There's no doubt in my mind that the streets of Seoul are some of the most interesting and photogenic streets in the world. I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to run around them with my camera and take in all that they had to offer. While I was drawn to the more famous neighborhoods of Jongro, Itaewon, and Hongdae, the streets that meant the most to me were the ones in Gwangjin, which was the district where I lived for over two years.

This place is special to me because this is where I made memories with my closest friends, so taking photos here felt more important to me. I was capturing the places where I had personal memories from, and every time I look back at the images I took from around Gwangjin, I can recall the happy memories I had there. I really hope that this feeling can be felt by others when they look at my images, even if they aren't familiar with the area.

This mindset that I had of capturing memories greatly influenced my work, and I grew a lot as a photographer while living in Seoul. It is a huge playground that allowed me to photograph so many different places and never get bored. I can certainly appreciate those who can photograph the same places over and over, but for me, it was so refreshing to explore new neighborhoods and find new places to photograph. Even after living there for four years, there was always something new to discover, and there are even more places to go to the next time I'm there! Living in Seoul allowed me to feel more comfortable walking around in new places and training my eye to find the most interesting aspects of a place.

Even though I enjoyed exploring the city, there was no shortage of challenges that came about while doing street photography here. The biggest challenge for me was adjusting to the cultural norms of South Korea, which can be quite different from America. South Koreans do not like having their pictures taken and value their privacy very highly.

I really enjoy pictures with people in them and I love seeing the expressions of everyday life, but I had to respect the cultural norms here and be respectful to the people here. It can be quite scary to ask someone to take their picture, especially when my Korean isn't quite good. I did get yelled at a few times, but thankfully I found that many people were ok with me taking pictures and I had some memorable interactions while doing so.

One fond memory I had was when I was in Changsin taking photos and I met a guy who owned a local textile store. There was a bit of a language barrier, but he took me inside of his shop, which was covered in photos from the many decades prior. He really loved to take pictures and was excited to see me walking around with my camera. The photos in the store showed the history of the area and also him meeting famous celebrities who were wearing his clothes. I spent nearly an hour there walking around his shop, and he even showed me where some of his workers were making pants. It was completely random and I had no idea about this place, but it's a good reminder that every building has a story to tell and the rich history of Seoul is something very special indeed!

I think this is something that, as an American, I can appreciate a lot more and it makes me more excited to photograph in South Korea. I'm so used to my surroundings in the US, but everything is new and exciting in South Korea. I could approach my photography here with fresh eyes since even the most innocuous things would be interesting and different from back home.

Many Koreans I spoke to claimed that there was nothing special about the place, but I firmly believe this is because they grew up here and it is their normal. I'm not from a very big city, so I was constantly stimulated by my surroundings in Seoul, and that allowed me to simply look around and take everything in. I was always an outsider in South Korea, so I embraced being the odd one and I could view the city more objectively. I learned a lot about the city during my time there, and I'm very thankful I had the opportunity to capture such a beautiful and interesting place!