I’m running a “Photography in Korea” series (parts 1 and 2 here) covering how to buy a camera, basic photo skills, where to go to shoot, street shooting tips, and more. I’ve only gotten to the first two, but am planning on continuing them to the point of comprehensiveness. Hopefully, this will help those of you out there who are meaning to get more serious about the photos you take here in Korea.
10/12/2008 at 6:00 pm Permalink
Wow you can see some well defined abs and bra embroidery in this shot. Nice work.
10/12/2008 at 6:10 pm Permalink
At night, with no time to even compose properly, shot from the hip and panning to reduce motion blur on the subject but add a little to the background, while dodging the guy who’s blocking me in the front, it was a true test of photo instincts. Still one of my favorite shots, and the fact that she came out clear at night while panning at 1/60 of a second shutter speed makes me very happy. And by the time I looked away briefly, she was already gone. I mean, she was booking!
I bumped into her a year later while shooting in a club, since I recognized the tattoo, got her info, and now, she’s a fashion diarist on Feetmanseoul.com. To this day, this is still the best picture I have of the famous “tattoo girl” whom many Hongdae regulars already know. A good picture, with a good story. Love it!
11/12/2008 at 8:25 am Permalink
Hmm, very interesting picture. Nice work.
11/12/2008 at 8:54 am Permalink
I’ve had the opportunity to read through your tips about taking pictures in Korea. Reading through your detailed and thorough explanations, however, nary did I see even a passing mentioning of being unabashed pervert as a necessary requisite in your practice of photography.
I mean lets be honest, you may have a modicum of adroit photographic skill, but it seems that all this is in large part to quench your priapic thirst to ogle the fairer sex.
I don’t judge you for this. Really I don’t. But seeing how this is largely the case in terms of your photography, I just wish you had been more honest and forthright. I don’t think that its enough simply to provide your loyal readers with mere technical instructions. I really think you need to provide them also with the sort of strange psycho-sexual dimensions that play a dominant role in your “interesting” oeuvre.
11/12/2008 at 1:19 pm Permalink
I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt “Edwin” and actually address your comment seriously. First, I’ve been taking pictures since I was a kid, worked in pure street photography from about 1999-2006, both in Oakland and Seoul, before moving in the fashion direction in 2006 after a nasty and disappointing row with the publishing company that was going to publish my street work. When photographing women, I decided to simply acknowledge my male gaze and use it to guide me to strong, arresting pictures, which a lot of people enjoy. Sorry that you find my pictures “perverted” but if that means you can tell from them the fact that I am a heterosexual male who finds women attractive — guilty as charged.
The idea that the camera is a conduit for the male heterosexual gaze is hardly a new revelation, I’ve never denied it, nor would any art or film theory scholar. Frankly, I’ll take your accusation of “perversion” under the advisement of the many people — women and men — who like my pictures and sites. And as for “perversion” being a necessary requisite for photographers, they were and are not for me, nor are they for anyone else. It’s obvious you meant that sarcastically, but I’ll just reiterate here how little your opinion of my subject matter has to do with the technical aspects of taking pictures.
Now, if you’d like to continue this conversation seriously, please feel free to do so. If this is what I suspect it is, and a seque into a trollish post about how much you simply hate this or that, my photography or me, we don’t tolerate that kind of negativity here. So, up to you. Converse constructively, or don’t expect this conversation to continue. I warn you, though — trolls are permanently IP banned, and bad language doesn’t have a chance of getting through our aggressive comment filter. So even the attempt would be just a waste of time for all involved.
But I’ll end by addressing your accusation that I should explore the “strange psycho-sexual dimensions” of my motivation for taking pictures: there are none. If being a man who likes women means I am somehow psychologically “abnormal” — hmm — you’d be including quite a large chunk of photographers who take far more and less risque pictures than me, including the ones that show up every month in any given fashion magazine. Again — I’m a straight man who admits his sexual attraction to women. What’s so shocking and surprising about that?
11/12/2008 at 8:32 pm Permalink
A guy takes a picture of a pretty girl (and skin tight dress) and loots of guys ooogle at the picture and then the guy thinks he is an “artist”.
Actually I don’t like the picture at all. I think everything about the picture is bleh. Art class 101.
Oh and I don’t think the “artist” is a pervert.
11/12/2008 at 9:42 pm Permalink
Oh, for Christ’s sake.
12/12/2008 at 12:18 am Permalink
I think calling our artist here a pervert is a bit puritanical to say the least, and I’d be willing to bet that if you were a female photographer, Edwin would have no qualms about your work, but let’s be honest Metro, (I’m making this statistic up) 95% of your photos are ‘street shots’ (of the decisive moment variety or otherwise) of usually very attractive women, and using one of three techniques, and this fact makes it pretty understandable that one not so enlightened in the languages of art might think that “it seems that all this is in large part to quench your priapic thirst to ogle the fairer sex.” (Which is a hilarious sentence btw)
In conclusion, this photo is very eye-catching, because it makes good use of subject-color relationships as well as in-camera techniques (and there is a hot girl), and so would make for a great shot to critique if conducting a workshop, which I believe was Metro’s 목적 here.
12/12/2008 at 9:58 am Permalink
Your use of a watermark does nothing to help you as an artist or as a photographer. I’m sorry, but it takes 100% of the art away and turns your photos into advertisements. The only thing I see when I look at your photos is ‘feemanseoul.com’, and yes, I did visit the site because of it. If that was your intension, then you have succeeded.
12/12/2008 at 2:01 pm Permalink
Good lord . . .
Met’s shots for feetman are for a fashion blog, ok? And yes, fashion in Korea seems to be dominated by (gasp!) attractive young women in nice clothing. I for one don’t find anything too terribly odd about a fashion blog featuring the kinds of shots that are on the site in context. But switch over to Mike’s street photography from when he was doing street rather than fashion photography and the subjects are very markedly different. The shots he’s taking now are obviously gratifying to him as a chick-loving dude, but they’re also not the totality of his work as a photographer nor out of line for the area in which he is shooting and posting. Get over it, boys.
And unfortunately, if he’s going to protect his intellectual work on the internet, watermarks are necessary.
12/12/2008 at 5:57 pm Permalink
Yeesh. Everyone’s a critic.
I guess I don’t grok all the hate. It’s a nighttime shot in Hongdae. A very attractive Korean girl was walking by. This is kind of what Hongdae is all about.
Next up: Drunk wayguk-saram in Itaewon! Koreans dressed in hanbok at Namsangol! Businessmen in Yeuido!
13/12/2008 at 12:39 am Permalink
It’s an attractive woman in a tight dress with a goddamn dragon tattoo on her leg. It’s neat. Is it art? Who cares, it’s an attractive woman in a tight dress with a goddamn snake tattoo on her leg. Christ Almighty, how often do you see that?. I hope you never post a photo of Insadong or Gyeongbokgung. . . talk about blahhhhh-se, your critics will never shut up.
13/12/2008 at 12:42 am Permalink
Hmm, moderating comments now. In that case, you don’t need to put it up. Just ridiculous what a simple picture of a cute girl can do to the peanut gallery.
13/12/2008 at 1:44 am Permalink
Not moderating across the board: the filter probably stuck your comment in the “moderate” barrel because you said “goddamn”. Twice.
This is why I never post anything except Korea’s four seasons on my site…
Yeah, I was going to post a photo essay of my imaginary romance with Jessica Gomes here, but now I think I’ll just save it for my personal blog, seeing what happens to the natives when pictures of people without Y chromosomes go up.