A tale of five cities

Why this?

Even at the end of last year (2024), I didn’t have any intention of making this project. The initial concept of what you are seeing right now only began to formulate itself early this year, around the same period when I was also busy conceptualizing my graduation thesis. The funny thing is, the parallel between writing a thesis from on your accumulated research and crafting this photography book (or whatever appropriate name for this is) becomes more apparent the more you think about it. The confusion and uncertainty in its early years, gradually taking on a clearer form throughout time, and eventually finding your unique perspective that genuinely feels like your own.

It simply made too much sense.

So, here we are. During six and a half years from 2019 to mid 2025, a camera (mostly my Fujifilm X100F) was carried through different cities, attending conferences, workshops, and universities. But unlike my dry academic thesis, this is more of a personal statement, a mem-oir, and an end of an era. The pages here represent the photographic counterpart to my academic journey, in order to prove (to absolutely nobody) that I have grown as a hobbyist photographer capable of crafting a body of work of this magnitude. Therefore, I don’t have any intention of making this a parable with a nice takeaway lesson, or a philosophical essay in any way. But if this made you to inspire to create something… just anything, that would be great news to hear.

Macau

I boarded the plane heading to Macau in the summer of my first year in PhD. I didn’t even know whether I wanted to take photographs at the time, so I picked up a disposable camera on the way. Less pressure, fewer expectations.

…So it was perhaps doomed from the start that eventually, most of the pictures didn’t turn out well. Too many photos turned out to be nothing. I remember thinking this was just like my (first) research project at the time. I didn’t know what I was really doing. But at least I had a really great time, and made a handful of friends.

Shanghai

A few months later I was in Shanghai to attend a workshop organized between our university and ShanghaiTech. This time I didn’t look for a disposable camera, and I wanted a proper camera this time. My camera back then was a Canon 100D, which had a big problem: it’s too big for the occasion. So I borrowed a friend’s Fujifilm X-E3 and carried it with me. It turned out to be a superb choice.

Arrival was less than smooth. After a couple hours of delay at ICN, I remember arriving at the airport in Shanghai near midnight. Im- mediately, I realized that English was completely useless outside the airport and essentially I had no means of communication. Which meant that I had to trust this cab driver that I have never met, and just believe that he correctly understood the address when I was pointing my finger on a piece of paper showing the destination. After a silent and nervous ride in the backseat, I arrived at the (correct) university around 2AM. The university was kind enough to lend some of its spare dorm rooms for the korean students to stay. After waking my roommate (another attendee) in the middle of the night, I finally un- packed my stuff and got to sleep.

Thankfully, that was the worst part of the trip. My roommate turned out to be a friendly guy, which made the rest of the workshop considerably less stressful. Also to my mild surprise, I was able to get some interesting shots during the workshop itself: students taking a break, professors discussing something in front of the chalkboard… unusual people doing unusual stuff I guess.

Lifestyle inside the campus also caught my attention. As I mentioned, we were in a dorm. An enormous one, in fact. During the day, we could see laundries hanging at the balconies. At night, nearly all basketball courts were full. When I went to the convenience store, I found out Coca-cola was only 800 won.

Washington D.C.

The next time I went on a business trip was in 2022 to Washington D.Cas an attendee of a conference. The world was still recovering from a pandemic. By this time, my main camera was the Fujifilm X100F that I bought just before the pandemic happened a couple of years ago. During that time, all overseas events were simply out of the question. My X100F was busy documenting the new depressing lifestyle introduced by COVID. And now it was ready to go outside the country.

By this time, I remembered my past (tailed) attempt in photographing people in Macau. Also, I also remembered having fun capturing the true city life in Shanghai. Washington happened to be a perfect place to test both aspects at the same time. The atmosphere at the conference was mixed, people still being careful to be in close proximity, and at the same time being excited about large gathering and social interactions. This actually made taking photos a lot easier and uniquely interesting (in retrospect), as it was just socially natural in keeping the distance, while I could capture scenes where a bunch of people with masks seemingly talking.

Thankfully, I had plenty of extra time to see the rest of Washington before the trip ended. Most days were split between the conference halls and the city outside, and I have gotten better with time management as the day progressed. The city itself was also great for photography. Washington was filled with grand, Roman-like government buildings, famous museums scattered across the National Mall, showing that this is indeed the capitol city of the US. Monuments were also scattered across the National Mall, equipped with tall and impressive structures alongside people wandering roundabout. This made taking interesting and visually pleasing photos relatively straightforward.

Sydney

In early 2024, I was lucky enough to visit Sydney as a visiting re- searcher at the University of New South Wales for a month. This meant an opportunity to look around Sydney, not as a tourist, but as a (temporary) resident.

… My day-to-day schedule as a visiting researcher was very flexible. Professor Cao did not require my daily presence at the office, so I alternated between the university and the State Library of New South Wales, which I really liked. The library offered a very good place to do work on your laptop. Eventually, working on my paper in the library became so productive that I went there more and more often, only visiting the university when necessary. This was great for me, as more work meant more free time to wander the city with my camera.

… Most of my best pictures came from wandering alone. I would often get completely lost on purpose, not knowing where I was. Of course, I could have opened my phone at any moment, but I preferred not to. Getting lost made me feel complete freedom, which also made more curious about everything I saw.

Philadelphia

Thanks to the work done in Sydney, my paper got accepted that granted me a final trip — this time to Philadelphia. However, the conference ran from late February to early March, in the middle of winter. From experience, winter photoshoots rarely go well, so expectations were low from the start.

During the conference, I photographed all of the colleagues I had gotten to know and shared the pictures with them once I returned home, as a gift of our short friendship. Most of those images won’t appear here, but the process itself was more exciting than the city itself.

End… for now

So this is it. An end of a chapter for graduate school, and my X100F. Looking back, I think I genuinely developed something of my own, whether it being called taste, standard, or my ‘voice’… it does not matter really. I just hope that I can make another one of these after another few years, which means I made more friends along the way.

Acknowledgements

Co-edit & feedback @bangjunhoho
Preprint feedback @yeun_lala @kwon_bongjae @avaleehojeong