Over the past three years of wandering around the world I have taken thousands of photos. I never really thought of my photography as art, it was more of a way to capture a memory. For me, I wanted grab the moment that I was having with my friends and family. My photography slowly progressed over the years, from me standing in front of landmarks to turning my photos into a way to express myself, at a specific time. Although, I still grab a shameless selfie in front of popular landmarks, it is just something you do I guess. If you travel to Paris for the first time, you’re going to get your picture taken with the Eiffel tower.
This year I have been reminiscing and writing travel guides and stories about my trips, which in turn sparked my fascination with photography. Having a good photo compliments your story tremendously. Each photo provides a story and that is what makes National Geographic so amazing. The National Geographic magazine showcases some of the best pictures from around the world while depicting the journey or history of the photo. National Geographic has been around since 1888 when they released their first issue. They have been sharing world culture, photography, geography and history ever since.
If you are interested in art or photography then you are in luck. Gwangju has a National Geographic exhibit currently showing at the Culture & Art Center (광주문화예술회관). The name of this exhibit is called The Beautiful Days. It features a wide range of animals, bugs, landscapes and even some fantastic portraits of the photographers.
The cost of admission is 12,000 Won per adult and includes a FREE world map (which is claimed at the end). If you want to pay an extra 3,000 Won you can get rent an audio guide. Unfortunately they only offer the audio guide in Korean. Also, the descriptions of the photos are only in Korean as well.
The photos range from all sorts of sizes and are actually pretty large. All of the images seemed to be laser printed, but I am not positive. The quality was quite impressive though. They don’t allow you take any pictures inside the exhibit, but they said it was okay to snap a few of the gallery so readers could get an idea of the exhibit.
After entering the first room I was disappointed since it would of taken 20 minutes to look at all the photos. But with further inspection the exhibition continued for quite a while into other rooms. You can easily spend 1.5-2 hours gazing at all the wonderful photos. We arrived a bit late and only had an hour, but I thought that was enough time to fully enjoy each picture. I would recommend the exhibit for any one who is interested in photography and art, also if you like National Geographic then you will love it!
The exhibition is open everyday except Mondays and will continue until June 8th. The hours are from 10am-7pm, but the ticket booth apparently closes at 6:00pm. For the map and directions to the Gwangju Art and Culture Center click here. Once you arrive at the Culture center go across the front bridge and turn left. You will see the big National Geographic Signs. For more information on the exhibit click here.
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