[Perspective]A student of the sexy streets of Seoul

Michael Hurt

As a guy who often finds himself flapping around trying to fill this measly space at the beginning of the week, I’ve often wondered how bloggers do it. Particularly someone like Michael Hurt, who runs a whole string of sites that are jammed with content he’s created.

“I don’t watch TV,” he said by way of explanation. This was totally unsatisfying, as I don’t have a TV myself. Still, you’ve got to respect the guy.

Apart from writing for local media outlets like OhmyNews and some of our other rivals, his list of credits includes the effusive www.metropolitician.com; www.feetmanseoul.com, a provocative street fashion blog for which he does the photography; and a video blog called www.seoulglow.com that features an interview series with Korea’s first astronaut, Yi So-yeon.

The feetmanseoul blog was just picked by Harvard to represent Korea in a photo exhibition called “POP! Contemporary Street Fashion in Asia,” held at the university last Friday.

Hurt, who is half Korean, first came to the peninsula in 1994 on a Fulbright grant and taught English on Jeju Island. “Being a schoolteacher was still respected then,” he said. “Now it’s like, ‘Eww, there’s an English teacher. Watch my kid so he doesn’t give him drugs!’”

Then, after completing grad school, he came back and started to pursue photography. He supports himself by working as an editor for Unesco and as a history teacher at a local foreign language high school.

“Before digital photography became affordable, I was the only one out there doing street photography,” he said. “After several years of doing street photography and not being recognized, I started to focus on fashion.”

But it wasn’t a quest for photographic fame that drove him. “There was just more to look at,” he said.

Anyone who has been here for a few years can agree that things have developed in leaps and bounds on the fashion front. And most of it is being driven by the young, said Hurt.

“Korean fashion wasn’t even worth looking at until three or four years ago,” he said. “But now, younger Koreans don’t remember authoritarianism or hardship, and they see the world differently. They want to participate in the world as consumers. People are much more prone to want to express themselves fashion-wise.”

But there are residual aspects of past social mores that keep fashion in check, he said.

“The trend of watching what other people are doing, the kind of social policing, still has an influence. It keeps fashion from getting too wild, like Japanese style. Here, opposing forces are in perfect balance.”

Asked about a personal grievance of mine, the “couple look,” Hurt demurred. “The couple thing I’ve kind of gotten used to,” he said. “My only fashion pet peeves are little things, like 13 patterns used together, or 17 ribbons on an outfit, with two on your shoes. No sense that things can be overdone.”

By Richard Scott-Ashe Deputy Editor [richard@joongang.co.kr]