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COMMUNITY18 FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 25, 2009

CapturingKorea

By John Redmond

The Korean chapter of theAmerican Steel MotorcycleClub will host a gig in Seoul toreach out to local motorcycleclubs and host a pig roast onSept. 26.

Following the success of lastyears Poker Run from Seoul toDungducheon, followed by liveperformances featuring some of Seouls hottest ba nds, theAmerican Steel Motorcycle Clubdecided to stage an event closerto the capital.

Popular live venue OleStompers in Ita ewon will stagefour of Koreas hottest t ribut ebands, headlined by LedZeppelin cover band Over TheHill and Far Away.

Over The Hill and Far Awayformed in 2008 and is based inSeoul.

Taking their name from theLed Zeppelin song Over theHills and Far Away, the thirdtrack from their 1973 albumHouses of the Holy, OHFA offerone of the purest reconstruc-tions of raw Zeppelin power,paying close att ention to detail,especially some of those verysubtle Led Zeppelin tempo andkey changes.

The gig will also feature theJimi Hendrix ba nd Are YouExperienced (named after theclassic debut album of the latelegendary trio, Jimi Hendrix,Noel Redding and Mitch

Mitchell), Beatles devoteesRubber Seoul and The BicycleThieves, a Rolling Stones in-spired band. Why they chose toname th emselves after the clas-sic 1948 Italian neorealist filmremains a mystery to thiswriter.

The event will kick off at 7p.m. with a pig roast.

From 7 till 9 p.m. admissionwill cost 10,000 won and in-cludes one drink, two raffletickets and all the food you caneat.

The bands will start a t 9 p.m.For 20,000 won people will beentitled to free selected drinkstill midnight.

The raffle ticket prizes will in-clude airfare discounts, mealvouchers from internationalrestaurants, jewelry andleatherwear.

American Steel was originallyestablished on the island of Okinowa, Japan , in 1983, with aKorean chapter being formed in1989. Based on a love of ridingHarley Davidson motorcycles,the group bonded under a stan-dard pr inciple: Family-Job-Steel.

The American SteelMotorcycle Club also conductsa ceremony to honor theKorean and U.S. casualties of the Korean War on VeteransDay.

For more information, contactPaul Peenut Bell by calling 010-8742-7271, or for Korean, callMyung-sun at 010-7271-9069.Also try e-mailing asmc_paul-@yahoo.com

To get to Ole Stompers Rock Spot from Itaewon subway sta-tion, Exit 3 walk straight andtake the first r ight at theDunkin Donuts. Take the firstleft at Cancun. Stompers is atthe top of the hill, the last baron the left.

(johnredmond @heraldm .com)

SeoulversusBritishInvasion

By Matthew Lamers

The images are a striking collection cap-tured by photographers from all corners of the country.

They depict a Korea as it is seen from anon-Koreans eyes: Some are beaut ifulcountryside landscapes, like MarioTaradan s image of Hallas an, Jeju Islan d.Then there is a melancholic image of ahomeless man slurping soup in a Seoul al-leyway from Peter Schurmann. A particu-larly arr esting image is Eric Reichbaumsdecrepit-looking capture of old dancers.

Tomasz Roszkowski is one of 25 photog-raphers whose images will be on display onSept. 26 at Gallery Ohoo, in Hongdae,Seoul. All have been Photo Challenge win-ners over the last year.

Roszkowski came to Korea two years agoand said he was inspired by The KoreaHerald s Photo Challenge. He went to th eCity Hall ice rink, camera and tripod in tow,in search of a winning image for theChristmas in Korea competition. When henoticed an old figure-skating ajoshi dressedas Santa Claus, he thought he had found awinner. He shot from a distance, thenmoved in closer for the kill.

Moments later, he approached me, stillon his skates and still dressed like Santa,and demanded that I delete the photo. I saidno, and he pulled a knife out and grabbedmy arm. I broke free and ran away, with himchasing me on skates and me screaming.

As terrified as I was and yelling for help,nobody could understand me, and all theysaw was a lanky foreigner running away be-ing chased by an ajoshi Santa on skates,said Roszkowski.

The lesson the photographer learned isan important one. Even though its moredifficult to approach your subject confident-ly, in the end, that confidence and opennessleads to better photographs and fewerknife fights. And sometimes it doesnt hurtto ask permission, especially when yoursubject is an a rmed Santa.

The Photo Challenge is a weekly competi-tion. The concept is simple: If you think youve captured a good image, then upload iton the Seoul Photo Clubs Flickr website.Every week the groups leader, Aaron Raisey,selects a winner. The winning photographeris given a 50,000 won gift certificate forHyosung Camera, a t-shirt from Babo Shirts(the competitions th ree sponsors, along withExpat Living) and the image is printed in theHeralds Expat Living section.

The Seoul Photo Club plays an importantrole in community building among expatsand Koreans, say its members. But morethan that, its a group that allows photogra-phers to share their work and receive con-structive criticism.

The Seoul Photo Club is an opportunityfor a wide variety of Koreans and expats towork together to improve their photographyskills and explore Korea, Roszkowski said.Definitely more of a photography club thana social club, the Flickr group focuses onconstructive and useful critique of photosand thema tic challenges that give membersthe opportunity to really think about andredefine the way they view Korea.

The group consists of about 400 expat andKorean photographers.

Raisey took over the group about a yearago after founder David Smeaton left Korea.

He said a reason the group has become sopopular is the transportability of photogra-phy as a hobby. Unlike many hobbies, it isone that doesnt suffer from being tra ns-planted from one country to the next youcan do it almost wherever you are, and canalso be participated in fully online given theright community.

These combine to enable people fromevery cultural background and in any re-mote location in Korea to easily pursue pho-tography, share ideas and offer critiques, headded. The Seoul Photo Club acts like abridge between photography enthusiastswherever they are in Korea.

The photographers, whose professionsspan from language instructors to engi-neers and designers said they loved shoot-ing in Korea for different reasons.

Another of the photographers in the exhi-bition is Dave Heidloff. I really appreciatethe juxtapositions that exist throughout thecountry. Everyday in Seoul we walk by m od-ern urban elements while on the sidewalk in front of us, an ajuma is preparing andselling garlic the same way it was done cen-turies ago, he said.

Korea has so much character comparedto other countries that I often find myself trying so many different techniques to bestcapture that character.

Another aspect the photographers talk about is Koreas uniqueness more so fromthe perspective of non-Koreans, which addsanother element to their prints.

Nicolette Oliver said its easy to take ad-vantage of the beauty of everyday subjects,but as a foreigner, the Korean way of life isso different that seemingly simple items arenew and interesting from their of point of view. Food, flowers, insects, transporta-tion, weddings, clothing, dance ... you nameit, its done differently in Korea tha n any-where else in the world, and foreigners canappreciate the uniqueness, she said.

There are several advantages to being aphotographer in a foreign land.

Raisey said he sees things without theblinkers of culture and habit. Things thatseem mundane to a local seem very unusu-al or interesting to him.

Asked how he as a foreigner can seeKorea in a unique way, Roszkowski said: Idont work 18 hour s a day, so I can actu allysee it.

The opening for the exhibition, This isKorea, will be held on Sept. 26 from 5-7p.m. To Get to Gallery Ohoo, go to Hongik Station (Line 2, Exit 4); go straight untilyou get to Family Mart ; take a left; hang aright at the street across from Bar Bentleythen go straight until you see Ohoo on yourleft. The exhibition will be on until mid-October. Seoul Phot o Clubs website iswww.flickr.com/groups/seoulphotoclub

(mattlam ers@heraldm .com)

My favorite areas to shoot have evolved as my understanding of Korea has.Initially, I enjoyed shooting in markets like Namdaemun, then Insadong/Jongno, andmost recently, areas like Guro-gu where the Korea as a nation in tr ansition, eager t oshed its past, is m ost evident. Tomasz Roszkowski

Im not t oo concerned about wh ere I shoot; I will still find t hings to ta ke photos of.My favorite places though well I like Gyeongju a lot, I th ink its a fascinating placeto visit. I like the big urban centers of Busan and Seoul a lot as well, and par ticular-ly enjoy taking photos of these places at night. I think last year one of my favoriteshoots was the Lotus lan tern fest ival, for which Im grat eful to The Korea Her ald whoarran ged a press pass for me t hat day. Simon Bond

Back alleys. Agood example would be the alleys and side str eets ar ound Insad ong.Insadong is very popular of course, but few people step off that beaten track and en-ter t he little byways and alleys just a stones-throw from the tourist bustle. One of thevery best images to come out of the Seoul Photo Club this year was taken in exactlythat area within sight of the ma in street. Back alleys are always interesting. Youcan often encount er inter esting chara cters and see stuff that m ost foreigners dont.

Aaron Raisey

I love shooting around the food markets of Shinnae-dong and the base of Boramsan. There is a secluded and serene Buddhist temple at the base of Boramsanthat has some incredibly well maintained gardens as well as a couple hundred some-what creepy statues of Buddha. Dave Heidloff

For traditional architecture, I enjoy Gyeongbukgong and the Temple of Heavennear the Westin Chosun Hotel in Seoul. However, pictures around the small villageof Anjung-eup, where Ive lived for the pas t year, is ripe with photo opportunit ies.

Nicolette Oliver

Wheres your favoriteplace to shoot?

CapturingKorea

American Steelw as originally es-tablished on theisland ofOkinow a, Japan,in 1983, with aK orean chapterbeing formed in

1989. Based on alove of ridingHarley Davidsonmotorcycles,thegroup bondedunder a standardprinciple:Family-Job-Steel.

Expat Living is a section dedicated to the dailyliving of expatriates.It is printed on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.To share stories about your life abroad, send storiesor story ideas to Matthew Lamers atmattlamers@heraldm.com Submissions may be edited for length or clarity.

Mario Taradan

Josh Leeker

Peter Schurmann

Aaron Brown

Tomasz Roszkowski

Xu Xiaoqing