4%: [ grace kim ] love hotel

2010-07-05

[ grace kim ] love hotel

top to bottom: miniature artists' book, first picture in series

this series by grace kim is too ingenius. and probably a bit weird - in theory - if you haven't been to korea. the whole series of photographs focuses on love hotels. also - and more commonly - referred to as love motels.

our apartment building, a highrise 15 floor building, has two exits. level 1, which takes you to the main street and the subway station. always bustling, lots of people, coffee shops, convenience stores, etc. and then there's the exit on the second floor, which takes you to the back of the building. alleyways and winding back roads with love motel next to love hotel next to love motel. im sure there's more than twenty of them back there. and they're not just in sinchon, where we live. love motels are EVERYWHERE in korea.

as grace kim points out:

"[Love hotels are] where lovers known to carry on secret affairs. I was permitted to enter the rooms just after the lovers' departures. Their energy was still lingering in the air. They resonate with personal memories of love and loss, and my attraction to secret love as an imaginary act of rebellion - reflected by my own conservative upbringing..."

i couldn't have explained it better. with such a conservative and tradition-based culture, korea still has a secret liberal streak. check out the rest of the series below and check her site for more of her work ~ she has such a crisp and clean finish on her photos. love it.