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“What’s in your bag?” It’s been a while since someone asked me this. Maybe I’m not as popular as I used to be, ha. Maybe travel is non-existent so no one cares. Probably a bit of both. Let me start with a bit of a confession. I am a bit of a bag whore. I […]
It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these. You’d think that with all this virus stuff I would have more time but somehow it turned into the opposite. Korea didn’t really slow down much, yet we struggled in similar ways to the rest of the world. It has been a hard couple of […]
I don’t much care for k-pop. I don’t watch many Korean dramas. I don’t watch a whole lot of TV. I don’t follow “idols” or really pay attention to what they do. Last week I was teaching a class. One of my students asked me for my thoughts on the recent suicides of Korean idols […]
If you’ve followed me for a while you’ll probably know I’m a sucker for compact cameras. Many of you probably found me because of a compact camera of some sort. In fact, for my general street photography I have always preferred compact cameras. I haven’t used many lately, but the above generally holds true. So […]
10 So, here goes. My top ten photos of 2018. Well, in fact this post will just go through 6-10 in reverse order. Above is number 10. Admittedly this year was slim pickings for street photography. I quite literally didn’t do much of it. In February I participated in the 24 hour project in Busan. […]
So, it is 2019. How time flies. I can’t believe last year went by so quickly. Was shocking to me. Was really one of the best years in my life. That is, at least personally. It almost felt like a vacation of a year. 2019 is here and I need to buckle down and get […]
Well, it has been nearly four months since I posted something here. Every time I post I promise I will get better and posting and every time I promise that I end up getting worse. I’d like to say that it is solely because I am busy. I am busy, yet, it is mostly out […]
Hi Everyone! It’s been a while. Some new stuff to announce! As of this week I started as the Leica Akademie Ambassador in Korea. What does this mean? It means workshops, lectures, exhibitions and more! I’m really excited by what is to come. First! This Saturday, September 15th at 1:00 at the Leica Store Gangnam […]
Hello everyone! I’m happy to announce a workshop I will be hosting in Seoul at the end of July. Here is all the info: Workshop: Jtinseoul in Seoul 07.29.2018 ─ Overview This workshop is meant to be an informal, fun, and informative. During the workshop, students will spend time with myself, JT, in the streets […]
I’m out of film. So I decided to shoot this roll again. Beondegi is a pupa. A silkworm pupa, in fact. It is a popular street or drinking food in Korea. Beondegi is often sold in a cans. It’s served when people drink. She likes it. She told me it is like the Korean Vienna […]
I’ve got some good news and some bad news about this ‘review.’ The bad news first. I’d been waiting to do this review because I didn’t have any photos. Literally, I didn’t have any time since I promised this review to even take photos. Not even a spare hour to walk around. Feck. My days […]
After much ado, my first solo zine is now available. It’s been a long time coming and I apologize for the wait! The photos found in this zine are mostly street photos, which is where I had my start. This book is special to me because of the title: Neverland. This is what my father […]
Okay, a slight follow up to yesterday’s “pre-review” of the Pen-f. One thing I wanted to ask people is if they want to see some of the OM-D EM-1 in the review. I know, it isn’t the newest version, but to be honest this is the camera I use most for “serious” work. I know […]
So, I’m gonna start by saying this is not a review. The review is still in progress. My thoughts about the Pen-F are actually pretty well concluded. I know how I feel about it in use. I know how I feel about it with the 17mm Olympus lens and I know how I feel about […]
Winter is here. I know I’m behind on blog posts. Feels like I can never catch up. I am in the middle of renovating my house here in Iksan. Last week, the snows came. Winter had been nothing more than a cold autumn until now. I like the snow. Being a teacher, when the snow […]
It’s been a strange couple of weeks. Things that seem big rungs on life’s ladder all kind of happened at once. I guess that is how life works. Christmas also happened. I took this photo on Christmas morning. My navigation took me off the highway and I saw these birds. This is one of those […]
Well, this should come as a surprise. I’ve been shooting with a Ricoh GRII again. Yup, again (well only like ten photos so far, ha). My blog post- Why I Always End Up With Ricoh – is especially pertinent at these kind of moments. The story goes something like this: I had a GRII at […]
