Laos, 1999.
Category: Photography (page 7 of 23)
Isn’t the digital revolution a wonderful thing? Now anyone can be a photographer. Cue mountain, switch to black and white setting, click and voila: Ansell Adams, look and learn.
We’ve all committed the occasional fashion faux pas. In my case, it was mistaking a shirt for a pair of pants. Witness the results, in this rare and previously-unpublished photo feature taken some time in the late 1990s (or maybe in 2000) by my dearly departed friend, Quinton. I miss you, buddy. Read more
Paju Book City, located just outside Seoul, is an incredible place: “an industrial city related specifically to books” whose aim is “to recover the lost humanity”. All of the buildings in the city have been designed by famous Korean and international architects, and many Korean publishers have both their headquarters and production facilities there.
I was lucky enough to visit Paju in 2009 as part of a visiting Asialink delegation, and I think it’s safe to say that all of us were completely blown away by the scale of the operation, particularly when contrasted with the size and state of the Australian publishing industry.
I’m posting this photo because it contrasts the softness of the reeds (or is it rice?) with the pre-fabricated concrete of the buildings, something you do not necessarily see a lot of in Seoul itself, but which I think many planners and urban designers are starting to realise is essential if Korea is to recover its own “lost humanity”.
One of the most obvious differences between Karlskrona and Amsterdam is in the colours of their buildings. While de Baarsjes is, by and large, populated by brown and grey brick buildings, Björkholmen is an explosion of pastel colours painted on wooden walls. These photos don’t really do justice to them but hopefully they give a sense of their vibrancy. Me so happy.
