Seoul, Where the Familiar Meets the Unexpected — Old, Unfamiliar Places I Found Traveling Around Seoul
Seoul, Where the Familiar Meets the Unexpected — Old, Unfamiliar Places I Found Traveling Around Seoul
Photographer Lee Yujin took an X-E4 camera into Seoul’s familiar streets and found something new. Follow her short journey, from Jamsu Bridge, which sits low across the Han River, to the Seoul City Wall (Hanyangdoseong), which looks down over the city’s old neighborhoods.
Words & Photos Lee Yujin
Sponsored by Fujifilm Electronic Imaging Korea
Having known someone for a long time doesn’t necessarily mean the relationship runs deep. The same is true of a city. Seoul, the city where I was born and raised, is still both familiar and strange to me. I’ve never liked the cold of winter, so when it comes I usually stay home or escape somewhere warm. That makes Seoul in winter feel even more unfamiliar.
When I travel, I often walk the streets without a destination. As I slowly take in the alleys of an unfamiliar place, I feel a little closer to the city. So why is it that once I’m back in Korea, I only seek out places I already know? Of course, I also love discovering new scenes within familiar spaces. This winter, I decided to walk through Seoul, my long-time stranger of a city.
My Seoul trip with the X-E4 began somewhere familiar. Even on a road you walk all the time, the shadows it casts change with the hour and every day, and things you passed without a thought suddenly catch your eye. I usually photograph the moments I come across while walking my dog, Pepper, around Seongbuk-dong, and for that a light, intuitive camera is essential. The scenes may look alike at a glance, but they’re always changing, so to catch the one you want, you have to carry a camera with you at all times.
When I travel, I usually carry a light, easy-to-use P&S film camera. The one I use most often is the Fujifilm Klasse W, which is tiny and light, about the size of a palm. I attach a generously long neck strap and wear it diagonally across my shoulder, so I can grab the camera and shoot the instant I want to. The X-E4 is so small that its width and length are almost the same as the Klasse W’s. I consider it a great blessing to live in an age when analog and digital coexist, and now I have a digital camera that feels like my film camera but captures the scenes I want in even finer detail.
P&S film camera: Short for point and shoot. An easy-to-use camera equipped with features such as autofocus and auto exposure.
The X-E4, fitted with the XF27mm II, known as the “pancake lens,” is easy to carry casually on walks with my dog. Together with the lens it weighs less than 500 grams, and its intuitive controls make it well suited to capturing a moment quickly. Its clean design is also appealing. Attaching the TR-XE4 thumb grip to the hot shoe adds stability, both when shooting and in how the camera looks.
The new version of the XF27mm II, which pairs neatly with the X-E4, has an aperture ring, which makes it even more versatile. The moment this lens shone on this Seoul trip came in an alley in Changsin-dong, Jongno District. Walking up a hillside road in Changsin-dong, about a 10-minute walk from Naksan Park, I noticed a small alley. A street lamp and power lines stood between two brick buildings, and through the gap I could see houses and trees at the foot of a cliff. Familiarity and strangeness existed side by side. I wanted to fit all of it into one frame, so I stopped the aperture down to f/13 and took the photo I had in mind.
When I wanted to capture Seoul’s nooks and crannies from different angles and perspectives, I chose zoom lenses such as the XF16-55mm, XF55-200mm and XF50-140mm. Because the body is so small, even with an added lens the overall weight of the kit stays low, so I could walk and enjoy the trip without strain. When a zoom lens feels like too much, you can make the most of the sensor instead. Thanks to a sensor that supports a maximum resolution of 6,240×4,160 pixels, you have plenty of freedom to crop. Shooting with a prime lens and cropping the image can produce creative results. The X-E4 also lightens the burden of post-processing. For this shoot, I mainly used the Classic Neg. film simulation, and I set color density, tone curve and other settings in advance.
The shooting locations I remember most were the Hanyangdoseong Suseong-gil trail along the Seoul City Wall, which runs from Seongbuk-dong to Naksan Park, and Seoullo 7017. I had often walked the wall trail with Pepper, but in what I’d call “my neighborhood,” I began to notice scenes I’d usually passed without a glance. On walks with Pepper, I climbed the trail with the XF27mm II attached, and thanks to its light weight I was able to quickly fit Hyehwamun Gate and a bus passing beneath it into one frame. When I went back to the trail alone, I attached a telephoto zoom lens and took my time looking around, photographing a village of colorful rooftops and the redevelopment under way.
