Jack London's photos all online

Quite some time ago I posted about photos taken by Jack London of Korea in 1904 during his time covering the Russo-Japanese War, which were published in the book 'Jack London, Photographer' (that link also has links to my unfinished series about Jack London, Robert Dunn, and Frederick McKenzie's adventures while trying to cover the war as the only foreign correspondents who initially managed to slip past Japanese attempts to control information).

I was contacted last year by someone cataloging his photos at the Huntington Library, who mentioned that, in addition to his own photography, London had bought a large number of photos while in Korea, and that these would all be online by the end of the year. This only came to mind recently, and they can now be found here. It's easy enough to browse and download photos, but they're not as well organized as they could be. The photos are scans of photos pasted into photo albums, but the search I linked to lists hits for random photos, not entire photo albums. At any rate, they do have annotations making clear whether the photo was taken by London or purchased, unlike the photos listed at this Korean blog (at the bottom of each post are links to other parts in the 8-part blog series). It seems most of the photos there London purchased; at any rate, they are at least very easy to browse. Here are a few from the Huntington Library site:

London in what is incorrectly listed as Changgyeonggung Palace. This is actually Punggyeonggung (풍경궁), a new main palace Emperor Gojong was building as he turned Pyongyang into his 'western capital'; as it turns out, London's photos are the most detailed photos of this palace under construction.

Robert Dunn in the same location. 

I believe this was in Incheon. 

Women doing laundry outside city wall (the French legation is visible, top right). 

Namdaemun Market. 

Uiju. 

Apparently the last photo London took as he left Busan to return home.

There are lots of gems in the collection, so it's well worth checking out. (It also includes photos of the urban poor in London, the San Francisco earthquake, south Pacific islands, etc.)

The transformation of Gindeung Maeul, 2008-2015

It was back in 2008 that I first posted about the destruction of Gindeung Maeul, a neighborhood south of where I lived in Banghwa-dong. The house above was one of the holdouts during both the first phase of demolition in 2008 and the second phase in 2010. It was finally demolished in 2012, but it wasn't until early 2014 - after 5 years of lying empty - that construction of apartments in Gindeung Maeul finally began. Here are my posts about the area from 2008 and 2010:

Exploring Gindeung Maeul
The Disappearance of Gindeung Maeul

More of Gindeung Maeul being destroyed

It was initially torn down to make way for part of the Banghwa New Town. It can be seen jutting out on the right below:

This new town plan, however - like most of them - never was carried out. Here's what the area looked like from above in early 2006, with the first phase, meant to be a part of the Banghwa New Town and carried out in 2008, marked in yellow; the area marked in red was the second phase, carried out in 2010, and intended to make way for a much larger project.

The area after the first phase of demolition:

The second phase of demolition was to make way for the Magok development, about 3 square kilometers including a lake park (since converted to "Seoul Botanic Gardens"). I looked at the the completion of the the first phase of apartment building for the Magok development back in 2014. Below is a map of the planned apartments (most of those in the bottom left corner are not yet completed (mainly due to the need to move a school (since demolished) and because there's still a small military base there. As can be seen, the red shape marks the Gindeung redevelopment,

Here are panoramic shots of the changes to the neighbourhood between 2008 and 2015:

June 2008

July 2008

August 2008

September 2008

October 2008

November 2008.

January 2010

October 2011

May 2012

February 2013

May 2013

 August 2013

November 2013

May 2014

September 2014

October 2014

January 2015

March 2015

July 2015

That's quite the change from mid-2008:

Here are the schematics and plans for the Magok Hillstate Apartments:

(From here.)

(From here.)

A view from the side:

Here are views from above of Gindeung Maeul and Magok in early 2008 and mid 2015:

Needless to say, the area has changed quite a bit.

Lost landscape redux

Years ago I posted about Kim Ki-chan's book "Lost Landscape," in which this photo, taken in modern-day Bucheon, was published:

Jung-dong, Bucheon, 1976.3.21

In the spring of 2015 I noticed her on the wall of the rail underpass east of Yonsei's main gate, amid the other graffiti: 

As can be seen, the person who painted next to, and slightly over her, chose to leave her intact. But not the person after that. It was a lovely addition while it lasted, and made me smile every time I passed it.

Skies and water

Apologies to my readers for the utter lack of posts the last month. I spent much of the month in Canada, and a good portion of that time was spent away from the internet. The weather wasn't always great, but I can't help but take a certain amount of pleasure from sleeping with layers of covers on in August, considering the impossibility of that in Seoul these days. Lots of photos of skies, water, and nature follow:

A couple days after the super moon (thanks to Ami for the settings).

A particularly hazy day driving (excruciatingly slowly on the Gardener Expressway) into Toronto.

Spooked geese make for more interesting subjects than calm ones.

Swallowtail butterfly.

Pure luck involved in this shot - the hummingbird was flitting about here and there and I zoomed in and just happened to shoot at the right moment.

More regular posting will begin from here on out.