Scribblings of the Metropolitician

Are You a Faddict?

I've become the lead photographer for a new fashion magazine about to come out in Korea, called Faddict. I've been shooting Korean designers and celebrities like mad these days, and been cleared to release a few as part of a campaign designed around the question, "Are you a faddict?"

Designer Lie Sang Bong.

Well, are you?

Hehe. I've got a LOT of cool stuff coming up, photo project-wise, but I'm not allowed to talk about most of it. Let's just say it's big bidniss and it leads me to think that 2011 is the year that it all starts to really come together.

Fighting!

Korean Street Fashion: Hongdae Hipsters

We have another set of cool street shots on Feetmanseoul.com.

These members of a band whom we bumped into in the playground up there were quite bohemian in a very fashionable way. Layers, scarves, and hats. The young lady had a flyer that was quite trippy, dude.

Cool peeps on the streets!

Wanna Go to Seoul Fashion Week?

Some of you have been asking about it, so if you want to see some shows at Seoul Fashion Week, we've got some information for you over at Feetmanseoul.com.

Dorothy Nam's 1st Fashion Show!

Do you know Dorothy Nam? You know, the cute lady on TV with the hat! She had her first fashion show last Friday, September 19th, in the Seoul Finance Center in City Hall. Yes, she's also a designer!

I had a chance to attend her first show, and was impressed! Here's a bit from the press release:

An Exhibition of 20~23 artists who are members of a stART-ing artists up on the rise made up of Korean artists with Korean artworks. In Collaboration with a Korean-American, well known as the "EBS/Arirang English teacher" debuting her first designs and Fashion show. Going from English to Designing! Dorothy Nam whom you may have recognized on English television with her smart bright red/ pink berets has collaborated with many Korean artists and have taken their artworks and designed them into fashion~ thus ART2wear!

클릭하면 모든 사진이 원파일의 큰 사이즈로 확대됩니다.
All pictures can enlarged to the large, original resolution by clicking.

Dorothy says that, "Anyone who has a beautiful or a petite figure will look good in anything they put on, but the serious CHALLENGE was living a life here in Korea and being beyond the regular petite size and now that is where the research and challenge began!~ so, in the long run, I don't mind being a bit chubby, there is just more of me! The true challenge and test was being on television and being a bit chunkier than most females on TV -- almost every producer and writer and coordinator has hoped for me to lose weight. Except in radio. But there seems to always be a slight frown being a Korean female and a bit chunkier in this industry. This has challenged me to great lengths and I want to wear pretty and beautiful clothes as well and also I LOVE colors!"

For more, check out the article at FeetManSeoul.com! We've really been jumping up in readership (the highest we've ever been!) and are about to hit the next level as soon as we get a VJ and a couple of Korean writers going, which we've been working on really getting these days.

Wish us luck as we move forward and come check out the site!

Me on Arirang TV!

As you may know, I was interviewed on Arirang TV for a segment on expat bloggers. We also got to see me in photographic action with this impromptu model, who was a real trooper about me stopping her for my camera, all while a big video camera from Arirang filmed the already awkward moment of posing for a complete stranger in the street.

Oh! Another thing I realized from the video -- it's time to really turn the screws on the diet and ramp up the exercise. At least I've started swimming again. Sheesh!

Told Ya So (Again)

Jeez. I don't know what's more disappointing -- the fact that I and other thinking humans figured out from the day PD Notebook aired that their claims were specious-to-false while everyone took their word as gospel, or the fact that everyone's acting as if they were snookered when they should not have been.

If the con artist at the bus stop says they need a 10,000 won bill to get home and they lost their wallet and will promptly pay you back by wiring the money to your account as soon as they arrive, you're an idiot. But hey, it's a learning experience.

If you get fooled twice, you're a maroon.

Three times, and you're a fucking moron.

Hmm -- PD Notebook's track record of being sensationalistic and reporting false claims or going unethical routes to gather information is well known to the Korean public. So why is the government and the people acting so shocked and surprised at the fact that their claims about "genetic susceptibility", out-of-context use of "downer cow" footage, and the report of the "woman who died of mad cow disease" that was mistranslated -- I knew all those things from day 1.

And I'm not a frickin' genius -- so did other members of the media, and so should have many members of the population.

If you're snookered by the same character in the same way several times, who's really at fauly? PD Notebook does what it does, and sometimes they're wrong (like now) and sometimes they're right (like with Hwang Woo Suk); but this ain't nothin' new.

The Korean public is just pissed and angry for being snookered, but this time it was much more embarrassing. But, even if PD Notebook is taken off the air or whatever (it was before, after all), it'll be back up again and nothing will have changed.

This, from the same public that still thinks you can die from sleeping in front of a fan. The problem's much bigger than PD Notebook.

DMC Sweated On Me

Yeah, suckas -- that's how close I was standing! The show was live, and fun to see him play in person, even without the trademark glasses I used to like from the 80's. The band Dynamic Duo was also fun, as was a cool human beat boxer and other Korean acts.

I was in the front row and sometimes had to but the camera over my head and behind me to get shots, even with my 10-22mm lens. That's close, baby, and the best way to see someone like DMC in person.

