Korean photographer Miyoung Choi’s captivating photographs encapsulate the many stories that circulate the sprawling alleyways of South Korea. Through her female models, she experiments with reflections and explores the boundaries of life and death. By shaking the camera and controlling the shutter speed, she conveys the passage of time in a world where so many people get left behind.

Miyoung purchased her first camera as an excuse to get out and travel the world solo. An office worker during the week and a photographer on the weekends, her captures have become a source of healing and the ultimate pleasure in life. After sampling different genres, Miyoung has gone on to establish her own socially conscious brand of visual storytelling. Probing and powerful, her work highlights the stark contrast between old and new in a society that waits for no one.

In “Guryong Village,” Miyoung depicts the realities of daily life in an illegal encampment severed from the affluence of downtown Seoul by a six-lane motorway. Although most of the residents have now been forced to move on, around 70 percent of the population remained at the time of shooting. Wandering through the narrow alleyways, she stumbled upon an elderly woman and stopped briefly for a conversation. As if starved of human interaction, the woman sprung to life and talked incessantly for the duration. Somehow, the cross of the church in the background seemed to symbolize a glimmer of hope for the community during turbulent times. Even though all traces of humanity have now disappeared from Guryong, the church remains standing to this day.

In her photograph entitled “Ant Village,” Miyoung portrays her movements in a forgotten area of Hongje-dong where senior citizens reside in a state of isolation. While observing an elderly woman hard at work, she spotted a faithful black dog sitting quietly nearby. She remembers experiencing a sense of connection amidst the crumbling scene, and above all, feeling rather proud of that faithful canine that day.

Miyoung also ventures out on rainy nights to enjoy the drama of the reflections and visualize the world around her anew. While shooting “Saturation,” she waited around until an unknown figure with an umbrella walked beneath the dimly lit glow of the street lamp. Beyond the charms of the action taking place, she subtly expresses the contrast between the brand new apartments in the distance and the antiquated properties intermingled to the point of obscurity in between.

While few prosper, so many struggle to transition with integrity intact. In this sense, Miyoung’s empathy-inducing photographs pay tribute to the invisible ones whose hard work and sacrifices have enabled the privileges we take for granted today.