Korea Camera Museum | Seoul, South Korea

I'm back! We had an awesome trip to Thailand and I'm so excited to share it with you! We arrived home on Friday, which meant that we have an entire weekend to recoup before the work week. That means I have plenty of time to organize and sort photos, as well as blog!

So, while you anxiously wait for Thailand photos (I just know you're on the edge of your seat...), I wanted to share with you our trip to the camera museum in Seoul, South Korea. Check it out!

At first glance, you might find Seoul's camera museum a little out of date (I didn't see any Canon 5D Mark IVs, sorry...), however this camera shaped building located just outside Seoul Grand Park Station holds a great deal of photographic history and is certainly worth the trip for the photography enthusiast! It's especially great for the film photography lover, as most of the cameras are film cameras.

Once inside and having paid the 4,000W admission, you'll find yourself surrounding by many camera models (around 3,000!) from all parts of history dating as far back as the pinhole camera and daguerreotype.

A daguerreotype replica, can you imagine lugging around that thing on vacation? Ha! Just kidding. That would never happen.

Spend up to an hour or more browsing the collection upstairs, then head downstairs to check out the lighting, film, and printing equipment. They also have a classroom-type set up in the basement, so I'm thinking they might hold classes here? Much of the information is in Korean, so you'll have to do a lot of looking but not a lot of reading! Ha! (Unless you can read Korean...)

The camera museum is not the most popular spot in Seoul, so you're likely to have the entire building to yourself like we did (aside from the employees, of course). Honestly, that's a good thing in a city of approximately 10 million people. For once, you won't be in a crowd of people. You'll find not many in Korea are interested in dusty old cameras. However, I found the camera museum to be a nice place to spend some time. With all of those cameras, all of those lenses, think of how many photos have been taken in whole, what those cameras have seen. I think that's pretty cool!

Left: It was so cool seeing old photographs. I could look at them for hours. Right: Holographic images that change as you look at them from different directions.

This one is my favorite, afternoon tea.

A machine gun... camera? 

Ahead of its time, the camera watch 

If you enjoy learning about the history and evolution of cameras, lenses, and other photographic equipment, you'll definitely want to add this place to your list. As a photographer, the museum was on my must see list in Seoul and I'm really glad we went. I found it very interesting and was reminded of my history of photography class in college. Florescent lights, PowerPoint slides... Ah, those were good days.

If you have a photography-loving friend in Seoul, feel free to share this post with them! I'm sure they'll want to check it out as well. The Korea Camera Museum is a great way to spend an afternoon.

 The Details

• What: Camera Museum

• When: Winter season: (Nov. - Jan.) 10:00-17:00 Summer season: (Feb. - Oct.) 10:00-18:00

• Where: 8, Daegongwongwangjang-ro, Gwacheon-si, just outside Seoul Grand Park Station, exit 4

• Contact: +82-31-502-4123

• Website: www.kcpm.or.kr

• Cost: KRW 4,000 for Adults, KRW 3,000 for Youth, KRW 2,000 for Children