During my second month in Seoul, South Korea, I was fortunate enough to have become friends with Lesie Pole, a very talented social and fine art photographer from Saint-Petersburg Russia.
Highly recommend checking her work out by the way, its incredible - @lesiepole on Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/lesiepole/?hl=en
She invited me to tag along to Seoul Fashion Week 2022, and I mean lets be honest…. who says no to that? So I ditched my plans for the week, grabbed my camera, and headed off to photograph some models!
Day 1 (Officially Day 4)
Pictured here from left to right, top to bottom are:
Park Wonse | @parkwonse_
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Hyeokjin Eum | @e__um
강민아 | @_k_minah
НАЗГУЛЬ | @naz02__
Day 1 went off smoothly to say the least. Although this was technically Day 4 of the Fashion Week’s shows. We headed over to the location of the day’s runway shows and found a group of photographers amassing outside the doors. We figured this was the spot to be and planted ourselves there until the shows were over and the models came out.
This day was incredibly fun and hectic. I stood outside for a couple of hours just waiting and shooting everyone who allowed me to take a picture. I didn’t know any of the models and really just followed the crowd of photographers who were following the models around like paparazzi almost. This part felt weird to do, but it was my first time taking photos of actual models, and I was thrilled at how fast we could get pictures done.
Day 2 (Officially Day 5)
Pictured here from left to right, bottom to top are:
Jang Hanna | @newthing_j
Kim Rachel Yoory | owlrachel_q.p
Sosa Hwang | @yellowsosa
Seonghae Joo | @skinhae
Gigi Park / Ju Yeong Park | @gigi_parkk
Jazz Kurr | @jazzitar
come back to
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Yejoo Choi | @y_ejooo
Kim Stephany Harry | @0qcm_
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정하영 | @jungha.0
Joan Park | @joan_jay _pak
Day 2 went off even better than day 1! I had gotten everything down to a science. Spotting the models, introducing myself and getting their contact information for the photos, navigating the flashing horde as well as connecting with the other photographers. A majority of the photos I got during the week (along with my favorites) were taken this day.
Day 3
Pictured here: Kenza Khalifa | @kenza_khalifa__
Day 3 was relatively tame. I didn’t attend any of the shows but I did set up a shoot. I got to shop around the collections that appeared in the runway shows and I walked out with a nice pair of shoes and a disposable film camera (which I later forgot to mention that I wanted back after the photos were developed so that is no longer with us).
Overall, it was incredible to take part in the mayhem that was Fashion Week. I had been on somewhat of a hiatus from photography for quite a while until this point, and I can confidently say that these few days taking photos with models reignited my passion. I remembered what it was like to take real photos and have a purpose for them. There were suddenly unofficial official deadlines to post my pictures while Fashion Week was still fresh so other accounts and the models could post them as they happened. There was an mutual eagerness to get the best photo, and I got to meet tons of other photographers. Some of both the models and photographers have quite the presence on social media, others were open to conversation and very nice people.
Comparing myself to these other photographers was intimidating at first to be honest. I’m out there with no real professional experience and my only lens - a 50mm - on a beginner’s camera taking photos of real life runway models with millions of followers right next to Vogue photographers with a quarter of a million followers and lenses the size of a small telescope. Intimidating isn’t even a strong enough word. In fact I was damn near embarrassed to even be there. I felt like a phony.
HOWEVER!!
The show must go on, and go on it did. By the second day I had felt like a professional anyways. I took my photos on my wimpy ass camera with my tiny ass lens and did just as well as the other photographers there. Felt damn good too when the photos came out.