Rare photos capture life in Korea 70 years ago

During a trip to South Korea in 1956-57, a woman named Marie Ann Han Yoo took rare color photographs of postwar life in the country.

As a country that has gone through many historical events, the lives of Korean people in each period have their own unique features. Different from the modern, bustling image of the present time, only about 70 years ago, Korea appeared very different through the lens of a woman named Marie Ann Han Yoo , a Korean-American.

Marie Ann was 20 years old when she first came to Korea in 1956-1957.

Accordingly, during her stay in Seoul in 1956-57 when she was only 20 years old, Marie bought a camera to record her trip.

"I wanted to capture that special moment. Everything was completely foreign to me," said Ms. Yoo.

With her curiosity, Yoo wandered through prominent locations in the capital city of Seoul, such as the bustling Namdaemun Market, capturing images of life along the Han River. After returning to the United States, she kept the films she took intact, thereby showing posterity how different the lives of Korean people in the mid-1900s were from the present time.

She also added that because her mother was a high-ranking person, Yoo and her sister would sometimes be taken by a driver to locations outside the city, so she could document life in both the countryside as well as in downtown Seoul.

Three elderly men pose in traditional white clothes, horsehair hats and round glasses.

A corner of the bustling Namdaemun market in Seoul

If the Han River is now a gathering place for young people, in the past it was a place for families to gather to wash and dry clothes on the rocks.

Seoul streets are bustling with buyers and sellers

Rice seller next to his rice mill

Seoul Bus Station with old-fashioned buses

A young woman sits along the Han River wearing a colorful hanbok, a typical style for young women during this period. Next to her is a student, wearing a black uniform and a baseball cap.

A street noodle maker with simple drying racks and straw underneath