What's the biggest thing you miss about life pre-pandemic? Cramming yourself into bars, sharing pints with co-workers and chatting loudly with other revellers? How about hosting dinner parties, seeing friends whenever you want or even lazing by the local lido in the summertime?
The winning image from Life Framer’s 2020 Open Call competition shows that lido life in South Korea is very different to our local. The image, taken by Suenggu Kim from the series, ‘Better Days’, shows a pool looking over a Korean cityscape, packed with sun worshippers.
Kim said: “Korea has been developed rapidly over the last 40 years, which has resulted in a lot of social ironies. One such irony is long working hours with very short periods of break. During the holidays, Koreans try their best to enjoy themselves, but due to lack of time to travel they spend time mostly around the city. For these reasons time and space, restriction and optimism, leisure and consumption are compressed.”
Esteemed British social documentary photographer Martin Parr judged the competition and said of the image: “I love the contrast of the packed pool and surroundings with the lonely river in the background of this view in Korea. A stunning example of how a high viewpoint, can offer so much detail and yet still have an overall impact.”
The top 20 images, which you can see in the gallery above, give a glimpse into life around the world - from insight into rural County Fairs of North America, to twins in Kham, in the eastern corner of the Tibetan Plateau and a group of girls getting ready to go out in Manchester.
Life Framer is an award that showcases ‘creative photography from amateur and professional artists’, you can find out more information about the prize here.
Click through the gallery above to see Martin Parr’s picks from this year’s Life Framer Open Call competition.
