2023-ongoing
Cheonho-dong was a town of monotony. The hum of an old refrigerator and the murmur of the television filled my small, silent room. Every night I sketched cartoons in my notebook, waiting for my parents to return from work. Outside, the streets were filled with drunken adults and restless boys short on allowance. In the alleys, I always quickened my pace. On days when I lost my keys in the sandbox at the playground, I would fumble for the spare hidden beneath a flowerpot before stepping into the dim half-basement. Gangdong-gu never felt like a home that embraced me.
And yet, Gangdong-gu holds the weight of six millennia, its history etched in the prehistoric remains of Amsa-dong. The great flood of 1925 unearthed shards of comb-pattern pottery, stone tools, and traces of ancient dwellings, revealing the region’s archaeological significance. But to me, these glittering relics, the grandeur of history, and the romanticized past mattered little. My world was shaped instead by faded signboards, weary faces, hurried footsteps, and gaudy decorations.
Like bones washed up after the rain, Old Town brings to the surface the layered fragments of memory embedded in the same land. The collision between contemporary Gangdong-gu and its archival past reflects the tension between personal sense of place and historical illusion. Even the trees here seemed indifferent, their presence devoid of grandeur. But still, I found myself searching—wandering the familiar streets, tracing the unseen shadows of history buried beneath the soil.
This archival image is owned by Gangdong-gu Office and Seoul Metropolitan Archives.
This land holds layers of memory, each a testament to its rich history. The Han River, located in the central region of the Korean Peninsula, has been a gathering place for people since the Paleolithic era. During the catastrophic flood of 1925, Neolithic artifacts were discovered in Amsa-dong, providing evidence of early human settlement.
From prehistoric times to the present day, the Han River basin has served as a critical hub, evolving into a center of major cities and capital regions. This photograph captures the coexistence of these temporal layers, where the flow of water mirrors the enduring passage of time and the imprints of past civilizations linger beneath the surface of modern life.