Physical Space and its Rewards | Seoul Photographer
Physical Space and its Rewards | Seoul Photographer
Physical Space In And Outside of Seoul
I don't often sit with the differences between city and countryside — but I obviously have something to say about it whenever I look at what came back with me from a day spent outside Seoul. So let me unpack what might seem irrelevant to some, but for me explains exactly how and why these photographs exist.
Most of them were made in the Ganghwa area, just outside the city. There are supposedly 28 islands scattered across the area, 17 of which are uninhabited — and once you're there, you feel every bit of that.
The Reduction of Cognitive Interruption
The physical expansiveness of the countryside does something direct and almost immediate to the mind — it clears it. I've always tried to carry that feeling into the frames I make. Seoul rarely gives you the room to work with a minimalist approach: scale, negative space, geometric shapes, quiet balance. Urban photography can use all of these, but the mental weight you're carrying while shooting in the city is simply heavier. So many things compete for your attention at once that making a truly quiet photograph becomes surprisingly difficult.
Dense urban spaces impose a kind of cognitive architecture on you — walls, noise, unspoken schedules and social expectations. Open space peels most of that away. And when it does, you start to see differently.