I haven’t been here for a while. Truth be told I have been super busy of late. In June and July I hosted friends for nearly both months. I taught two workshops in July with Wearethestreet and Leica Korea. Needless to say, it has been a wild ride. The whole thing started with Matt. Matt […]
Hello everyone! Wearethestreet is happy to announce our inaugural workshop and exhibition held in concert with Leica Camera Korea in Seoul! The workshop is hosted by Leica Camera Korea and is sponsored in part by Lucida Straps. Exhibition Details: The exhibition will be held at Leica Camera Korea in the Gangnam district of Seoul. The […]
This place always feels weird to me. Yongsan Station is one of the largest train stations in Korea. Living in Iksan, it is the station I always arrive at. Lots of memories here. The station has changed a lot over the past 8 or so years. In a lot of ways, anyway. In a lot […]
April 1st was the date of the 24 hour project this year. For those of you that don’t know what it is, it is an Instagram initiative where photographers from all around the world post one photo per hour for 24 hours in their given city. It is the third time I’ve done the project, […]
So, it has been about a month since I have been using film almost full time. It is an interesting experience. I mean, I shot film for years but somehow it makes a lot more sense to me this time. Maybe it is because I’ve gotten older or more patient. Maybe I am just learning […]
The hardest part of photography for me is processing. The part that pisses me off the most is processing. Basically the only thing that annoys me is processing. I fucking HATE processing. Why? Well, there are too many options. My mind changes too often. I hate being in front of a computer, yet, spend half […]
So, I just wrote about the Fujifilm X-Pro 2. It is a nice enough camera. I used it over the past six months. The fact of the matter is though, I never felt much of a connection to that camera. It worked just fine, but it never made me want to take photos. It was […]
One of the things I’ve decided to do in 2017 is to lose some weight, ha. A typical resolution but a necessary one. I gained 15KG in 2016. No good, that. Luckily already shedding them in the first couple weeks of 2017. The first thing I did was quite all the shit I was doing. […]
About a week into 2017 and things are slightly better than they were at the end of 2016. As you might figured from my last post I wasn’t entirely happy with 2016. In fact, it fucking sucked. I started out 2017 in Busan. Kinda felt like traveling to start the year. Busan is a city […]
First off, I want to thank everyone for sticking around over the past couple months even though I have posted so infrequently. I wish I had a good excuse, but truth is I’m just lazy. I have ideas for posts but never manage to sit down and write them. After some thought, I’ve decided to […]
So, this will probably be one of the longer posts I’ve done. If you’re not in the mood for a bit of a read maybe it is time to check out 😉 Also, to the people that have been around my blog for a long time this will probably be an annoying post. It will […]
I noticed the orange and red lights first while flying into Korea. I remember thinking about Gibson’s Neuromancer. The neon night city of Chiba and my obtuse vision of what Asia was like. When the plane was close to touching down I realized what I was looking at were crosses. Equally neon, they littered the skyline. I didn’t […]
Was an interesting week or two. I wanna start by apologizing for not having posted frequently over the past several months. It still surprises me when I get emails from people asking me why I haven’t posted. It still surprises me that anyone even checks these things. To be perfectly honest, the reason I don’t […]
I don’t know when I suddenly turned into a “reviewer” of cameras. I guess it isn’t really much about the cameras. I’ve for the most part stopped buying cameras. New cameras, anyway. Cameras sort of find their way to me. Cameras of all different types. Let me start by saying this: I have stopped paying […]
“In your opinion, what is the best digital camera ever made? I mean, if you could only have one camera what would it be?” “The Ricoh GRD4.” “You mean the new one? The large sensor one? I think that is the GR..” “No. I mean the Ricoh GRD4.” An excerpt from an interview I did […]
I took the late train home Saturday night from Seoul. I haven’t taken the train much this year. I’m not sure why. I like the window seat. I like watching the countryside drone on. The contact sheets that make up my life. I was tired. Tired a lot lately. Almost too tired to take this […]
일상 literally means daily. It is one of the most popular tags on Instagram here in Korea. I always thought it was a funny one. I didn’t really get it. The “daily” photo. Then one day my phone ran out of memory. I was shocked. I checked the settings only to figure out photos were […]