Seoullo 7017, in front of Seoul Station, was also memorable. Trains passing beneath the overpass, Sungnyemun Gate set among high-rises, cars racing along countless lanes. Is there another place where all of these Seoul scenes unfold like a panorama? Beyond the varied views, the unexpected sights scattered around Seoullo 7017 made it even more interesting. A cycad in an orange acrylic planter and the blue-tiled foot bath of the “Sky Nature Shelter” seemed placed there to make you forget winter, if only for a moment. The walkway also connects to the recently opened rooftop garden at Seoul Station. From the garden, you can also see the station’s outdoor parking lot, whose entrance ramp spirals up in an unusual way. If I ever take another trip through Seoul, I think I’ll visit Seoullo 7017 first, since it holds so many of the city’s hidden faces.
When we pay attention to passing scenes, we discover something new on familiar roads and meet welcome sights even on unfamiliar ones. My short trip around Seoul was just like that. Wouldn’t travel be even more enjoyable with the right tool to record those discoveries and encounters?
1. Seoul Botanic Park
A place where you can observe and photograph more than 3,100 species of plants. It goes beyond simply growing plants and approaches them as a culture. Facilities such as the plant culture center and a specialized plant library let you build up rich background knowledge as well.
Admission 5,000 won, botanicpark.seoul.go.kr: botanicpark.seoul.go.kr
2. Hongje Yuyeon
An open-air museum has opened along Hongjecheon stream, which flows beneath Yujin Sangga (Yujin Arcade), a building completed in the 1970s. Called Hongje Yuyeon, it features eight installations and a walking path. It has become a popular spot for photographers, especially thanks to its sensuous multimedia works that respond to visitors’ movements.
484 Tongil-ro, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul
3. Bugak Haneul-gil (Bugak Sky Trail)
Winding across the slopes of Bugaksan, the Bugak Haneul-gil makes you feel the word “nature” anew. Countless trees breathe along the mountain paths that connect with the alleys of Seongbuk-dong, Pyeongchang-dong and Buam-dong, and outstanding views unfold between them, changing from moment to moment.
Seongbuk-gu and Jongno-gu, Seoul.
4. Ground Seesaw Seochon
Tucked away behind a narrow alley, the Ground Seesaw Seochon building feels like the courtyard of an old neighborhood. An atrium that frames a circle of sky, a terrace with a view of Inwangsan, and indoor spaces hosting intriguing exhibitions make it a place with no shortage of ways to rest.
5. Hyehwamun
Once the northern gateway to Hanyang, Hyehwamun is one of the four small gates of the Hanyangdoseong (Seoul City Wall). Through this gate, people of Hanyang are said to have traveled to and from Yangju, Pocheon and beyond. It was torn down during the Japanese colonial period and restored in 1994. The gate tower, jutting up beside a road with constant traffic, stands out all the more.
307 Changgyeonggung-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul.
6. Naksan Park
Beyond the Seoul City Wall, a landscape where a forest of buildings meets the mountains unfolds at Naksan Park, one of the best spots in Seoul for photographing night views. In the alleys of Ihwa-dong and Changsin-dong at the foot of Naksan, past and present are entangled, revealing the dramatic transformation of Seoul’s modern history.
7. Seoullo 7017
There is no better place to capture the overlapping layers of time in Seoul’s complicated downtown in a single frame. The overpass, opened in 1970, has been turned into a park, but the surrounding scenery remains as it was. Walking as far as the rooftop garden of the old Seoul Station building, you can take in the city from a different height and angle.
8. After Jerk Off
Combining a café, restaurant and bar under one roof, After Jerk Off is a spot that often turns up in social media feeds even within Hipjiro (Euljiro). Interior decor brimming with an Asian sensibility catches the eye, and the menu changes with the seasons.
Asian Local Tea 9,000 won : after_jerk_off__seoul
9. Peer Coffee Gwanghuimun
This is the Gwanghuimun branch of the specialty coffee brand Peer Coffee. It serves brewed coffee made with high-quality, well-balanced beans as well as espresso-based drinks, and its interior and exterior, renovated from a two-story old house, are distinctive too.
Brewed coffee from 6,000 won : peer_coffee_roasters
10. Jamsugyo Bridge
Designed to be submerged during floods, Jamsugyo Bridge may be the place where you can experience Seoul from its lowest vantage point. The rippling waters of the Han River right before your eyes and the procession of buildings lined up along the riverbank make for a view you can see only from Jamsugyo.
Seobinggo-dong, Yongsan-gu, and Banpo-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul.