In a striking image by Korean photographer Nina Ahn, a solitary figure stands by a window, street lights glimmering around her. Another shows a woman in her 20s sitting alone on a guardrail beside an empty highway in Seoul.
The photographs are intended to capture the loneliness of South Korea’s youth — specifically a subculture referred to as “honjok,” a neologism combining the words “hon” (alone) and “jok” (tribe).
The term is often used to describe a generation that embraces solitude and independence, reflecting the country’s growing number of single-person households and changing attitudes towards romance, marriage and family.
“It’s a sense of giving up,” Ahn said in a phone interview from Seoul. “We live in a generation where simply working hard for a bright future doesn’t guarantee happiness, so why not invest in ‘me’ time?
“The fact that my photos carry a sentiment of dreariness means that (it) is the face of the current generation.”