It is a holiday in Korea this weekend. For me, it means a five day holiday. In the past I might have flown to Japan or Hong Kong but lately I prefer to stay closer to home. A couple of months ago I moved back to Iksan, the small town I originally came to when […]
I have thought about doing this post for a long time. People often ask me where I get my inspiration. They ask me what photo books to buy or what cameras. They ask me how I decide such things. Truth of the matter is, I try not to think about much of either. Photographically, the […]
“Why do you take so many photos on the train?” I get it.It must be sort of boring to see twenty photos a week of people on the Seoul tube. Fact of that matter is, I don’t take many photos. I literally never go outside with my camera just to take photos. I don’t do […]
As a continuation of the rather strange last month for my blog I’ve decided to do another “review.” I put that in quotations because I don’t think I really know how to do a proper review. This will be more like my thoughts on a camera I’ve used off and on for a while: The […]
In a hotel room in Seoul. Staying in a hotel makes me feel like I’m doing something. I sort of enjoy it. I don’t usually take this kinda photo. Felt like a memory I wanted to be in. 2015 has come and gone. It was a mostly up and sometimes down year. I enjoyed most […]
A lot of things can happen in a week. A lot of things did happen. A week from writing my post on mobile photography I find myself ironically with no camera but my phone. A long story short, Ricoh wanted to charge me $700 to fix a camera that costs less than that new. I’m […]
So I said I was done with gear posts during the last post. I guess I kind of lied. The one camera I hadn’t talked about yet was probably the one I use the most. My phone. The mobile phone has been the camera I’ve used the most over the past 5 or so years. […]
I’m going to do something today I don’t usually do anymore. I’m going to talk a little about a camera. It is pretty ironic that I planned on talking about the Ricoh GR on this blog post and today it decided to have a problem with its lens mechanism. More on that later. I don’t […]
I am often asked why I choose to live in Korea. I’m Canadian, for those of you who didn’t know. I’ve lived in Korea for most of the last 8 years. And quite honestly, I am perfectly happy to never go back. At least not to live. It is hard to describe why that is […]
It must seem that I take so many photos on the subway. Funny, just happens to be where I am. Honeslty though, I probably take two or three photos during a trip. Maybe. Depends on how interesting the music I’m listening to is. I had a conversation with my friend Simon about this the other […]
Some time ago I made a blog post talking about how I felt taking photos in Korea. I called it Neverland, because of something my father used to say to me. He used to tell me that Korea was my Neverland. “Having fun in Neverland, Peter?” He always said that. At the time I thought […]
Thursday morning was pretty foggy. Probably the most fog I’ve seen in Korea. Granted it was 6 AM. Maybe my brain was a little foggy. On my way to the golf course this was pretty much the scene out my window. Not ideal. Glad I could take a photo of it with my phone. Phones […]
Seoul and back again. October 2015.
The end of a long weekend. I used to travel on weekends like this. I would go to Tokyo or Hong Kong. Now, I prefer to stay nearer home. Funny that. I’m not sure I enjoy staying close. I stayed in a hotel last night just to feel like I was doing something. Just to […]
Finally, I’ve had a chance to settle into my new/old city. I love being here. It is relaxing. I feel relaxed. Something I haven’t done for some time. It is a quiet place, much quieter than where I had been. Sundays, like today, are particularly quiet. I get bored easily, so needless to say, days […]
A month or so ago, I wrote a long post talking about a Sony digital compact camera I had that died. I wrote about how much I loved that camera. Wrote about how it taught me more about photography than almost any camera I had every used. I talked about how it cured me of […]
This may seem a repost. Might seem a bit of dejavu. It feels that way for me too. You know when you pull off a band aid or jump into a cold pool? Better to do it in one shot. It hurts less. This brings me to the death of a friend: my Sony DSC-W100. […]
Strange. When I was in Canada the one thing I thought that I wanted to photograph in Korea was the cherry blossoms. No particular reason, aside from the fact that I had never photographed them before. I’ve been back for two seasons of them, and this is the closest I’ve been to them. Through the […]
I don’t know how to choose the photos I think are best anymore. I am not sure what I like or what is good. So I post all of them. For better or worse, until I figure it out. Seoul, South Korea. April 4th, 2015.
