In Frame Ep03 Alex Webb

[Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] I only know how to approach a place by walking for what does a street photographer do but walk and watch and wait and talk and then watch and wait some more trying to remain confident that the unexpected the unknown or the secret heart of the known awakes around the corner [Music] hello good to meet you good to meet you hello good to meet you you want to go sit down yeah okay ahead I'll go beyond here one of the most remote places in Korea the locals could venture out only by passing through the high mountains and Rough Waters the transportation across the river in the old days was the raft many lost their lives to the Russian currents those tragic Tales have lived on in the songs we sing [Music] Magnum photos member Alex Webb's first assignment in Korea starts in auraji where rivers and stories meet [Music] this is my second time in Korea well I don't have a sense in terms of you know real differences because of course I've only just arrived but you know I hadn't spent time in more rural areas like this so it's interesting to see another side of Korea you see bits of Korea that are more traditional less built up less modern and so that's interesting founded in 1947 Magnum photos aims to stand up to Injustice and show what is really going on in the world the celebrated photojournalists of Magnum photos have inspired and astounded the world with pictures that Express More Than Words each member of this Elite group is guaranteed creative freedom to infuse his or her personality into the works foreign [Music] who was honored with the overseas Press Club award and other notable accolades has been working as a photojournalist since 1974. he has demonstrated Mastery over images by adding color to the monochromatic world of documentary photography you know photography for me is a way of exploring and ultimately understanding the world you know it's just about going out there and wandering with the camera and on some level sort of almost feeling free to play with the world to allow myself to to to visually play to not let my sort of more rational mind inhibit me [Music] foreign [Music] The Place Alex visits along the river that flows through Junction it's a market where the locals used to communicate with the outside world thank you the marketplace is always boisterous and full of life the market which opens once every five days is not just a place to buy and sell Goods it's a place where people's lives and local cultures are displayed in plain sight right okay thank you she is a candy vendor her performance is always fun to watch no wonder the candy vendor is the star of the marketplace how will Alex's viewfinder capture the sights of a Korean Marketplace I never know what interests me until I see it For Me Photography is entirely about experiential it's about discovering things and finding things and I look in late and I look and I see people outside and inside and I think there might be some kind of interesting relationship there but I don't at this point I don't know Junction market is famous for its Mountain herbs and medicinal plants huh yeah oh okay and these are Roots yeah oh let me let me smell let me smell uh-huh very good so so what are these what are these oh because there wasn't much meat and so forth oh okay okay the market only opens on days that end with two and seven it's named five-day Market because it is held every five days in addition to regular Merchants there are many farmers here [Music] Farmers work on their fields for four days and sell their crops on the fifth day [Music] [Music] located [Music] the reason the market is held only every five days is to give Farmers time to grow and harvest their crops [Music] this old lady has been a fixture at the market for 50 years [Music] [Music] Alex walks and walks through the marketplace [Music] he is no stranger to walking his signature work Crossings was compiled after walking thousands of kilometers along the U.S Mexico border [Music] he always carries two small Leica cameras for assignments no I think I think one of the things also that I like is that it's small and fairly unobtrusive so people don't take you necessarily too seriously as a photographer which is fine with me [Music] this is mimiljohn or buckwheat pancake one of jungson Market's favorite eats but Alex's camera focuses on something else so who are these guys oh okay nice and the other name I find this smart this area of the market quite interesting because you have all these different layers you have people here and you see inside there and you have different colored lights and so they're all these relationships that are being set up that are interesting uh it's not it's more interesting than just sort of someone selling something [Music] what I'm talking now I'm looking at you and I see you your face I'm not looking at the leaf over there or that thing over there but if I took a picture of you the camera would see all things and they all would be equivalent and so the camera will create or make relationships between things that we don't necessarily necessarily perceive in our everyday life something catches Alex's attention it's the significance of the Wings painted throughout the marketplace what are the wings what are the wings for is there a reason oh so people to take a picture oh just to stand in front