365 Days: A Photography Project

Love, Three Ways
1/100 sec at f/4 at ISO 800

I took this picture on a packed (and I mean packed!) subway train. I wanted to move back so I could get the entire photo in, but it was absolutely impossible.

On the left side (out of frame) is a woman thinking of the couple on the top of the screen. The text says "Is this where everyone goes?" The smaller text says something like "the couple that expresses their love in public* is gone with the wind!"

I took this picture because I thought the three instances of love and sex were so fascinating.

We have a woman dreaming of a couple embracing on a bench with people watching them from behind bushes. Look closely! There's even a voyeur taking photos of them with his handphone! Then we have a couple swooning over Technomart. And finally, tucked in the corner of the ad, placed there by someone walking through the subway cars, we have a business card for phone sex or perhaps a call-girl. The little 19 in a circle above her eye gives away its meaning immediately. (And phone sex and prostitution are "sort of illegal" in that they're technically illegal but the laws are never enforced.)

So we have voyeurism, swooning materialism, and the sex industry all in one place.

* The word for this phrase is 닭살커플, dalksal keopeul, chicken skin couple. "Chicken skin" means "goose bumps." A goose bumps couple is lovey-dovey in public. This may be seen as either cute or distasteful.