South Korean Drag scene Portraits
Last year, during the pandemic, I stared to work on a new series about the drag scene in South Korea. In a country where conservatism still prevails, I wanted to do a series about a community that goes against this trend. I started to shoot 4x5 portraits of different person from the community but unfortunatly, because of the pandemic, I am left with an un-finished series. As soon as we are allowed back in bars and clubs, I will continue shooting the performances to make it complete. In the meanwhile, please check out a few of those portraits here:
Tim Franco is a portrait photographer based in Seoul, South Korea
Gangwon | South Korea Photographer
A couple weeks back, I felt stuck in the city. I usually travel all over Asia every month for commercial and personal shoots and since the beginning of the pandemic I am stuck at home in Seoul. I packed my large format camera in my car and drove the South Korean east coast. I traveled there a few times in the past on assignment and personal trips and slowly felt in love with the vintage look of the coastal cities with their motels and beaches. I started to document those without any particular project in my mind. On the first trip I shot only one evening and 3 frames - here they are:
Tim Franco is a photographer currently based in South Korea and available for assignment all over the country. Please get in touch : timfranco@gmail.com
Warsaw Memory
Photograph of memories of growing in Warsaw - Poland shot with an old 1930’s analog camera.
After my group exhibition in Germany, I have decided to take a trip to Poland where my mother's side of the family is from. I used to spend every single summer there since I was a little child. Back then it was still communist Poland and things were very different. I grew up observing those changes and the opening up of the country as an adolescent. This time, I just had a couple of days to stroll around the city and go back to places that we significant to me as memories. The only camera I had was this old Rolleicord from the 1930’s - it seemed to be the perfect tool to capture distant memories from a city I haven’t seen in years. Here is a mini slideshow from this strange weekend traveling in the past.
This trip made me want to reconnect more with part of my heritage that I have forgotten. Hopefully more to come!
North Korea's life
A story from North Korea by Asia photographer Tim Franco.
In June 2019, I got the chance to get to travel to North Korea. During 10 days, I was able to shoot with my medium format analog camera around Pyeongyang, Hamhung, Wonsan, Sariwon, Kaesong and lot of other places. I produced a mini series now available on the site, here are a few of the phots as well!
check the full series and text here: The Democracy of the people’s dictatorship
Illicit Ink at KLPA | Korea Photographer
My series Illicit Ink will be exhibited as part of the Kuala Lumpur Portrait Awards and one of the photograph from the series was selected for the poster of the exhibition. Illicit ink is a series of intimate portraits of the underground tattooist community in South Korea shot on paper negatives.
The photos will be exhibited as part of a group exhibition from the 14th of september to the 27th at the ILHAM gallery in Kuala Lumpur.
Kabukicho | Tokyo Red Light district
There is something magic and electrifying about walking around Tokyo at night. The kabukicho district in Tokyo is certainly one of the most lively and extravagant district out there. Between bars, live shows and love motels, I enjoyed a few days in the city to shoot some of the streets with a medium format analog camera. Here are some of those photos:
Tim Franco is available for editorial and commercial assignments in Japan and greater Asia.