I don’t feel inspired much lately. I don’t take my camera with me very often, don’t take photos often even if I do. I don’t get a chance to travel much. This weekend though, the arrival of a friend from Toronto gave me the excuse to head into Busan.
Its been a while since a post. In fact, my posts are coming less and less lately. It is hard to find the time to take photos, and even harder to find the time to post them. I realized that 90 percent of the photos I take are on the underground. I suppose it is […]
It’s been a while since I’ve been here. Too busy to take photos, so, certainly too busy to post photos. Last night, I couldn’t sleep. I decided to clean, ha, thinking it would make me tired enough. I stumbled across a couple of rolls of film from four or five years ago that I had […]
We were on the metro and she blew me a kiss. Like a boyfriend does, I took a picture. “Why’d you take a picture?” “I dunno, it felt right..” “Okay…” It sometimes just feels right. To take a photo. Maybe a fear that I won’t always be able to remember walks in the rain. Maybe […]
I’ve been working a little bit on this series of “contact sheets.” So far, I talked about a couple of my favorite photos from the past year or so. This one, ha, is a bit funny. The story behind taking Eric’s current (at the time of this writing) profile photo. The story starts in the […]
People may or may not know, that I am a teacher. Deciding I didn’t want to pursue law in Canada, I originally came to Korea to teach and have loved every minute of it. I don’t talk about it much, but I do really have fun teaching.
A couple of days ago, I wrote about not identifying with being Canadian. I wrote about being a Newfoundlander first, a Canadian second. I wrote about loving Seoul and Korea. Yesterday, Canada experienced something that it hadn’t at least since I have been alive. I studied about a similar event in the 70s during school […]
I’ve been busy. Busy with what? I am not even sure I know. Cooking ramen? I’m a big fan. This one is of the black noodle variety.
A couple of weeks ago, my friend Eric came to town to visit and teach a mini workshop with me here in Seoul. He stayed for a couple of days, and somewhere during the couple of days I really had to have a think about photography.
Been a while since I’ve posted anything, and will probably be a while before I do again. I often say I’m going to take a break and rarely do, ha. Definitely needed this time though. Working on too many things and not nearly enough time. No time to shoot, no time to post, no time […]
An article I did for my buddy Eric, on his website. The original article can be found here: The Benefits Shooting Both Film and Digital in Street Photography This guest blog post is by JT White, a street photographer based in Seoul, Korea. JT: I get asked a lot about film versus digital. I use both […]
More fish. After spending the previous weekend in Busan I found it hard to get away from the couple of photos I took there. I feel like I figured something out about myself there. I’ve always found it really hard to explain why I like the photos I take with small, compact cameras more. It […]
A question of style. Sitting around with a group of non-photography friends the other day one of them all of a sudden asked me why I posted a “‘normal” colour photo of them on Facebook. I thought it was a weird fucking question, considering the photo was just taken while they were just standing in a […]
In 2007, I first left school to come to Korea. I had no idea what to expect before coming. I’m not sure I cared really. I just wanted out of the stress I was feeling at school. I spent my first month in Korea with other foreigners (외국인). I spent it with them because it […]
I’ve included this photo of myself so you can imagine who you wanna punch in the face after reading this. At least I’m doing the Asian PEACE! To try and reduce the risk of my snapping on the next person that asks my advice about buying a camera when they already own too many I’m […]
“I can’t watch the news anymore. Let’s sit somewhere without a TV.” “How about just switching places so your back is to it?” “I can still hear it.” Inevitably, there comes a point when news of a tragedy becomes too much. Too much for the soul. Too much for the heart. You can only hope […]
By now, I suppose most people have heard the news of the ship filled with high school students that sank yesterday while on route to Jeju Island. As I type this some 290 people, most of which are just high school students are still missing. Hearing about this yesterday and thinking about it last night […]
