1 year 12 photos, year 2
As you may remember from last year, my wife and I shoot one picture every month since our wedding. The following is what happened during the past 12 months.
July 2020
July is traditionally the rainy season in Korea, 2020’s rainy season did not disappoint. I had rarely seen so much rain! This waterfall happens to be my favorite in the Bukhansan range. Called 구천폭포-Gucheon falls, in the Bukhansan range, these impressive falls are composed of 2 parts; the top part is made of 3 levels, in the picture you can see the top 2 levels. The water splashes quite hard where we stood so I was fairly wet once this was over! We used the umbrella to symbolize the constant rainy weather. However it started raining mid-shoot, it became a much-needed practical prop.
August 2020
That month was vacation month in 2020! My boss “generously” gave us 4 days off (including 2 weekend days…) so we made the best of them by visiting an old friend of mine, John, who came back from Australia to teach for a year on 거제도-Geoje Island. We had a great time discovering the island with him and his family, they cooked a delicious English meat pie (a meal we had for the first time), Arthur, their son, gave us hilarious moments that we still talk about today. For those reasons and more, we are thrilled to have them in our monthly picture.
September 2020
This picture is a particular landmark in our lives: we bought our first home. It is in fact only 2 minutes away from where we lived because we like our area a lot. I don’t have much to comment on this picture, it is more of a posterity shot than anything else.
October 2020
This shot is an answer to the previous year’s April picture. At that time Haemin’s mom was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, stage 2. We took a picture of her dressed in red boxing clothes to symbolize her fight against the disease.
This time around she has finished chemotherapy and was quite diminished but her doctor found no trace of extra cancerous cells in her body. Today she is still cancer-free, has recovered from the treatment fairly well, and even restarted physical activity. Of course, we need to wait until the 5-year mark without recurrence to officially celebrate cancer’s defeat but she is on the right path. My wife’s unrelenting love and care for her mother is of the most admirable kind so she deserves a huge shout-out.
The black shattered writing my mother-in-law is stepping on reads “cancer” in Korean, the symbol of her victory for this battle. An interesting fact about the 2 pictures is that last year the background was cherry blossoms, this year it is beautiful red autumn maple trees. She is really lucky with timing!
November 2020
That month 2 things happened that spiced our leisure life. On the one hand, Haemin got so busy with work that her unread newspapers accumulated around the house, waiting to be read and thrown away. On the other, I finally gave in and bought a Switch with the new title of my favorite game of all time, Zelda.
Taking this picture was by far the most complicated of all we have ever shot. I had to tie my camera to the ceiling light to shoot vertically from high enough and I only had shoelaces to do that: it took me 2 hours to get it straight enough! Then we laid our bed mattress underneath and spread enough newspaper pages to cover the frame. Finally lying down without displacing all the papers was also really challenging. It looks us 4 hours total to capture these 3 images! If that’s not dedication…
December 2020
That month was surely the busiest we had since our wedding, it was "moving month"! On top of boxing everything, we had to replace 2 doors. It was the first time we moved so much stuff and it showed. It took us the best of two weeks to get everything ready, we lived a whole week navigating between boxes. it was mostly fun and exciting.
On moving day everything happened rather smoothly, a rarity in my experience. We used a truck lift to send our stuff up to the 14th floor, which was really cool for me. Haemin’s dad gave us a huge helping hand on moving day, her mom helped with the cleaning as much as she could and with the 4 of us gathering our efforts we fashioned the home that was to come. The following month saw a lot of expenses to set the spaces to our liking. We discovered life in a South Korean apartment with excitement and so far we are quite happy in our new place.
January 2021
Starting your life at your first residence is always an experience you want to share with others especially through a crowded house warming party. However, due to the current covid 19 pandemic, the government limited gathering sizes to a strict minimum. It was therefore impossible to have a big party. We only invited Haemin’s friend for some french food dinner: raclette (a panned cheese/charcuterie meal from the Alps region) and a galette des rois (kings pie, a traditional Epiphany almond pie. One of the traditions around that pastry is that the youngest must call which piece goes to whom randomly from under the table, to ensure that everyone has a fair chance at finding the one china figurine hidden inside the pie and becoming the king/queen, hence the crown).
