There is probably no other country on this planet that has achieved more in the period since the second world war than South-Korea. In the fifties, after the Korean War, there were still people starving to death. Today they have surpassed many longtime established regions of the world on the right lane and lost contact in the rear view mirror. Thanks to their incredibly hard working people, great education and integrity.
But recently there were social unrests happening in Seoul. They took place in front of the Chanel boutique in Myeong-dong. Chanel had raised the prices of their handbags several times. South-Korean women had compared them with those prices in other countries and considered them as highly unfair. The police had to monitor the situation.
Nonetheless there are still real social issues existing in South-Korea. Many older people that are less educated have to work until the last day of their lives. You will recognize the old men pulling their heavy carriages while searching for cardboards left in the streets of Seoul, grandmas working as cleaning women late in the night and from very early on at the markets. Graceful people that laid the foundations of the hyper modern country that is South-Korea today.
If you head over to the district of Gangnam you will face another aspect of the South-Korean capital. Traffic jams entirely made of Porsches, Maybachs, Bentleys and other air improving cars. The South-Koreans have achieved so much but it’s still not enough. This is one of the most highly indebted societies in the world. Every Gangnam guy wants to look like the super chief and he will always drive that car that his bank will allow him under headaches. For men and women there are more plastic surgeries than fast food branches provided in Gangnam. Many people loose themselves in their ambitions. For those who cannot keep up with this there are telephones installed on the bridges above the river Han where they can make their last call. For potentially being saved.
Other people simply live. But Koreans survive. This is their daily mission and it is engraved in their common soul since so many years of hardship, war and occupation. With or without a Chanel handbag in their hands.
The look of the city is very different from quarter to quarter. Industrial conglomerates like Samsung, LG, SK and Hyundai, the so called Chaebols, that are known across the world for microchips, cars, mobile phones and all kinds of household devices are also very busy with building huge apartment blocks on every single square meter that they can get their hands on. The old quarters of Seoul with their healthy mixture of craft businesses and residential buildings get fenced and discreetly dredged away behind. Block by block. Like currently in the Eulji-ro (street) area or around the „Makercity Sewoon“ block, a leftover from the sixties. Then the only drug allowed by the South-Korean government (beside money), concrete, is poured on the empty place. People from the countryside flock to the capital in the hope to find a more exciting life here. And more than a third of all households in Seoul are single person households. Both causes lead to the high demand for apartments. That are made as rapid as bird cages in other countries and then are sold to the customers. In some areas in Seoul you cannot see the horizon any longer because of concrete. Even if you stand on an elevated level. This sweet cookie dough that puts the economy on a sugar high looks so very rational. But is it ?
The german word „Mietskaserne“ is a combination of „mieten“ (to rent) and „Kaserne“ (barracks). Meaning a huge german housing block that denies any kind of individuality of the residents. Why should the South-Koreans repeat the failures in urban planning of western cities step by step instead of finding a better (meaning: „human“) way to skip into the future ? There are strong tendencies to even further transform the whole city of Seoul into a machine that delievers the resources desired by the various industries. Human resources included. But this may be the decisive question of our time - do the people and their city exist to serve the economy ? Or is the economy there to serve the people ? Is the ultimate purpose of human live to deliver nice numbers at the end of the quarter ? Does it make sense for the citizens if their society is even based on numbers ? According to a recent survey by the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism 7 out of 10 Koreans feel lonely on a regular basis. The ministry has calculated that the costs for only those young people who really live in isolation summ up to the amount of 7.5 trillion won ($ 5.4 billion). Can we assume that the loneliest of all societies may be one where the government even converts the loneliness of the citizens into dollars ? Some old quarters in Seoul may deserve some renovation but there people know each other and they love to chat in the streets while the sun shines on their community. In contrast between the concrete blocks you will hardly see anybody. They look like empty. The construction companies that build and sell those housing blocks make nothing but severe losses with this business. Samsung for example has to transfer huge amounts of money gained by other parts of the conglomerate (like the mobile phones) to the construction branch to keep it artificially alive. Is there anybody who really benefits from this blockedemic ?
There are still many naturally grown parts of the city left like in Seochon, Insa-dong, Dongdaemun or Mapo where you will still feel as a human citizen, less exploited by conglomerates and taken seriously with your need for a little idyll. There the Hanoks nest, traditional korean houses made with wood and swung tiled roofs. Its origins lie in the 14th century and today many of them are made with bricks or even glass walls as a chic boutique store or restaurant. Time runs fast in South-Korea and the Hanoks keep pace.
Some Mega Design Projects have been dropped on the city. The Dongdaemun Design Plaza (Zaha Hadid), the Amore Pacific HQ (David Chipperfield) and the Lotte World Tower (Kohn Pedersen Fox), with 555 m the highest building of South-Korea, replaced whole quarters of the South-Korean capital. The Lotte conglomerate belongs to the South-Korean Chaebols and it sells everything from orange juice to apartments. The founder of Lotte, Shin Kyuk-ho, was so touched by Johann Wolfgang Goethes novel „Die Leiden des jungen Werthers“ that he named his company after Lotte who broke the Werthers heart. Around these very designy western style complexes you will still find the original city of Seoul playing its beautiful authentic korean contrasts against them. There are weired colors that you will only ever find in this city and surfaces, textures, Hanoks and Hangeul calligraphies that you never could have imagined unless you found them here. In the great city of Seoul.
This very sober description of a 24 million metropole is an exercise in simplicity. Every image is photographed with the same lens, a 70 mm. With architecture there is pretty much always a lack of space. The objects are huge and often there is no possibility to distance yourself from the object. You can either use a wide angle lens that distorts the proportions of the building. Or you tend to use a camera that on the backside of the system offers a wider film/sensor format. These Seoul images are taken with a special architectural camera that provides a digital format more or less equivalent to the traditional 4,5 x 6 cm medium film format as a standard. But the camera also offers the possibility to stitch two images together in a seamless way, resulting in either a 4,5 x 10,5 cm panoramic or a 5,5 x 8 cm format, all photographed in 150 MP. Using these image formats enables to capture a vast scenery even with a moderate tele lens like the 70 mm that will show the actual proportions of the streets and buildings in a very accurate, relaxed and extremely detailed way. The panoramic format for example can be printed 0,9 m x 2,12 m in 300 dpi. The disadvantage: 10 kilograms of equipment on your back.
Seoul, February and March 2023