Film drop: Dec 15th-31st…Kodak Tri-X @400

One month down with the M6. Frames from the first two weeks can be found here. Shooting has been slower as the temperatures have dropped to below freezing and the days have gotten shorter. I am still trying to get out a few times a week although I seem to be dipping indoors much more often. Street photography in wintertime Seoul is tough. I stayed warm at a few exhibitions being held around town. One, a project put together by Magnum photographer on AIDS patients held at the Seoul Arts Center, and another of Lim-Eung Sik, the godfather of Korean photography, who had an interesting collection of images on the transformation of Myeong-dong. I am trying to take advantage of the cold by looking through books, reading, printing, and achieving prints in a journal.

Going slowly through my prints I see that my photography gives a slightly jilted perspective on the streets of Seoul. A friend, a traditional Korean artist, wondered why I focus so much of areas like Jongno, on finding the older and rougher elements of the city. I didn’t really know how to answer, just that I find that more interesting, more original, than the glitz of Gangnam and Myeongdong, which could be recreated in any city from here to Timbuktu. Anyway, these photographs only represent a sliver of the city of Seoul.

Last week I further pigeonholed my subject by revisiting one of the oldest and roughest markets in Korea (link #1, link #2). Many of the photos here are from that trip.

As a monthly follow up and continuation of my year long attempt and focusing on one camera, one lens, etc..i will be making a monthly post with 8-10 of my favorite frames from each period/month. So if anyone reads this and has a shot they think should make the cut, please fell free to mention.

Self portrait reflected at the Sonje Art Center. Mild show on the changing urban spaces of Seoul

I find that I rarely take photographs in my neighbourhood because I find it a little life-less and suburban. I am attempting to get past that. This is Jukjeon Station.

Out here it’s mostly non-descript apartment blocks, overpriced cafes, and new mothers behind expensive French made strollers. It’s all nouvea upper middle class with a Samsung plant down the street. There are stories here, but well concealed ones. Relocating from the city the suburban aspects of this place killed me at first. It was everything that I lamented about crass American subdivisions. The total lack of street life makes shooting in public a real task. Maybe that’s an explanation why I so often look to photograph its antithesis in the back alleys and of Jongno.

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Winter’s short days have had me shooting more in the evening. The cloth shutter on the M-6 has been impressively still at lower shutter speeds, making it possible to get a clear exposure where an slr might not. I’ve enjoyed the new foray into nighttime photography, even though it’s damn cold.