Travel Montage — Layered Journeys

Photographer Kim Yoonkyung overlaps scenes from her travels to create new memories. From the streets of Berlin, Germany, to a zoo in Chiang Mai, Thailand, these are journeys in which one place and another, one object and another, are layered into a single photograph.

Words & Photos Kim Yoonkyung

Berlin + Sapa

The KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin, Germany, covered in plastic sheeting on every side.
A small hotel room in Sapa, a little town in Viet Nam.
And a red bench, strikingly bright and clean against the gray Berlin streets after a light drizzle.

Vang Vieng + Kuang Xi Falls

Hot air balloons in Vang Vieng, Laos, drifting closer and then fading into the distance as you watch from the riverbank.
Kuang Si Falls in Laos, where the glassy, transparent ripples vanish the moment you dip your feet in, and cloudy limestone turns the water murky.

Kalbarri National Park + Pinnacles Desert + Jeju

The national park in Kalbarri, a small town in Western Australia, and the Pinnacles Desert near Perth.
A sunset on Jeju that felt remarkably like the color of Australia’s rocks.

Kalbarri National Park + Wollongong + Sapa

A giant cycad in Kalbarri, giant waves in Wollongong, a vast expanse of land. Everything in Australia is big and wide.
Outside the bus window, a landscape of nothing but trees and sand stretches on and repeats for hours.
And alongside it all, a square in Sapa, Viet Nam.

Munich + Hamburg + Frankfurt

A blue sky seen from Schwabing in Munich, Germany, and a blue flag fluttering in the clear breeze.
The Steinstraße station in Hamburg, where the stairs descending underground, the doors and the tiles are all blue and impossible to miss.
And an apricot that fell onto the blue carpet of a hotel in Frankfurt.

Frankfurt

The back of a person waiting for the signal in Frankfurt, Germany.
A flimsy barricade in the middle of the city.
A downhill ramp leading to an underground parking garage.

Chiang Mai + Hamburg

A zoo in Chiang Mai, Thailand, with houses of loosely stacked wood, murals depicting nature, and not a single animal in the enclosures.
And above it, a quiet elevated train passing through Hamburg, Germany.

Berlin

A faded, rusted building in Berlin, Germany, that looks as if no one has set foot there in a long time. The sign reads ‘BABYLON,’ and beside it, ‘Kino.’