Seoul Night Series
Project completed in 2016 - 2020
Seoul is a very busy city, especially during the night. Salarymen abandon their desks to relieve stress around a glass of soju, the local alcohol; groups of fashionistas mingle with foreign tourists in the shopping streets of Gangnam or Myeongdong; friends meet up at bars before ending the night at karaoke.
But there is another facet of the city that I fell in love with. Not far from all of this hustle and bustle, a number of tiny streets, dark and quiet, can be found. There, sometimes, just around the corner, an explosion of colourful, artificial lights pierce the darkness to sketch an unexpected story. Even more rarely, these empty alleyways are crossed by shadows that bring life and add to the ambient mystery of the scenes, like ghosts suddenly revealed by the heat of the lights.
Intrigued by these places that I initially discovered by chance, I quickly became obsessed with the power they hold over the imagination. I began to wander relentlessly throughout the anonymous streets of Seoul, until I too became a regular shadow in the night. My photographs are voluntarily far-off from the typical imagery of this city and people familiar with Seoul may not even recognize the locations. That’s because my goal is to reveal the fantasy part of our world and to share the treasures that offer themselves to those who find their way off the beaten path.