February 2021
The lunar new year was in February this year. On a cold day, we went paying our respect to Haemin’s parents. We found that old temple to use as a good background and bowed as per the tradition. I can’t say that it feels comfortable yet but every year it gets smoother and smoother. Maybe one day I won’t think much about it?
Anyway, we couldn’t stay serious too long and there was that old-fashioned broom nearby begging to be used… So we used it! Quick fun fact, I forgot my shoes in the car so I had to shoot the whole session bare feet… the ground is cold in the winter here, believe me, I know.
March 2021
March is normally a month renowned for the first flowers that bloom in Seoul: the 개나리- forsythias. However, this year, another event spoiled the pleasure of flower contemplation: the government decided that a mandatory covid 19 test campaign of all foreigners (and their bosses) was in order. Realizing the uproar that that xenophobia-based (at least)measure created on social media (and following a lawsuit from a local human rights watchdog), the Seoul government decided to pull that measure only a couple of days after the first massive tests happened. Unfortunately, other regions did not give up so, though I was relieved to have avoided a nose swab, others didn’t…
The words on my picture read: “reason for testing: foreigner”, the words on Haemin’s photo read: “reason for testing: possible contact”. Coincidentally Haemin had to take a test that month because a confirmed case was found to have frequented the same gym she goes to. Thankfully she only felt a quickly disappearing discomfort from the swab. As for me, I am scared of taking that test because I suffer from recurring rhinitis, due to air pollution. Hopefully, this worldwide hysteria will disappear as quickly as it came, so we can all keep our noses unexplored!
April 2021
Ah, April! The month of cherry blossoms all tourists and Instagram influencers drool for in expectation! Sightseeing those spring flowers is of course a staple of the Korean culture so we couldn’t skip it this year. One day, on the way back from a hike in the Bukhansan range, I randomly found that gorgeous pink cherry tree hanging over a stream. We settled on going there the next day and it was as good as we expected, save for the cold. The thermometer indicated less than 10°C and the sun was playing hide & seek behind thick clouds so Haemin suffered for the art. But it paid off, a cold breeze blew her hair and dress back right as the shutter released. I suppose any good-looking shot also relies on a good amount of luck.
May 2021
2 years ago on May the 4th in a Paris suburb near where I grew up, a wedding took place. It was an unusual wedding: the wedded couple wore Korean hanboks, in a crowd of western suits, in a middle-sized french style castle. And also we were blessed to experience 4 season weather in one day: it was, in turn, sunny, rainy, it haled and later snowed, and finally, at the end of the night, the dew had frozen white (-4°C). What a day it was!
June 2021
A little more than a month after the previous picture, both our families got together again to celebrate our union in Seoul. We tried to break the formality, and let's be honest, uniformity of contemporary Korean weddings. We chose that space for the natural feel emanating from it. How it made the event seem like an outdoor party more than a ceremony.
This picture is from the end of the recessional. We had to give a kiss pose to all the people taking pictures. The kiss took a much longer time than expected, so Haemin started laughing. You can see the beginning of that laugh here
Despite the pandemic, this year flew by quickly. Acquiring our first home occupied us more than we thought, my mother-in-law's fight against cancer brought deep interrogations on life, political intervention crept into our routine, friends left in search of better horizons, etc.
For my part, this year was overall a year of change. Thanks to the benevolent push a friend exerted on me, I have been working on reorienting my photography career. One of those changes is that I am working on selling prints of my shots. Not a revolutionary idea, I know, but it is the first time in my life that someone bought framed images of my work. The thought that someone hung those frames on their wall, and that they have a personal/emotional connection to them, awakes in me a multitude of feelings, ranging from humility to pride.
That is the reason why I haven't blogged recently. Setting up my store, reaching out to printing and framing companies took time. I haven't hiked for photography in over a month either, and I deeply miss it. With the rainy season well on its way, I will be able to capture more waterfalls and moody natural views soon.
I sincerely hope that you have also made the best of the last 12 months. That, regardless of the sanitary situation, you have managed to grow one way or another. The second half of 2021 is in front of us: let us all make it count.
A bientôt!
next post (soon!)