Thanks be to Regina, aka ExpatJane, for both me and FMS for setting up and arranging this one. She's got skills to pay the medical bills. And if you didn't see DMC, but would have wanted to come out, please keep up with us over at FeetManSeoul.com a bit more! We got the line on the best stuff on the streets.

And go over to FMS if you wanna see more pictures and the lowdown on the show.

Seoul's Changing Party Culture, Or How I Am Getting My Photographic Groove Back

Seoul's party culture, I'm told, is evolving in leaps and bounds, especially considering the two parties that just blew through here at the beginning of the summer, and the scale of what they showed could be done here. And man, the young kids are sure getting hipper faster. Jumpin' Jehosaphat, I feel old these days. But being able to participate in the action as a photographer and being out there sure does keep the youthful energy flowing. And hey -- I'm not THAT much of a geezer, since I have a PS3 and still can barely balance a checkbook. In some senses, I'm 22 years old. Umm, then again, maybe that's not so good.

I'm not much of a partier anymore -- wait -- I never really was to begin with. But lately, as I've been shooting more as press for FeetManSeoul.com at certain events, my photography has been getting pushed, as I've been getting forced into more difficult photographic situations, even as I try not to get backed into cliche.

Being able to shoot both outdoors at the 2nd International DJ Festival, as well as in the high-class venue of the Walker Hill's Kayageum Room for Steve Aoki was really a blast, and my photography's finally getting some edge back again. It helps to be in situations where everyone with a camera has potentially the same angles, the same shots, or the same KIND of shots. So you have to ask yourself the question -- how are my shots going to be different?

I asked myself this at the Steve Aoki show, and even with stage access, it was hard to get shots with oomph! in them -- at least shots with oomph! that the other photographers weren't getting. I mean, Steve Aoki's famed party photographer friend The Cobra Snake was there, for gosh sake; even the scantily-clad lady with the camera, who looked more like a clubber from the crowd than a shooter, was shooting for Nike. There was also a woman from Nylon Magazine -- yeesh. A high bar.

How do you effectively shoot party pics? Action? Mixed lighting? Flash-only? What if you literally cannot see the subject in the frame because they're so dark? How do you explain who you are and wanting to explain why you want to take a shot when you can barely hear your own voice while shouting at the top of your lungs?

Man, all these questions and more have been popping up as my street photography lies dead, as I've lost my edge because of fear of being sued in a Korean legal culture that views candid photography as being akin to outright perversion -- I didn't realize it, but after the 2nd book deal fell apart, I had lost both my motivation, and hence, my nerve. You don't keep the latter strong without the former.

But all this photo action these days has me being challenged, adjusting, plateauing, and pushing myself again, a process that has kept me progressing. I'm also teaching a photo class again, and will even open up another section of it (email me to find out more) to those of you who are interested. In any case, I'm glad I'm getting some edge back, and plan to keep rolling with it.

A whole heapin' mess of pictures is available at FeetManSeoul.com -- definitely worth seeing!

Aoki Was Awesome!

For those who read FeetManSeoul.com, you know that Steve Aoki -- perhaps the world's most famous DJ -- came to Seoul. If you went to the show, you also might know that he rocked the house.

Also, Cut Chemist, formerly DJ for the Jurassic Five and who really tore up the turntables, was in total effect.

Both the Chemist and Aoki definitely kept the crowd entranced.

I also got snapped by the (in)famous, super-duper party photographer, The Cobrasnake. It's an honor to have been shooting with him, and to make the Cobra Snake party page. He definitely has a Zen style to his shooting, and gets some really fun stuff -- check it out!

Got me!

FMS is getting invited to some cool stuff these days, and I'm having a ball shooting both folks of fame, as well as folks just having fun. It's a salve to get some people actually paying more attention to my pics these days, instead of just continuing to be the ignored street photographer.

And it's a hard job getting the word out there about a new kind of magazine, in a new medium, but we're learning, and building, and having a great time.

Check out the full, ongoing coverage of this and more fun stuff at FeetManSeoul.com.

Korean Designer Profiles: Hwang Jae Bock

FMS is starting a series on Korea's most famous and influential fashion designers in the field of Korean fashion! This first episode kicks off with Hwang Jae Bock, a leading fashion designer and head of the Seoul Fashion Designers' Association. Check it out!

For those who prefer the YouTube version (compatible with more browsers):

What I really liked about the interview was the fact that I was able to stick in one of my little working theories about Korean fashion -- as the balance between a pressure to break out from the crowd as powered by a new boldness largely enabled by the Internet in constant tension with a a very Korean "social monitoring" that keeps people generally within the socially-acceptable range of the crowd -- and she saw it exactly the same way. Having one's observation be confirmed by someone much more knowledgeable is a very reassuring feeling and gives a certain boost in confidence.

At the end, I liked the fact she bought it in terms of my "Korean street fashion is ready-to-wear" and "Japanese street fashion is couture" metaphor. And I think I got a lot of credit for that one in her eyes. I thought it was a good interview to lead off the series with. And you might have noticed ExpatJane's voice in there, as she had arranged all the interviews for the show. Major hat tip to her!

Get more into Korean fashion by going over to FeetManSeoul.com and taking a look around!