Hanok Village by Lee Hae-Sun
After the end of the Chosun Dynasty, the Yangban were slowly faced with many hard choices about their way of life. The Korean War eventually brought an abrupt end to the twilight of the old world. One such was Lee Hae-Sun whose family had lived for generations in their Gahoe-dong estate. Lee became a photographer, much against his father’s wishes, and created a unique record of life in and around Seoul from the 1940′s onwards and until his death in 1983 at the age of 78.
As a noble and a relative of the reigning Yi family, he also had access to the royal palaces whenever he wished and created a unique photographic record of the Kyongbok and Ch’angdok Palaces at a time when access was only possible for family members and the Yangban. These photographs were taken simply as a hobby but were later published in book form by the Korean government in 1980.
The photo shown above is of a fragment of a hanok village in Seoul.
David Kilburn
Tags: "Lee Hae-Sun", bukchon, hanok, hanok-life, kahoi-dong, Photography, Seoul, yangban