This Year's Seoul Subway Photo Contest Winner Kim Hyung-min's 'Noeul'

Seoul Metro Corporation Hosts 2023 Subway Photo Contest Exhibition and Awards Ceremony... Exhibition Held for 8 Days from November 15 to 22 at Line 3 Gyeongbokgung Station Metro Art Museum... Awards Ceremony for Major Winners on Opening Day, November 15, First Time in 4 Years Since 2019... Total 51 Works Exhibited, Featuring 41 Citizen Award-Winning Photos and 10 Internal Contest Winners

Seoul Metro announced that it will showcase 41 award-winning entries from the '2023 Seoul Metro Subway Photo Contest' along with 10 winning entries from the internal photo contest starting from the 15th at Metro Art Gallery Hall 1 in Gyeongbokgung Station on Line 3. The exhibition period is from November 15 to November 22.

On the opening day of the exhibition, the 15th, an awards ceremony was held. This was the first ceremony in four years since 2019, which had been suspended due to COVID-19. Key figures including Seoul Metro executives and the head of the judging panel attended to present certificates and prize money to five winners in total: one Gold Prize winner, one Silver Prize winner, two Bronze Prize winners, and one Encouragement Prize representative.

This exhibition is organized into five themes: ‘Major Award-Winning Works (4 pieces)’, ‘Subway and the Four Seasons (9 pieces)’, ‘Subway and People (11 pieces)’, ‘Together at the Start and End of the Day (17 pieces)’, and ‘Internal Photo Contest Winning Works (10 pieces)’.

The winning works will be posted in the cultural gallery on the Seoul Metro website during November, and in December, they will be produced as illuminated advertisements to be presented to the public. Seoul Metro plans to utilize the winning works in various promotional materials such as brochures, posters, leaflets, and SNS postings in the future.

The photo contest was held for 50 days from August 9 to September 27. A total of 724 participants submitted 1,590 photos. Seoul Metro formed a judging panel composed of external experts and selected 41 winning works through two rounds of judging.

The photo that best captured the charm of this year’s Seoul subway was “Sunset” by Kim Hyung-min. Taken at Ttukseom Hangang Park, “Sunset” beautifully blends the subway crossing Cheongdam Bridge with the sunset scenery.

The Silver Prize went to Park Kyung-sik’s “Evening Train Running Through the City,” and the Bronze Prizes were awarded to Yoo Geun-chan’s “Golden Morning Commute” and Kim Cheol-seung’s “City Night, Subway Motion.” The Encouragement Prize included 37 works such as “The Beam of Light Cutting Through the Snowstorm on Line 7.”

Ma Hae-geun, head of the Public Relations Office, said, “We are pleased to share photos capturing various moments of the Seoul subway, from citizens’ daily lives to the unseen sweat of employees, with the public. We will continue to create diverse cultural exchange opportunities so that the Seoul subway can become a space that serves as a pause in busy daily life.”