My buddy Eric once did a a project on Korea called “The Presentation of Self.” While I’m not sure he really dug that project as much as his other work, the idea was a good one. Korea might be one of the most superficial countries in the world with self presentation being of utmost importance. […]
DEFINITION Gear Acquisition Syndrome (abbreviated to GAS) is a term used to describe an urge to acquire and accumulate lots of gear. TREATMENT None GAS hasn’t received any major medical attention. GAS is not a clinical condition. It can be the result of a psychological lack of personality. source: Wikipedia. A lot of people have asked me a […]
Happy to announce I’ll be teaching another workshop in Seoul with good friend Eric Kim in July! It will be our third workshop together and we’ve been friends for years. The WORKSHOPS section of my website has been updated to include all the information you need about myself and Eric as well as a way to […]
Finally after a couple of days in front of my computer I’ve managed to get my two most recent projects here. Being shit at this kind of thing it took a lot longer than I expected, and it’s still a work in progress but it is a start. For those looking for some clarification not […]
After much thought, I’ve started to move everything into WordPress. The Projects page at the top will be updated in the upcoming weeks with projects that would previously have been found on my portfolio. The first project to appear is The Culture. It follows a family of Korean tattoo artists in Toronto over the course of several […]
I don’t usually have much of a reason to come into Namdaemun Market anymore. It is probably one of the more interesting parts of 서울, but like everything else and everywhere else it becomes repetitive. I remember the first time I was here it felt like really being in Asia. It doesn’t feel the same […]
Photo of me with the camera I had been using for my Records in both Newfoundland and Korea. It’s an old camera, that my aunt had asked me to try and fix for her when I was back in Newfoundland. She had left it all winter in her car and it seemed to be working […]
The season of change. “Trees withstand the hardest things nature throw at them and never waver. Trees loose their leaves in winter, but they never loose their gumption. When winter comes, they stand strong as they know winter is just a part of a cycle that will once again bring spring.” (From my project, The […]
No matter how much one plays, drinks, fucks, talks, smokes, whatever.. They end up like this. One can only count on one’s self. There’s no forever. Only, for now. The only bond one has is with one’s self. The man that is happiest is first happy with himself. The man most at peace is the […]
Better times. Always searching for something better. Miss the times you had. Look forward to the times you’re going to have. Hard to live in the present. Nights at the cages after work. Drinking. Simple things. Hard to live in the present. Never feels as sentimental as the past or as hopeful as the future. […]
“Smile” Seoul, South Korea. November 2013.
For no one. I do this for no one. The battle is all internal. As is the gratification. I used to care about opinion. I used to give a fuck. Used to wait on flickr favorites and facebook likes. Superficial bullshit. I don’t do this for anyone else. I’m looking for something deeper than the […]
In Yourself. The human condition of wanted and needed success often dictates the pressures that inherently follow such wants and needs. We want to be successful. We want to be rich. A great job, a nice car, a house. We covet these ideals as they seem the only road to happiness. “In order to be […]
In the process of starting a project in Seoul following a group of musicians as they tour the underground clubs of Asia. Just a couple of days into shooting, I can already feel the vibe coming together. It’s seeping into what I’m doing. It’s a fucking great feeling. The inspiration for the project was jump-started […]
Was great today to meet one of my oldest and dearest friends after a couple of years. Got to spend a half and hour listening to his band jam in a cool little studio in Hongdae. Thanks buddy! It will also be the start of a new project. I’ll spend some time following this group […]
“I’m like a stray cat or dog, or an insect…” “…Main streets are nice, but I dare not linger.” – From Diary of a Stray Dog. I’ve missed this. Missed the walk. Different scenery. Different people. Different smells. Different light. Different me. Only a compact camera and some film, I’m not much for process anymore. […]
de·tached adj \di-ˈtacht, dē-\ Definition of DETACHED 1 : standing by itself : separate, unconnected; especially : not sharing any wall with another building <a detached house> 2 : exhibiting an aloof objectivity usually free from prejudice or self-interest <a detached observer>
jtinseoul 