If You Remember Me

If You Remember Me is a portrait series documenting people I meet while traveling alone. It explores how strangers become familiar, how relationships continue beyond a journey, and what remains beyond my understanding.

If You Remember Me

​​“Where are the people?” the little prince resumed at last.
“It’s a little lonely in the desert…”
“It is lonely when you’re among people, too,” said the snake.
— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

If You Remember Me is a project documenting people I met by chance while traveling alone.
The more time I spent walking alone, the more closely I began to observe people. In unfamiliar cities,

there were people I talked with for only a few minutes, and others I spent several days with.

I think there is a distance between people that is difficult to explain.

Too close, and it becomes blurred. Too far, and it cannot be reached.

I became interested in that space where a stranger gradually becomes someone familiar.

Sometimes, encounters unfolded in directions I had not expected.
Once, while eating dinner alone at a restaurant, I met a woman wearing a hijab. We could barely understand each other’s languages, but we continued our conversation through a translation app.

We exchanged contact information, and a few days later I met her again in the city where she lived.

When I followed her into a house, what I found inside was far from what I had imagined.

On another trip, a friend I had met suddenly invited me to his friend’s wedding. After a long discussion about whether I would be allowed to enter, the door finally opened. Inside, I found only men.
My first thought was, “Where is the bride?”

Moments like these made me reconsider the way I look at people.

Sometimes, I feel that simply looking at them is not enough. So occasionally, I give the people I meet a disposable camera and ask them to take photographs freely for a few days.

Returning to Korea and waiting for their film to be developed is one of the most meaningful moments in this project. Seeing images of moments I could not witness feels like receiving a letter from far away.

At first, I thought these encounters would end when the journey ended. But over time, some of them came to see me again in Korea, and some relationships continued beyond a single meeting.

If You Remember Me records what I come to see through an encounter with another person, as well as what remains beyond my understanding.
This work is a record of how I come closer to people.