Magnum Blog / Korea, An Apology - the photo blog of Magnum Photos

The above image was taken at the Parthenon in Greece in 1991 and was part of my project about global tourism.

Up until last week I had always thought that the tour group was Japanese. However, when I was recently in Seoul and this image was used as a poster, one reason cited was the fact that the party of tourists was Korean.

So I feel it only correct that I apologise for this misrepresentation. All those times I have given talks and mentioned how the Japanese travel the world in groups… Canadian readers will understand the gravity of this, when you are accused of being American.

I spent a good few days in Korea shooting tourist activities. These days, people photograph one another so prolifically and with such enthusiasm that I often wonder whether they actually look at any of the things they are visiting.

Reader comments (29)

Subscribe to this article's comments via RSS

i always thought they're Chinese.

Comment posted by Young on May 31, 2007

"I am amused to speculate how many unknown Martin Parr images there are lurking in family albums." This reminds me of that famous riddle "If a tree falls in the forest and nobody around to hear it does it make a sound?" so maybe you question can be "If Martin Parr takes a picture with someone else camera and they don't know who martin parr is the picture a martin parr?"

Comment posted by Harlan Erskine on May 31, 2007

Mr. Parr, given a 4x6 tourist snapshot made in 1990s, how confident are you that it was(n't) shot by you (judged by the composition, context and your memory)?

Are tourist snapshots all the same regardless who pushed the button?

Comment posted by S. LIU on May 31, 2007

hi, what a nice blog! funny and true!!

i got into amateur photography about a year ago and i got a lots of photos from my last Cambodia and France visit. i showed it to family and friends with only one question popped up:"where are you in the photo?"

ha! i guess i am not a typical tourist who pose in front of famous monument and statue for photo afterall. i often amazed by the sight and surroundings during my visit to places that i just will take photos non-stop for the place i visit. afterwards i might ask myself, why didnt i stand in font of that and got a pic, but then again, i do know and feel my existence with all the places i visited, coz it's all in my head and my heart.

again, thanks for such a nice blog, keep up the good work!

big hello from MALAYSIA

Comment posted by YP on June 1, 2007

And of course the next step is the creation of virtualsightseeing.com. A company that provides perfect photoshopped backdrops of the main tourist sights around the world. Then newlyweds can all have their photo of the Taj Mahal at dawn, Notre-Dame in spring and Blackpool tower without the fish & chip papers!

Comment posted by James Cox on June 1, 2007

Hey Martin,

I went to your show. I was actually planning to see the Capa show which was on in the same building. I arrived at the Seoul Arts Center and saw this poster and said "Man, Parr....now this is gonna be a tough choice". Took me 30 minutes to make up my mind LOL....but I chose you over Robert Capa:)

I hope you liked your stay in Korea. The show was great. I had really only seen snipets of your stuff before, never like that together. It was quite impressive.

Comment posted by Rafal Pruszynski on June 1, 2007

This picture is very funny.

Comment posted by Edi on June 1, 2007

Comment posted by Harlan Erskine on June 1, 2007

I am from Prague, Czech Republic, during tourist season the city center is flooded with armies of tourists, you can easily tell their origin, fashion is so specific today ;) I beleive that even the ones who don't walk around with camera stuck to their face can't get much of the city atmosphere.. I would almost make it an equation, when there is more people then bricks in the buildings surrounding them, there is no way they would get any of the atmospere. Maybe when tourist agencies will consider this they will start nocturnal tourism.. and then our city will never go to sleep.
Thanks for your work, I am lovin' it! ;) sasha

Comment posted by sasa on June 3, 2007

greet to you ,Martin Parr !

Comment posted by Liou on June 5, 2007

They publish the pictures on a blog! (cyworld.co.kr is number one in Korea).
It proves we exist... more than achieving a trip, right?

We live in a "love me! love my life!" world. Pretty sad.
The most important is just gathering a collection of things, proofs, photos, that tells how fantastic our life is... And we ask: "isn't it?". Because we are not sure.

So I decided to stay in my room for my lifetime, jumping like a happy monkey from my bed to my computer, and I'll publish the pictures on a pink and shiny blog with drawing of chocolate and beers. Then I would definitely know that my life is super crap.

kkkkk (a way to laugh in Korean, same as "lol"). I love it.

Comment posted by Eric Perriard on June 5, 2007

The hidden collections we all may be a part of:

"I don't even own a camera. The only time I take a picture is when tourists ask me to take one of them, with their camera. (These rare works are now mainly dispersed around the world, in private collections, mostly in Japan.)"

Geoff Dyer's book on photography,"The Ongoing Moment"

Comment posted by Christopher Wise on June 7, 2007

I was just in Spain on a photography trip and had a similar experience. I was waiting to get into the palace at the Alhambra and there was a group of Asian tourists waiting in line with me and their guide was making jokes and cracking them up. I thought here's a great photo! I assumed they were Japanese because of all my inbred stereotypes - travelling in groups, photographing everything, polite, dress - until I asked the guide (who did speak English) what was so funny and where were they from. He said Korea! It's always a shock to us middle-aged middle class, liberal (we think) male photographers to find out how built in our stereotypes and (by extension) prejudices are. It's always a wake up call to me - and sounds like it was one to Mr. Parr.

