Seoul, South Korea · October 2026

Colorblind in Korea

Only shooting black & white photography for an entire trip

Camera: Fujifilm X-E3 · 23mm f/2
Photographs: 10 photographs

On a 2 week trip to Korea in 2025, I challenged myself to shoot the entire trip in black & white. No matter how beautiful the colors were around me, I had to keep my camera on a black & white film setting. No exceptions.

Layered shop-window reflections of a woman in sunglasses and a young man standing on a Seoul shopping street, a large poster of a face behind them

For those of you who haven’t shot black & white film before, this might sound like a completely insane thing to do. Why limit yourself 2 colors? What’s the point?

An elderly shopkeeper reading at a desk inside a dried-fish shop, framed by bare bulbs, boxed anchovies, and a wall calendar

My introduction to this hobby came in the form of a year-long film photography class in high school. Although we dabbled into color film from time to time, the vast majority of that year was spent shooting rolls of Ilford 400. There’s a real magic to shooting with this grainy, old-school film that has a special place in my heart.

Three wall mirrors reflecting a brick alley, a masked man with a backpack walking past, and an older bearded man in a cap looking toward the camera

Cameras have a completely different way of processing light in black & white. Without colors, you can create a focal point that wouldn’t exist in a color photo. It can turn the mundane into something fascinating.

A street corner and pharmacy building seen through a shop window, its ceiling lights and hanging lanterns layered over the scene

But the best part about shooting in black & white is the new sense of awareness that comes with it. Shooting in black & white requires a completely different approach to the environment. Being that present in the moment is what makes photography so addicting to me.

A silhouetted woman looking at her phone while seated on a wooden block before tall museum windows, trees and apartment towers outside

Taking these photos on the streets of Korea brought back all of these memories from high school; the joys of discovering new ways to play with light and composition, slowing down to notice the little moments within the chaos of modern life, and using the environment to create stories around the subjects.