Aperture No. 260 - Fall 2025
The Seoul Issue
An essential look at the vital photography scene of South Korea’s capital.
Featured Content
Issue Details
Part of Aperture’s series of city-focused issues, this edition offers a sweeping view of Seoul’s photographic culture.
“The Seoul Issue” is a kaleidoscopic portrait of the South Korean capital through the eyes of its extraordinary photographers. Covering a range of topics, from the influence of K-beauty to excavations of Korean history to recent political protests, as well as the ongoing tensions simmering across a divided peninsula, the issue weaves intergenerational timelines and perspectives, offering a key resource on how photographers continue to map the past and future of this restless megacity.
Format: Paperback / softback
Number of pages: 160
Publication date: 2025-09-01
Measurements: 8.5 x 10.6 x 0.6 inches
ISBN: 9781597115810
Table Of Contents
Features
EDITORS’ NOTE
The Seoul Issue
ABOUT FACE
Heinkuhn Oh’s portraits capture anxieties of state and self
Hyunjung Son
BECOMING SEOUL
The photographic gaze has long shaped Seoul’s political landscape
Jeehey Kim
SCREEN TIME
How do artists respond to a city of hallucinatory surfaces?
Jaeyong Park
SPACE IS THE PLACE
For six decades, Space magazine has chronicled Seoul’s ever-changing skyline
Andrew Russeth
VISIONS
Youngsook Park forged a feminist tradition in 1960s Korea
Sohee Kim
THE COLLECTOR
Bohnchang Koo brings forgotten histories to life
Michael Famighetti
FLASHBACK DIARY
Yezoi Hwang records the uprising of a city in crisis
Jungmin Cho
INTO THE WILD
Doyeon Gwon explores Seoul’s entanglements with animals
Yechen Zhao
K-FRAGMENTS
Chorong An evokes life under the regime of K-beauty
E. Tammy Kim
COLOSSAL YOUTH
The teenage spirit of Sung Jin Park
Hiji Nam
NIKKI S. LEE STAYS IN THE PICTURE
After taking Manhattan, can the artist reinvent herself in her hometown?
Hyunji Nam
SIGNALS
Heeseung Chung lingers in the spaces between images
Sung woo Kim
STRANGER THINGS
Suntag Noh parses the dark absurdism of the Korean divide
Harry C. H. Choi
Columns
AGENDA
Tyler Mitchell, Black Photojournalism, Germaine Krull, New Photography at MoMA
NOTEBOOK
Stephen Shore on the challenges of the color red
VIEWFINDER
C. J. Alvarez on two photographers reframing the US–Mexico border
STUDIO VISIT
Alistair O’Neill on Nigel Shafran’s convivial London darkroom
REDUX
Chris Wiley on the legacy of New Topographics
CURRICULUM
Sara Cwynar on figure skating, cruel optimism, and Aby Warburg
ENDNOTE
Novelist Ed Park discusses his raucous alternate history of Korea
The PhotoBook Review
DIRECTOR’S CUT
Zack Hatfield talks to Greek auteur Yorgos Lanthimos
SALON STYLE
Iva Dixit on well-coiffed publications
DESCRIBING PICTURES
Kim Beil on photobooks and accessibility
Reviews of photobooks by Guy Bourdin, Christine Furuya-Gössler, Malick Sidibé, and more
Other Issues
