<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif;font-size:24px"><div><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span>The photo on the right has shadows falling in a straight line to the right, </span><span style="background-color: transparent;">indicating that it is probably late afternoon or close to sunset. Thus, the photographer was probably facing due north (unless the photo has been reversed somehow), since the shadows are falling in a nearly perpendicular angle against the north-south axis.</span></span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: medium;"><br></span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial,
'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">I think the mountain ridges are distinctive enough that someone on the ground could easily work out whether the photos were taken from the Namdae-mun or Tongdae-mun area. However, my instinct is that it was taken from the Tongdae-mun area, since one would probably see more mountains otherwise, and probably not so dense a concentration of Korean-style houses (not sure when exactly Western buildings started to appear in the downtown Chung-gu area, but those would certainly be distinctive).</span> </span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-size: 16px;"><span style="background-color: transparent;"><br></span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);
font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-size: 16px;"><span style="background-color: transparent;">Scott Bug</span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-size: 16px;"><span style="background-color: transparent;"><br></span></div> <div class="qtdSeparateBR"><br><br></div><div class="yahoo_quoted" style="display: block;"> <div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 24px;"> <div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> <div dir="ltr"> <font size="2" face="Arial"> On Tuesday, October 7, 2014 12:02 PM, Frank Hoffmann <hoffmann@koreanstudies.com>
wrote:<br> </font> </div> <br><br> <div class="y_msg_container">Picture puzzle:<br clear="none"><br clear="none">In order to identify the perspective shown in a 1904 graphic (done in <br clear="none">paris after a photo) I am trying to figure out from where these early <br clear="none">two photos were taken.<br clear="none">-> <a shape="rect" href="http://koreanstudies.com/articles1/place.jpg" target="_blank">http://koreanstudies.com/articles1/place.jpg</a><br clear="none"> (will later be removed again)<br clear="none"><br clear="none">According to Samuel Hawley who posted it, the photo on the LEFT is by <br clear="none">George Foulk. So I suppose it must have been taken between 1885 and <br clear="none">1887. Hawley states in the caption: "central avenue in Seoul leading <br clear="none">west from *Tongdaemun*, the Great East Gate."<br clear="none">(<a shape="rect" href="http://www.samuelhawley.com/hermitkingdom1.html"
target="_blank">http://www.samuelhawley.com/hermitkingdom1.html</a>)<br clear="none"><br clear="none">The photo on the RIGHT must, I think, also be from the late 1880s, but <br clear="none">certainly from before 1897, as there are no streetcars and no electric <br clear="none">powerlines to be seen yet. You find this photo reproduced in various <br clear="none">Korean and Japanese Internet blogs (there mostly with the date "1880s" <br clear="none">given). In all those posts the location the photo was shot from is <br clear="none">given as *Namdaemun*.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">The mountains in the background tell us that we are looking into the <br clear="none">same direction -- well, almost.<br clear="none">The distance from the viewer to those mountains, though, appears not to <br clear="none">be the same. However, if I cut the photo on the left (by Foulk), so the <br clear="none">photos show us more or less the same area, then that first
impression <br clear="none">proofs to be wrong:<br clear="none">--> <a shape="rect" href="http://koreanstudies.com/articles1/place2.jpg" target="_blank">http://koreanstudies.com/articles1/place2.jpg</a><br clear="none"><br clear="none">My simple question is:<br clear="none">Does anyone know for sure if these two photos were taken from Namdaemun <br clear="none">Gate OR from Tongdaemun Gate, and towards what direction? There are <br clear="none">plenty of notes on various Internet blogs, but as it goes people just <br clear="none">copy information, also wrong information. Maybe you would know by <br clear="none">identifying those mountains?<br clear="none">This, by the way, is a view from Namdaemun towards Myŏngdong Cathedral <br clear="none">in construction (the big building in the background, middle of the <br clear="none">picture, with its tower not yet raised).<br clear="none">--> <a shape="rect"
href="http://koreanstudies.com/articles1/place3.jpg" target="_blank">http://koreanstudies.com/articles1/place3.jpg</a><div class="yqt0274504108" id="yqtfd21733"><br clear="none"><br clear="none"><br clear="none">Best,</div><br clear="none">Frank<br clear="none"><br clear="none"><br clear="none"><br clear="none"><br clear="none">--------------------------------------<br clear="none">Frank Hoffmann<br clear="none"><a shape="rect" href="http://koreanstudies.com/" target="_blank">http://koreanstudies.com</a><br><br></div> </div> </div> </div> </div></body></html>