I would have never thought visiting and enjoying parks would be such a me thing before living in Korea, but to my surprise, I can say I have yet another hobby. Chuseok, an important holiday here in Korea, awarded me almost a full week off of school. Believe me, I took full advantage of that time to explore more of Seoul.
The parks here are huge and beautiful. For some reason, I always feel the need to visit every single inch of these parks despite how tired I am along with my severe lack of athletic ability. Seoul Forest Park, one of the first parks I had the privilege of visiting, has a bridge connecting over a highway leading to the Han River. When I got to the river, out of the corner of my eye I saw a school of fish jumping in and out of the water. The more fish that jumped, the more pumped I got. I think I even audibly gasped a couple of times because I was genuinely impressed with the height some of the fish reached. As an amateur fisherman, there was nothing more I wanted to do besides spend hours sitting on a foldable chair at the end of the river bank while casting a line only to catch absolutely nothing. Truly one of my favorite memories here.
I think living here has made me a better photographer. Something about the scenery is just so mesmorizing that I feel as if I am forced to capture it. I’ve only been into photography for less than a year and I’ve been ever so slightly getting better. Some of my friends back in Monterey have likened my shots to that of a photo series. My shots are generally a combination of different subjects and sceneries, but the heart of my photography has always been capturing hardcore punk shows. It’s how I got into it.
When I came to Seoul, I had to find where the hardcore scene was. It was quite difficult to find anything equal to what it is back home, but seek and ye shall find.
I ended up finding a club that regularly features local hardcore and metal acts. I wasn’t sure what the scene would be like but the moment the first act went on and everyone started to shove each other and mosh, I figured I was in the right place. My shots came out clean and to my surprise, the show ended up being less violent and physical, which I didn’t mind. However, one of the acts did throw water into the crowd which did get on my camera. I was pressed, but it is what it is. One of my Korean friends couldn’t believe that I found a hardcore show, as they didn’t think there was a scene in Seoul. I simply told them that punk is just that global.
