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KOREA ; In the 1980’s (signed)

by Koo Bohnchang

Photographs: Koo Bohnchang

Text: Choi Bum

Publisher: Mind Eyes

248 pages

Year: 2022

ISBN: 979-11-974321-2-5

Price: 69 €

Comments: 24 x 18 cm

When I think back on the 80s, I think of the day I returned to Korea from Germany. The air of Seoul I first inhaled as I left Gimpo Airport was smoky to the point where I had never felt in Germany before. Hamburg, with its thick forests, and Seoul, with economic development as its top priority, had a different air quality that I could discern with my sense of smell. Just within a few months, I got used to the stuffiness that would not have bothered me without six years of living in Europe. In fact, the quick adaptation was what terrified me more.

It wasn’t just the breathing that was suffocating. The city where its people rushed around with little time, cars honked as if competing with one another, and no one took issue with the merchants on loudspeakers selling things early in the morning in front of apartments. Seoul was rapidly expanding while filled with noises. The occasional tear gas fired and spread through the streets was the darkness of the time that attacked the senses of smell and hearing.

As I was used to the calm gray of Germany with frequent rains, the splendid colors of Hanbok rather felt unfamiliar to me. The dazzling color and design of the billboards on the street were a reality I could not avoid. There were beautiful colors and forms unique to Korea that I had forgotten, but most of the city stimulated the gaze too much. The apartments and tall buildings that packed the city center with the same looks. Seoul and big cities hastily decorated their appearances in the face of the 1988 Olympics, but our lives stained with the fingermarks of time were still there in the alleys.

The visual elements I would have taken for granted if I continued living in Korea made me press the shutter. This series is a self-portrait of my mid-30s trying to settle down in Korea as well as the behind-the-scenes of Korea that tried to change in the 1980s. This photo book is also "my testimony" of the era.

More books by Koo Bohnchang

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Random selection from the Virtual bookshelf josefchladek.com

look inside

KOREA ; In the 1980’s (signed)

by Koo Bohnchang

Photographs: Koo Bohnchang

Text: Choi Bum

Publisher: Mind Eyes

248 pages

Year: 2022

ISBN: 979-11-974321-2-5

Price: 69 €

Comments: 24 x 18 cm

When I think back on the 80s, I think of the day I returned to Korea from Germany. The air of Seoul I first inhaled as I left Gimpo Airport was smoky to the point where I had never felt in Germany before. Hamburg, with its thick forests, and Seoul, with economic development as its top priority, had a different air quality that I could discern with my sense of smell. Just within a few months, I got used to the stuffiness that would not have bothered me without six years of living in Europe. In fact, the quick adaptation was what terrified me more.

It wasn’t just the breathing that was suffocating. The city where its people rushed around with little time, cars honked as if competing with one another, and no one took issue with the merchants on loudspeakers selling things early in the morning in front of apartments. Seoul was rapidly expanding while filled with noises. The occasional tear gas fired and spread through the streets was the darkness of the time that attacked the senses of smell and hearing.

As I was used to the calm gray of Germany with frequent rains, the splendid colors of Hanbok rather felt unfamiliar to me. The dazzling color and design of the billboards on the street were a reality I could not avoid. There were beautiful colors and forms unique to Korea that I had forgotten, but most of the city stimulated the gaze too much. The apartments and tall buildings that packed the city center with the same looks. Seoul and big cities hastily decorated their appearances in the face of the 1988 Olympics, but our lives stained with the fingermarks of time were still there in the alleys.

The visual elements I would have taken for granted if I continued living in Korea made me press the shutter. This series is a self-portrait of my mid-30s trying to settle down in Korea as well as the behind-the-scenes of Korea that tried to change in the 1980s. This photo book is also "my testimony" of the era.

More books by Koo Bohnchang

more books tagged »Korean« | >> see all

more books tagged »culture« | >> see all

Random selection from the Virtual bookshelf josefchladek.com

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