Seoul Private Hanbok Photoshoot at Gyeongbokgung Palace

The hour is spent entirely inside Gyeongbokgung Palace, and there is no fixed route. I have been photographing here for years and choose where we shoot on the day, reading the light, the season and where the crowds are at that hour.

What stays the same is the kind of place I look for. Gyeongbokgung has wide granite courtyards, deep painted eaves, long colonnades of wooden columns, and gateways that frame you against whatever lies beyond them. Much of my work here is backlit — shooting into the light through a gate or under a roofline, so the hanbok keeps its colour and you stay separated from the background.

We enter together through the main gate, Gwanghwamun, and from there I lead. You do not need to know the palace or plan anything. Throughout the hour I direct you completely on where to stand, where to look, what to do with your hands. No previous experience in front of a camera is needed, and most of my guests have none.

If there is somewhere in the palace you have already seen and want for yourself, tell me at the start and we will build the hour around it.

On Tuesdays, when Gyeongbokgung Palace is closed, the session takes place at Changgyeonggung Palace instead.