Korea goes 'cyberpunk'

Steve Roe's picture of an Incheon alley in the rain won Photo of the Year on Reddit's r/ITookAPhoto forum. / Courtesy of Steve Roe

By Jon Dunbar

Street photographers in Korea have been finding success with a stylized aesthetic people are describing as "cyberpunk," "neo-noir" or "Blade Runner." The style evokes a futuristic yet retro aesthetic, reminiscent of sci-fi movies. The pictures feature surreal lighting, heavy urbanization and grit, usually taken at dusk, often taken during or after rain when the water brings out reflections in roads.

Steve Roe, a British expat in Korea, describes this vibe as "high-tech, low-life."

Roe won Photo of the Year 2017 on Reddit's r/ITookAPhoto forum for a photo taken last year in an alley near Bupyeong Station in Incheon. The photo is mostly blue with yellow highlights, taken during a rainstorm showing various brightly colored signs and people carrying umbrellas.

"On that weekend when I took the photo, there were huge rainstorms nonstop," Roe told The Korea Times. "I knew once it started to get darker I was going to go in to a busy area and hope to get some shots."

The photo, posted Nov. 27, received 1,210 likes on Instagram and 15,400 upvotes on Reddit.

"South Korea is perfect for this style of photography and it is still pretty untouched by a lot of the top photographers doing this style who mostly shoot in Tokyo or Hong Kong," Roe said. "Korea also has all of its telephone and power cables aboveground so it adds to that appearance of tech."

Photographers pursuing this cyberpunk style visit various sites, including dilapidated old markets, glitzy tourist areas such as Myeongdong, as well as the rapidly gentrifying downtown Seoul neighborhood of Ikseon-dong and the bus lanes in front of Seoul Station.

"All of those areas have one thing in common which is big, bright lighting," Roe said. "I think once that element is added in you have your basis for a cyberpunk or neo-noir picture. But just as important is how you then edit that in post-production."

Roe uses Lightroom to manipulate the color in his images, giving them that glow that seems right out of a movie. Most people see the 1982 neo-noir sci-fi film "Blade Runner" in images like this, and Roe points out the recent sequel "Blade Runner 2049" has boosted interest. Both films feature high-tech urban settings, each with distinctive Asian influences.

"The movies and books people grew up with did such a good job of portraying what the future could look like and we are now able to see it in our world today and recreate it," Roe said.

For many enjoying cyberpunk photographs, they aren't just appreciating a photograph but recalling pop culture experiences.

Roe sees in his own photograph Rutger Hauer's memorable "Blade Runner" monologue, in which the dying replicant Roy says "All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain."

Follow @steveroe_ on Instagram to see more of Roe's work.

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