Travelling to South Korea’s capital Seoul in early 2018 with a personal brief to shoot the city’s architecture, the accidental discovery of an inspiring elementary school led to photographer Andres Gallardo’s ditching the generic building shots and focusing on something rather more niche. Having got lost while exploring the city, Gallardo ended up walking into the playground of an empty school where instead of reaching for the map, he went for his camera as the combination of pastel hues, geometric shapes and symmetrically planted trees were too much to forego.
Inspired by the aesthetics of the school he searched for more and found a collection of institutions across the city to shoot. Packed with symbolic elements like the Korean alphabet, flags at full mast and clocks, the images have a cinematic quality that wouldn’t look out of place on a Wes Anderson set.
See more of his work here.
Images © Andres Gallardo / with permission