Comment posted by Bill Scharf on June 9, 2007

..all photographers look the same to me...

Comment posted by polo on June 11, 2007

Hello.

Perhaps you can start asking the tourists to e-mail you the photos you've taken from them and build a series based on these photos...

Greetings and congratulations for your work.

Ricardo Figueira

Comment posted by Ricardo on June 11, 2007

I don't know why Martin, and many others here, feel they have to apologise for mistaking Korean tourists for Japanese. Why make such a big PC deal of it? It's an easy mistake to make and not one bit as bad as the general Korean assumption that every white skinned foreigner in their country is a mi-guk saram : an American. What they think of darker-skinned foreigners isn't even printable.

Comment posted by nigel amies on June 13, 2007

They're very impressive pictures.

and I'm surprised to see your good humor^^.

Comment posted by Kang miso on June 17, 2007

Encore une photo fort originale, avec un regard humorstique sur le monde qui nous entoure, Martin Parr, vous confortez votre première place dans la liste de mes "maîtres à photographier".
Félicitation une fois de plus et vivement une prochaine exposition de votre talent à Paris !

Comment posted by viex on June 24, 2007

Does not Susan Sontag in her " On Photography " comment on the need for "Tourists" to capture their places visited to serve as both reminder and visible proof to relatives and friends when returning home.
Sontag also notes that particularly the Japanese feel the need to take pictures as a substitute for work, leisure holidays being something they are not particularly comfortable with ? My own observations certainly seem to hold up to this theory.
A recent trip to Rome I decided to concentrate much of my own photography on taking shots of those taking the photos with the sight in the background. There certainly is the feeling that most people tick the attraction off from their list by means of a photograph.
For me an attraction should be engaged using all the senses; sight, sounds, touch and smell and i rarely take a shot of the attraction for the sake of it.

Comment posted by Andy Greaves on June 24, 2007

I wonder where I can get a bear with a camera for my back yard :)

Comment posted by Vancouver Island Daryl on June 27, 2007

No worries, Mr Parr. Many foreigners travel in groups here in China particularly some sites like the Tiananmen Square. And the last thing they never forget to do is to align their faces in grids in front of this postcardish picture of the heritage. (such scene often reminds me of a Gilian Wearing's video installation)

Well, British tourists are often mistaken as Americans, likewise I was always trying to explain me as Chinese not Japanese while staying in Britain. But of course I understand that the British sometimes get a little pissed if they are accused of being Russian.

Not only tourist attractions, everyone now seems to be arming with their digital equipments and ready to shoot anywhere they visit. I have been to this gallery where there was an exhibition of some Guggenheim collections being held. People were crazy about taking photos , so relentlessly as they were once allowed to. A lot of them were even uploading the pictures of their heads in front of other pictures to their blogs(very much doubt if they'll have other use than this). Most amazingly, they do not look at the paintings, installations they actually photograph!

Is this side-effect of being digital or just to prove our existence? Coincidentally few days ago, I found it somehow poignant to see some crappy tripods sold in a souvenir shop.

Haic

Comment posted by Haic on July 2, 2007

"Perhaps they can be deleted when one changes tripod partner?"

Yeah ... I wonder what kind of settlement for the pictures in messy split.
For lawyer's rolodex, there should be one entry for "Photoshop specialist" :-)

Comment posted by Dong Lee on July 3, 2007

These are very nice snaps and i really appreciate your craze for tourism. I had similar experience here in India and my work can be seen at http://www.skillsheaven.com/tehri/tehri_photogallery

Comment posted by Mahavir on July 8, 2007

wow~ the Parthenon in Greece, It' s a great.

Comment posted by Williams on July 20, 2007

Well, history has always been only about looking back at oneself. People think history is a mirror of their own world and that's why it's constantly rewritten.

Comment posted by Alessandro on August 24, 2007

hi, nice pics & thoughts.
"I spent a good few days in Korea shooting tourist activities. These days, people photograph one another so prolifically and with such enthusiasm that I often wonder whether they actually look at any of the things they are visiting."

If you're trying to understand, I hope, behind story of 'Korean's digital photo era', this might help.
Why Korean take pictures so much w/ amazing enthusiasm? I've found it on which 'cyworld' contributes this happening a lot, which is similar to myspace. If you know what myspace.com brought into this world, you'd know what I'm trying to say.
hope we are living in the world with not just wide spectrum of perspective, but with warm regards.

warm regards,
youn choi

Comment posted by youn on September 9, 2007

I generally dislike looking at photos people took on their trips. The "okay-everyone-get-in-a-line-and -smile" format is really uninteresting. I took a trip to the southwest United States a couple summers ago. I took some great photos, mostly because they were not "stand-in-a-line-and-grin" photos. My family was later grateful that I took interesting shots, but at the time they wanted proof that they were there.
I believe travel destinations deserve more than just a plain pose in front of popular sites. Photographs of signs in different languages, two strangers sitting in a foreign cafe, an anonymous man fishing off the rocks. Those are the images that last, and make interesting slideshows.

Comment posted by Cait on October 17, 2007

Hello everybody, my name is Damion, and I'm glad to join your conmunity, and wish to assit as far as possible.

Comment posted by Damion Kutaeff on March 22, 2008

Korea, An Apology

Notifications:

More articles:

Categories:

Recent Comments:

Authors: