Letters from Seoul 35

Sookyung by subway

There are rare occasions when we meet someone for the first time, and know that our life is about to change profoundly for the better. For me, one of the biggest before-and-after moments was November 26, 2011. This is the day I met Sookyung in Seoul.

We have now been a couple for more than a dozen years.

In that first moment, I simply could not take my eyes off her. Yet despite barriers of language and culture, it was really Sookyung’s character that captivated me. Nothing has changed in this regard, and I can’t imagine life without her.

My wife and I are both retired educators, trying to enjoy the Third Act of life together. Both America and South Korea are at critical political crossroads, and it’s impossible to pretend otherwise. Yet life goes on.

If one lives in a city like Seoul, slightly larger than New York City in population, the idea of driving a car is a genuine headache. Out of destruction, there is a chance to rise like the Phoenix, a resurrection story that easily pre-dates the Christian motif, and Seoul is an amazing testament to a city that is back from the dead with great elan.

One way Seoul excels is with its world-class subway system.

I’ve experienced subways in New York City, Mexico City, London, Paris, Athens, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Sydney. The Seoul subway system is world-class in every way.

To enhance the experience, the Seoul subway system uses Korean and English for destination announcements on trains, with some stations including announcements in Japanese and Chinese.

In South Korea, it is against the law to photograph people in public without their permission. The fact that the government has everyone under constant surveillance through CCTV cameras makes a mockery of claims to rights to privacy in public.

If the Information Age is the newest extension of the Renaissance, the promise of technology to uplift society has already enslaved us in many ways. Corporate billionaires in all major countries are anxious to see Artificial Intelligence (AI) flourish and robots become more widespread and reliant, dispensing with the need to pay middle-and-lower class people any respectable wages, if any at all.

I never leave home without a camera. And, after all these many years, I still can’t take my eyes off Sookyung. She is my favorite subject for reasons too numerous to explain, so I document her as we travel by subway around the city.

For these occasions on the subway, I use a Ricoh GR II camera because it is so damn stealth.

As for encountering problems with Korean law about public photography without permission from subjects ... I would explain with a dash of Irish charm: “Well, I’m just a tourist. I didn’t know.”

I have never had any problems with my street photography in Seoul.