Hyundai Card's Premium Management

"Some people press the shutter to capture landscapes, but I mainly take photos for documentation."

This is a remark from Chung Tae-young, Vice Chairman of Hyundai Card, who has over 20 years of experience in photography. On May 9, Vice Chairman Chung officially debuted as a photographer. Until the end of this month, he is holding a photo exhibition titled "Our [Moving] Images" at Hyundai Card Storage in Yongsan-gu, Seoul. The exhibition is a collaboration with photographer Ahn Jooyoung, actor Kim Do-yeon, and advertising director Ray Yi. At the opening event held the day before the exhibition, celebrities including actors Lee Jung-jae and Choi Siwon attended to celebrate Vice Chairman Chung's new endeavor.

Through his personal social networking service (SNS), Vice Chairman Chung stated, "While the Storage exhibition benefits from suggestions by the brand's curators, I also contribute my own ideas," adding, "Joel Meyerowitz's words, 'I don't simply copy the subject, but capture the relationships between subjects,' resonate with me most deeply." He further revealed that this exhibition was conceived through artistic inspiration shared with director Ray Yi and others, leading to their decision to stage the show together.

On May 12, the exhibition space was divided into distinct areas, each reflecting the unique personalities of the four participating artists. Vice Chairman Chung's gallery, utilizing a purple background and dim lighting, enhanced the three-dimensionality of the space by incorporating periodic blackouts. Displayed here were photographic moments such as: ▲ spectators watching the Olympic golf event of his daughter-in-law and Paris Olympic golf champion Lydia Ko ▲ a still life of a table with water bottles and other objects ▲ elderly people enjoying themselves at a trendy pub popular among the younger generation.

A notable characteristic of Vice Chairman Chung's works is the absence of titles. A Hyundai Card curator encountered at the venue explained, "Chung believes that viewers should be able to immediately sense the theme and emotion of a photograph, and that the artist’s intentionality should not interfere with the audience’s experience."

The curator added, "Vice Chairman Chung’s style is to position the subject upright and centered, capturing images in a calm and orderly fashion. However, recently he has expressed concern about becoming overly absorbed in the act of shooting itself rather than the photo, and is now making efforts to avoid excessively rigid compositions and focus on the essence."

The reason Vice Chairman Chung's artistic pursuits are drawing attention from the financial sector is that he has continuously broken away from traditional credit card company management practices. In March, he instructed all employees at the team leader level and above to complete four hours of mandatory in-house artificial intelligence (AI) training, emphasizing that "Hyundai Card must become an information technology (IT) company disguised as a financial institution." For him, who aims to transform the company into a data-driven financial tech enterprise, photography extends beyond a mere hobby; it serves as a channel for interacting with people from various sectors and as a source of inspiration for business insight.

In fact, over the past year, Vice Chairman Chung has held meetings with representatives from global stablecoin company Tether and Song Seungheon, Managing Partner of McKinsey Korea, among others, demonstrating a broad range of activities. This reflects his philosophy that outstanding management is only possible when executives and staff are exposed to diverse fields such as culture and IT, rather than being confined solely to the card business.

A Hyundai Card representative commented, "While leading companies in the business world operate art museums, Hyundai Card’s artistic activities are fundamentally different from simple social contribution. Through initiatives such as Storage, as well as the Cooking, Music, and Design Libraries, Hyundai Card is establishing a unique identity of its own."

The representative continued, "Hyundai Card has focused on 'premium services' that deliver tangible value. Exclusive experiences such as the 'Super Match' featuring Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, and the 'Super Concert' with global artists like Coldplay and Bruno Mars, are made possible by Vice Chairman Chung’s wide-ranging activities and humanistic insight."