Eastern Explorer pt.1

Carl Jones, a South African photographer takes us on a journey to the eastern most corners of the world, and shares with us a unique perspective from the rooftops of Seoul.

"I had been living and working in Seoul for some time and I would always cruise on photo missions with some of my homies finding new places and locations to shoot. If I was lucky I would stumble across something that I thought would be rad to shoot with a model or two. Most of these locations would be a bit grimy, but I have always been drawn to this setting.

Once I figured out that it was possible to get onto rooftops I was hooked. Even though the success rate of getting onto these rooftops is super low (around 1 out of 10) it was always worth it. Sometimes you could sneak into the building and get all the way to the very last door to find that it is locked. On the other hand the security come and find you and kick you the fuck out. It's their job to not allow people onto the rooftops because of jumpers. I just wanted to take some pictures...

All that said, once you find a suitable rooftop the views and privacy that you have when shooting with a model is awesome, and there is something thrilling about shooting in a place that you are not actually allowed to be in. You also end up getting shots and perspectives of the city scape that very few people photograph. Rarity - I'm into that.

In terms of the models that I found to shoot for these projects I mainly used Instagram and slid into their DM's and used what ever Korean language I could to get them on the same page as me and to get them amped to come and shoot with me and a stylist on location. Instagram is a weird place but it works. 

I really dig adding in my street photography from the same time of the shoots to tell a broader story of the city instead of just shooting the models on their own. I feel like it makes for a better viewing of the stories that I'm trying to tell.

Some other locations in Seoul that I really like shooting at is back alleys, under bridges, bedrooms or houses of the models (for a comfortable shooting environment) and with neon lighting. For this project I just wanted it to be grimy and have a feel of concrete, lights and textures that embody Seoul and Hong Kong. These 2 cities are completely different but I'm in love with both of them."