Summer of Seooreung
2015 2016
As I started taking pictures, I learned one thing. It is the preciousness of dawn. Before taking photographs, I spent every weekend morning crouching under a warm blanket or lying on the sofa looking at my smartphone, but now I wake up at 5 a.m. at the latest. There are materials that cannot be attained unless it is at that time.
The pictures I cook tend to contain soft light, fog, and a little rain, all of which force me to move at dawn. The morning sun at sunrise is more delicate than usual, so it expresses the objects in the frame more warmly and gently. On the days I can catch clear rain and fog, green gets a lot damper, and the atmosphere becomes spotlessly bright and transparent. As I prepared the ingredients for my "cooking," I could feel how beautiful the sky was and how refreshing the foggy forest was just before dawn.
Seooreung is a perfect place to take pictures with such "dawn" ingredients because it opens early at 6 a.m., unlike other royal tombs. The tombs of the Joseon Dynasty are often called the Garden of Gods. Since they were places where people with power were buried, they would have been built with the best of all—including feng shui locations, architectural technologies, the sophistication of the stone, and the surrounding landscape. I am lucky to have one of God's Gardens near my house.
001. The scenery of Sunchangwon | 2015 
004. Gyeongneung area illuminated by the morning sun | 2015 
008. Jeongjagak seen over Ingneung Hongsalmun, the red spiked gate | 2016
010. Early morning scenery of Ingneung Jeongjagak | 2016 
019. Jeongjagak of Sunchangwon seen through the pine forest | 2016 