How to shoot Seoul Fashion Week

Participants pose outside the DDP at Seoul Fashion Week, October 2019, the last time SFW held in-person events outdoors before the pandemic. / Courtesy of Michael Hurt

By Michael Hurt

Shooting street fashion at Seoul Fashion Week (SFW) is one of the most enlightening and liberating experiences a photographer can have. It's also quite easy to do, and at the same time it's really easy to mistake certain small things and miss the opportunity to get some legendary work done.

Not all too long ago, Seoul wasn't even a blip on the radar when it came to the global map fashion map. Once SFW moved to Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) permanently in 2014, it immediately rose to prominence as a world-class event that actually grew in overseas press and grassroots attention on social media. SFW has become the most widely attended open-to-the-public fashion week on Earth, because of the way the venue keeps the event public in a way that most other fashion weeks across the world find somewhat irksome, since fashion weeks are, by their very nature, exclusive events.

SFW is now quite a global affair and quite possibly the most successful regular international event that any Korean industry or association has ever put on, save for the Busan International Film Festival. People across the world do actively pay attention to what's going down on the ramp in DDP during every third week of March and October.

All this means that photo opportunities at SFW are unparalleled and unique compared to any other kinds of photographic events involving people, especially in Korea.

Influencer Nara Kim (Insta @naras) poses for a photo at Seoul Fashion Week, October 2019. / Courtesy of Michael Hurt

Generally speaking, photography of people you don't know personally is culturally and socially frowned upon in Korea. There is a common myth that it's illegal, but it is not.

For the most part, there are no criminal offenses for taking a person's picture without their explicit permission, unless of course it is for purposes of sexual gratification or harassment. But for the most part, what most Koreans have understood since the 1980s is a commonly understood legal concept known as "chosangkwon," or "the right to control one's facial image." Importantly, this is a concept in civil law and basically protects victims' right to sue you for monetary damages, although it has been commonly misunderstood for the last few decades as a concept within criminal law.

SFW is a brief respite from the general photography culture in Korea, as SFW is in itself an oasis from most social norms regarding photography since most of the people dressed up and peacocking about are there for the express purpose of being photographed and are unusually eager to be approached and shot and published across all possible media.

In a nutshell, SFW is an event where most photographic norms in greater society are switched off temporarily. The safest bet for photography, at SFW or elsewhere, is to walk around with one's camera and simply approach anyone about being photographed; I would estimate that the likelihood of assent would be 90 percent at the event, with those abstaining probably being under specific contract with an agency or literally on their way to a show and therefore too busy to pose. I'd say the likelihood of getting a random stranger to pose for you in the street anywhere else Seoul would be somewhere around 10 percent normally, with the exception of places such as Hongdae, where the odds become more like 50/50.

Generally speaking, the SFW photographic norms kick in as soon as one approaches the main entrance to the venue and event, which is in front of Cafe de Fessonia at ground level where the bus would let you off in front of the DDP, directly across the street from Doota. That is where the most public area of the event is, since the event registration desk is inside the cafe. It is literally the area where the public becomes part of the event, beginning where the ramp downwards starts and extending down to the belowground level, which will be absolutely packed with people there to shoot and be shot. Anywhere from the ground level down the ramp and into the belowground level is pretty much fair game to ask just about anyone to shoot, and you'll probably be given permission and some time to do your thing. But basically anyone walking in or around the building is likely there for the event and even if they're not, they'll likely understand why you'd be asking for a picture, even if they decline.

It's still a pretty good idea to get the permission of people you photograph, especially if it is for publication or any kind of distribution across digital media, and even more especially if you are a man taking a picture of a woman.

If you're doing serious work that's going to be published I'd suggest making sure to get the contact information of every subject you plan to publish, because the publishing of pictures that do a person harm in a way they can demonstrate in a court of law ― permission given or not, actually ― can result in some serious civil liability for the photographer who caused the damage.

But in actuality and in the lived reality of most photographers who go to SFW, I can say with a good deal of certainty that it's a photographic free-for-all and one of the easiest events involving human beings to cover. And if you do happen to pack a bag and go out to shoot up Korea's most fashion-forward, it will definitely be one of the most memorable photographic experiences of your entire life.

Dr. Michael Hurt is an experienced American instructor who has worked in Korean photography for 19 years. Visit fb.com/photoseoul for more information, or contact him at kuraeji@gmail.com.