of it yeah oh I see oh okay Alex uses images of murals or drawings to put people in different compositions within a frame there are other places where people get photographed where the faces are cut out and something so they put their face in I've never seen it with wings like that that's just sort of a different Motif and it's interesting can you can you wait just one second I want to take a picture of these kids here dude thank you where one of the little girls had just been photographed and it's one of those off moments where she's after she's been photographed and she's looking down and there's something sort of interesting by the way she's looking down and standing on top of some little styrofoam blocks and then the wings splay out like that Angels oh those are angel wings oh okay okay good oh they're gonna photograph again I gotta go again are you doing [Music] so where's the other wings oh there's one over there I see oh okay so popular [Music] it's really more that one smells the possibility of a photograph you don't know what it's going to be but there's something there that intrigues you maybe it's something on a wall like the wings shaft of light but what I find really exciting about photography is that sometimes things happen that you don't expect to happen and that's when it's right and and that becomes the photograph and that's what I find is really wonderful [Music] the market is not only a business Hub but also a dynamic playground foreign [Music] [Applause] Alex keeps exploring every corner of the market in search of unexpected marvelous moments he worry about your skin what worry about my burnt skin yeah okay thank you foreign [Music] but you're wrong [Laughter] the market day draws not only shoppers but busloads of tourists first opened in 1966 the market has become a must-see tourist destination and was even named the star of Korean tourism in 2012. so are they waiting for the bus [Music] [Laughter] [Applause] for many many years and that world is increasingly disappearing and so you have an odd mixture of people coming in you have tourists coming in which was sort of interesting to see this this Market has become a kind of tourist destination um so it was just the feel of the market that was interesting [Music] foreign [Music] she sets up stalls at other markets around the country can only go home about once or twice a month [Music] so tell me you're away a lot did how's your family deal with it do they miss you [Music] well Alex was busy photographing people Shoppers filled up their bags by late afternoon more people were leaving than arriving the closing hours of the market spur on Alex's work I thought there was one picture towards the edge towards the edge of the market late in the afternoon along one of the sidewalks of a group of people that I thought was kind of interesting something about the way one of the women was standing sort of something a little mysterious about her pose she was kind of beautiful and a sort of odd way with other people sort of behind along selling things along the uh along the sidewalk of a vending card with a mirror in it with reflections of people in the mirror as other people and traffic went by on their other side quite complicated pictures and Ian red I thought that they I thought the pictures were going to be quite good I'm not sure they're quite as good as I thought they were going to be but uh there's one of them that maybe that may be okay Alex tries to illustrate the chaotic world through the tricky images reflected on Windows or mirrors [Music] now the day is over and Merchants are busy packing up I do tend to think that the beginning and the end of markets are interesting because I think that's when people start doing different things and they reveal themselves more and they're not simply engrossed in being Merchants they're doing other things he often visits local markets wherever he goes but hard-working Merchants wrapping up their Day always make new and interesting models the corn lady must have had a good day she is singing so where are you going to go tomorrow good luck tomorrow the itinerant vendor is also getting ready to leave she and her husband depart for another Marketplace in donghae but we'll come back here five days later [Music] naju in South Jola province is the breadbasket of Korea but there's something here that's as famous as its rice [Music] this restaurant sells naju's signature dish gomtan this Rich hearty beef soup is so popular that a whole street is lined with gomtang restaurants and so what makes it so special thank you parts are cooked for three to four hours [Music] [Music] [Music] very good very good [Music] this is definitely the best soup I've had in Korea [Music] I mean I don't go out there with a specific intent I go out there to look to see to explore to discover so you know I don't know what I'm going to find each time I go out there there still are new and interesting and uh exciting things the number has declined over the years but there are still many cattle farmers in naju what you're doing here how many cows are you going to be selling tomorrow foreign foreign [Music] he is going to retire from cattle farming which has helped him put his children through school foreign [Music] he has spent the last 40 years with his cattle in this Old Barn [Music] in the early morning hours [Music] a truck arrives to transport