Given that my visit to Sindap coincided with Seollal, coming out of the station’s one exit reminded me a bit of the scene in Westerns when the protagonist steps out of the saloon onto an empty street, the only things a’stirrin’ bein’ tumbleweeds an’ dust. And, OK, my imagination is getting away with me and…
If I were a Seoul politician on the campaign trail, I’d spend as much time as possible being photographed in Junggok, glad-handing the locals, saying folksy things, and showing how much I liked spending time with people just like you. That’s because Junggok is just about the most emphatically average neighborhood you’ll find in this…
I arrived at Yongmasan Station, named for the nearby mountain, on a bright, crisp January day, and coming out of Exit 2 the first thing I noticed was how hilly the neighborhood was. Apartment towers to the east sat up on bluffs, and the street just in front of the exit dipped down into a…
And after five years? What then? The minute someone sits down at a keyboard, sets an f-stop, or turns over a fresh page in a sketchpad and tries to describe a place, it’s already a little bit gone. Unavoidable and just fine really. It clears the way for new records, allows for comparisons (maybe even…
If someone were to blindfold you and then drop you off at the intersection above Gongdeok Station, you could be forgiven for thinking you were in Gangnam and not Mapo-gu. The neighborhood is starkly different from the much more modest nearby areas of Aeogae and Daeheung – massively more developed, a forest of brand new…
Seoul Sub→urban 