Dutch photographer Sarah van Rij’s latest exhibition and book about Seoul – commissioned for the Louis Vutton Fashion Eye book series, is a highly interpretive presentation of the capital of South Korea.

Her work sustains attention by creating visual rhyme and harmony out of dissimilar things. The pensive gaze of a Korean soldier looks out of a picture frame while the playful reflection of Sarah is caught in the shadows, arm raised in a gesture of a warm ‘hello’, threatening to collapse the seriousness of the image. A complex place and scenario require a complex response. 

Noticeably absent are the cliches (K-pop musicians singing on the street; steaming street vendors) of Seoul. In one image, a reflection of a man with beautiful ochre hair is layered against a tank full of grimacing koi fish. A gooey reflection of neon light is captured on the metallic sheen of a somber black car. Her work is largely devoid of any temporal indicators which imbues it with a quality of timelessness and authenticity. The power of Sarah’s artistry is that these images are a challenge for us to think, to risk and intuit what is in the images, or in us, perhaps more in us then the work itself, a projection of love and nostalgia, and the inability to distinguish between these strands is what makes for powerful art.  

Sarah works alongside her partner, David Van Der Leeuw, an incredible street photographer whose work has been published by The British Journal of Photography and The Atlantic. The three of us spoke this past week to chat about Sarah’s latest exhibition. 

What are the two of you working on right now?

D: Sarah just finished the Seoul book, and we are currently working on a book together that will be released later this year. We spent the entirety of lockdown only thinking about New York – watching movies and being obsessed with the New York of the 60s and 70s. We sort of got this romantic vision of New York. You know, I think we sometimes forget that New York is the Constantinople or Persepolis of our era, this mega metropolis. The book we are making is a collection of photographs of New York we shot over the past two years.

Sarah, there is a strong element of narrative in your photography – The heels walking in and out of frames, girls playing hopscotch in the street, what sort of stories are you looking to tell, if any?

S: We are always thinking in stories and it's also how we observe life on the streets. I think this has to do with being inspired by film, more so than photography. Our brains seem to think in that way. We feel more of a connection to cinema. But yeah, sometimes moments are too short to create a full story. We are intrigued by people moving around going about doing their things in big cities, not realizing that they are a tiny, tiny part of such a bigger thing.

Which films or filmmakers have you been inspired by?

D:  We recently watched this beautiful sort of epic documentary called ‘New York: A Documentary Film’, All these types of people come – writers, journalists, people like Pete Hamill, but also historians. And they tell hours and hours of stories about New York, and it has this epic scope. It almost feels like you are watching ancient Rome.

S: I mean, we have seen all the New York films… The Naked City, Taxi Driver.. I also love the films of John Cassavetes, we really like Shadows and Opening Night. I am reading a biography of him, and he has this anti-establishment mentality which I think we can personally really relate to.

D: He funded his movies himself. Him and his wife Gena would occasionally sell out to the Hollywood machine, and I feel like that’s sort of what the two of us do with the Fashion work occasionally. 

How did the idea to shoot Seoul come about?

S: It was an assignment I got from Louis Vuitton. It was part of a series of shooting different countries. They used contemporary photographers and ones who have passed away, Peter Lindbergh has one as well as Sarah Moon and others. It was just a phone call, really. Then I shot the whole exhibition and book in 2 ½ weeks. They gave me carte blanche to go out shoot whatever I chose. It’s also my first book. 

The first thing I noticed was the absence of any cliché you see in the media about South Korea: no steaming street vendors of food or K-pop bands. One of my favourite images is the Black & White reflection of you throwing up a peace sign to a framed image of a soldier. How do you steer clear of cliches when shooting a well documented place? 

S: It’s really cool you mention that photograph. I got an email from one of the tour people hosting the exhibition telling me that the family of the man in the photo came to the exhibition. He had passed away recently, and his grandson was at the gallery randomly and recognized him. I think the photo was from his time in the military in the 40’s or 50’s. It was very moving experience. The Korean people were so enthusiastic about the body of work I made. It was like 3 generations that saw him there and they were sharing all these memories with the tour. In the end I gifted them the photo they wanted to buy the photo from the show. And I said of course, I'm not going to sell it. But to answer your original question, it was more about being a distant observer. This trip was all about talking to people, having interviews, and getting to know the Korean people.

There is rich sense of humanity in your entire body of work, but also this sense of playfulness. Is that fair to say? How would you describe your approach?

S: It is always evolving. To go back to your previous example of the absence of cliché in my work, the culture in Seoul wants to do away with the old and usher in the modern, the new, in a way they are sort of closing their eyes to the past or the authenticity of their city. I want to avoid the word nostalgia, but I have a thing for seeking the authenticity of places – to look at what has come before. Maybe it’s a personal interest in history or maybe its do with the fact that we are Europeans. A continent like Asia has a much different relationship to the past then Europe does. But I guess I am always searching for this human element which is somehow existing in the past?

It’s strange when we hear the word nostalgia now, it almost suggests an effect or the inauthentic. But this is not what I see when I look at your photographs. I see timelessness, perhaps that’s the word. There is an element of timelessness in both of your self portraits, which are stunning. Why the obsession with self-portraits?

D: I don’t know what it is. Perhaps its to do with abstraction and the surreal element in these strange self portraits. Probably some day we will have a book of self portraits. I guess it’s way of introducing ourselves into the image, like hey! We are operating the camera here. We do this quite a lot with hands, sticking a hand out in an image of a very modern city. It also has to do with control. We can be our own model and I can ask Sarah to show me her silhouette, way more controlled than a person walking across a street. We usually have to wait a very long time for a certain scene to develop.

What is the name of the book on New York that will be released later this year?

S: The working title we have is ‘Metropolitan Melancholia’ and will hopefully be published in October. Kominek is the publisher. 

Thank you both for taking the time to chat!

S: No problem!

Find Sarah and David, here.