the cows [Music] struggle to bring the animals out [Music] [Music] Farmers despite differences in nationalities often are very very similar there's something another about the way they handle their animals uh you know the way they deal with each other it was it was very familiar interestingly enough [Music] come on [Music] I really like photographing in that moment when there's a little bit of light in the sky and there's a little bit of artificial light somewhere in the foreground and they kind of balance it's yellow or orange and warm and the sky is usually cool and blue and so there's an interesting kind of relationship that takes place in terms of color and as I said before I think that you know color of that light colored light can kind of carve out a certain kind of space for itself in a picture like that so the kind of interesting mood that takes place in the early morning like that Alex enjoys taking pictures where the artificial and natural lights are in balance the photos show how the lights play with each other [Music] um [Music] they arrive at yongsanpo cattle market [Music] it's another five-day Market opening on the days that end with one and six there are various specialty markets in Korea but for the farmers cattle markets by far deal with the largest transactions [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] around 300 head are up for today's auction foreign cows are already giving him a hard time they should have gone up to the auction platform but one has stepped off to the ground [Music] other Farmers tried to help him out with advice [Applause] foreign [Music] are inspected by a veterinarian before they are priced but Mr Kim looks disappointed he thought his cow was pregnant but it wasn't the case it he's worried that the cow May fetch a lower price than what he expected what's happened what's going on [Music] heated haggling is taking place in another part of the market sometimes the cows that fall below the standards are sold outside the market [Music] meanwhile the official auction is underway winning bids are shown on the screen both the sellers and buyers are nervously waiting for the results Alex is getting busy too he's trying to record the fleeting moments [Music] I think I was probably particularly intrigued uh you know just as the sun came up on these long shafts of light sort of came through the uh you know through the area where the where the cattle were and there were sort of these Deep Shadows and faces were picked out of darkness and so forth I mean I I I I love that kind of light it's it's often a challenge to to make a photograph work because there's so much black there's so much negative space but when it works I find it exciting foreign there was something I liked just about this sort of sense of a sea of cows in the foreground with these horns and the horns sort of circle around the little figure of The Man Behind it's a kind of picture that I've tried to take a number of times in cattle markets I'm not sure it's fully successful but it's more successful than some that I've taken in other places foreign [Music] for both Alex who has to seize passing moments and the farmers who have to make decisions in a Flash I was intrigued by the the man with the with the megaphone and I was this bright red so it was so that was very vibrant and there was this harsh light and there were Shadows you know sort of cutting at the top some at the bottom and there was a kind of interesting pattern with the highlights and the Shadows it's a way of working you know in harsh light that I think I've developed over the years particularly because I started working seriously so it's a kind of light that I'm quite familiar with that I'm used to working with and uh have evolved a way of working with that kind of light that seems to work for me [Music] he used to work mainly in black and white but while traveling in Haiti and tropical regions he started focusing on shadows and color photos of the Vivid colors and scorching sunlight bouncing off the dark skin of the locals are applauded for illustrating the real lives of ordinary people you know I really initially was somewhat contemptuous of color I thought it was crass and Commercial and something that no one did to make money but not where the real heart soul of Photography lay I found myself working more and more in certain kinds of places initially Haiti uh then the U.S Mexico border Jamaica and as I worked more in these places I sensed that there was a quality to these places a sense of searing light and vibrant color that I really wasn't expressing in my black and white work [Music] Mr Kim is saying goodbye to his cow [Music] this cow has been sold [Music] [Applause] [Music] the prices of his two cows were less than what he wanted um [Music] I thought I thought it was interesting that almost everyone every uh Cattleman that we talked to was older talked about retiring the latter is very similar to what's happened to in the United States for example where small farmers are pushed out of business by much larger more corporate farmers [Music] thank you [Music] at four o'clock in the morning when everyone is still asleep another five-day Market is getting ready for business in the middle of the city it's Moran Market in songnam most of the merchants here are itinerant vendors called jungle bengi they follow five day markets all over the country [Music] I don't know [Music] Korea has grown fast in a short span of time pushing traditional five-day markets into history but Shoppers still flock to Modern Market in songnam kyongi province which opens on the days that end with four and nine covering some 20 000 square meters Moran Market is Korea's largest and best known five-day Market um look there's a tremendous variety of different kinds of things all kinds of different things to purchase I mean the number of different kinds of fish for instance and turtles and all sorts of stuff and there are many many more people here so there's a moment there's a much much greater sense of life going on here this feels like it feels like a much more vital than the other what makes this Urban Marketplace still so popular [Music] [Music] [Applause] started raining but the rain doesn't stop Alex won't the rain make his job more difficult the rain makes us all very very wet and that that poses problems both as a photographer you have to stay underneath things or cover your camera and so forth [Applause] the rain is coming down stronger but Alex continues clicking away so when you get rain it changes it totally so in a market like this all of a sudden there are all these tarpaulins that are pulled out many of them are transparent or translucent so you have areas where you know light is quite red because there's light reflecting off a red tarpaulin or you see people through tarplands and so forth so uh the whole situation changes with rain and I thought actually in an interesting way foreign [Music] [Music] I think really interesting photography takes the viewer somewhere else where they've never been before usually because a particular photographer sees The World Slightly differently than anyone else when I get into a situation you know I sort of smell the possibility of a picture you know you don't know what's going to happen but you sort of think maybe [Applause] and so I pointed my camera in the direction of that particular person and there was just this one moment when behind the plastic and before she came out underneath the plastic she put her hands up like that and it you know it had this sort of funny pattern it almost looked like a a wave of water going across and then it has that splotch of that orange shaft down on the side that sort of creates a kind of interesting Counterpoint to her [Music] Alex contrasted the vibrant colors against the translucent tarm to breathe life into the Rainy Market scene [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign fishmongers they are all one big family [Music] their teamwork is great having worked together for a long time [Applause] these Merchants are also one another's regular customers foreign [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] foreign but the frustration of slow business or the fatigue from a long day vanishes with a friendly chat and a drink with other merchants oh okay okay fair enough foreign exhausted Alex also takes a break with the ladies so are you all close friends yeah [Applause] [Music] [Music] Moran Market is a place where family members fellow merchants and even strangers can form new relationships and share a sense of belonging thank you very much thank you thank you I've had lots and lots and lots of times uh you know every culture is different and there are different traditions in different cultures but often camera can be kind of a passport to enter people's lives come on the rain stops in the afternoon the market is once again buzzing with customers meanwhile Alex has been looking at these portraits for 30 minutes I'm always interested by by images in societies you know whether it's whether it's photographic images in a portrait studio or whether it's paintings on a wall or street art or whatever I'm always intrigued by images so when I saw the the man putting up those portraits on the on the wall I was kind of intrigued and I spent some time there sort of walking back and forth and following him as he put them up and people walked by and so forth and there were a couple times what I thought that was kind of an interesting moment with sort of the relationship of the people in the foreground to the portraits behind foreign [Music] a photographer shirt named Charles Harbor who says that it's not just that the photographer is looking for a picture but the picture is also looking for the photographer so sometimes they don't meet many times [Music] [Music] with the hope that a photographer and a good picture meet each other Alex captures another moment with his camera foreign I love photography I wouldn't uh I wouldn't do it if I didn't love it I wouldn't uh I wouldn't run around in the rain like today if I didn't love photography how about me how about you here we go I see the world one way you see the world another way he sees the world another way she sees the world another way and if you're in touch with with the with your basic photographic juices each person will produce significantly different kinds of photographs so the photographs that you're seeing from me are photographs that are expressions of how I perceive the world not the way you perceive the world uh and and that's all it is [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: Tao Zang

Views: 5,082

Keywords:

Id: eElgkK6amHc

Length: 49min 45sec (2985 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 08 2022