35 Powerful Photos From The 2024 IPA, Taken By Award-Winning Photographers

Bored Panda reached out to Seunggu Kim, the award-winning photographer behind the series ‘Better Days.’ We were curious about what initially inspired him to document Korea’s leisure spaces and how people spend their limited free time. Here’s what we discovered: “When I was in my 20s, I felt that my identity was defined by the environment to which I belong while working at the school and at the construction site. As I went through a time of worry, I wondered what the bright side of my life was, and I thought that people's leisure could show it.”

When asked about the process of selecting specific locations for the series, Seunggu Kim shared his criteria for what makes a scene compelling to him: “We are interested in places where heterogeneous factors overlap, such as the economic gap in the suburbs of cities, the division of cities and rural areas, where there are cultural intersections, and the coexistence of nature and artificial nature.”

The photographer also shared that he’s been working on this project for 15 years. From his observations, Koreans enjoy their leisure time freely and safely, anywhere and anytime. However, he also mentioned, 'The period during COVID-19 was very dark. Those moments were captured too, and you can find them in my recently released book, Better Days.”

Lastly, Seunggu Kim shared with us his future plans in the photography world: “I am interested in the 'loose bond' that is unique to Koreans. It's something not usually revealed, but it exists in the heart and is built on long-standing trust beyond mere relationships. I plan to express this more directly in my upcoming work.”