"This month's photography exhibitions begin with places: wetlands, mines, cities, cinema streets and regional photo festivals. Before asking what the photographs show, the month asks where they have stayed."
October brings short solo shows and regional exhibitions that continue into November. In the first week, Insa-dong's Gaon Gallery and Space Leeseen come first. Around mid-month, Yoo Seung-ho's 〈BLUE HOUR〉, Goodspace Gallery, Gallery AP_9 and the Martin Parr retrospective close in sequence. Late in the month, Yu Hwa Jung's first exhibition, Deborah Turbeville at piknic and Canon Gallery arrive, while Photo Jinju and Jaime Permuth continue into early November. Min Byung-hun, Lee In-mi and Roger Ballen run longer, so there is no need to rush them, but they make good anchors when planning an October route.
Exhibition Dates, Venues and Quick Links
Dates and venues are taken from the article below. Hours, closed days, admission, booking and full addresses need confirmation where not listed.
Closing First
Jeong Bong-chae, 〈Drawn on Water〉
Space Leeseen. 10.1 – 10.13.
For Jeong Bong-chae, Upo Wetland has long been more than scenery. This exhibition looks at traces formed on water: the place a wind has passed, the edge left as ice melts, floating matter and nets that suddenly become lines and signs. The Korean title uses a character meaning "direction," but the photographs do not point to one fixed destination. They ask less where to go than where one is standing now.
Lee Ju-hyung, 〈Bloom and Boundary〉
Goodspace Gallery. 9.15 – 10.14.
A solo exhibition that moves through light and sensation by way of azaleas. The flower is the subject, but the real focus is the boundary around the moment of blooming. Since it closes in mid-October, it is worth placing early in a Seoul route.
Lee Jae-yong, Lee Kwan-yong and Kim Mi-rim, 〈Reading Cinema Through Photography: From Gosa-dong to Hollywood〉
Gallery AP_9. 9.18 – 10.16.
This is a place where photography and cinema read each other. Gosa-dong in the title connects to Jeonju's cinema street. Rather than photography chasing movie scenes, the show reads the places and memories left by cinema in a photographic way.
Yoo Seung-ho, 〈BLUE HOUR〉
LAYER 7. 10.3 – 10.11.
Actor Yoo Seung-ho's first film photography exhibition. The exhibition and ticket information have already been covered in a separate 5ft article. Read the 5ft article →
Martin Parr, 〈We Are Martin Parr〉
Photo SeMA. 7.16 – 10.18.
This is one to catch before mid-October. According to SeMA's official listing, the retrospective includes around 500 photographs and 90 photobooks, and it is also meaningful as Photo SeMA's first exhibition devoted to a single photographer. Since it has already been covered in a separate article, this guide marks it as a closing-soon stop. Read the 5ft article →
Through the End of October
Yu Hwa Jung, 〈FACES OF ALL THINGS〉
Comeamico Gallery. 10.21 – 10.27. 12:00 – 18:00. 97 Seongmisan-ro 15-gil, Mapo-gu, Seoul.
According to the public Threads announcement, this is Yu Hwa Jung's first exhibition, bringing together film photographs made over eight years. The artist also writes that they plan to be present during the exhibition, so it reads as a small show where visitors can see the work and speak directly with the maker. The poster carries the Korean title 〈Faces〉 and the English title 〈FACES OF ALL THINGS〉. Read the artist's Threads announcement →
〈STILL CHUBBY - As It Is, for a Long Time〉
Canon Gallery. 9.13 – 10.31.
As the title suggests, this is a show about staying as one is, for a long time. It runs at Canon Gallery through the end of October. Even though it is held in a camera brand's space, the show reads less as a gear-centered display than as a list of ways photographs remain inside everyday life.
Longer Regional Threads
2026 Daegu Photo Biennale Special Exhibition, 〈Becoming a Red Flag, Becoming a Star〉
Daegu Culture & Arts Center. 9.11 – 11.1.
This show was covered in last month's guide. Read it in the September 2026 photo exhibition guide →
Photo Jinju 2026, 〈Relationships, Connected to the World〉
PAC Gallery and three other venues. 10.18 – 11.1.
A photography festival in Jinju that began in 2017. This year the keyword is "relationships." The program widens its view from inner life toward the ways people connect with the world. Regional photo festivals are strongest when they open several spaces inside one city. This one is better planned as a walk through Jinju than as a single stop.
Jaime Permuth, 〈los libros y la noche〉
SVA Andrew Chang Gallery. 9.19 – 11.1. Artist talk 10.17.
This solo exhibition brings together two bodies of work made between New York and Korea: 〈Olmedini El Mago〉 and 〈BLINDNESS〉. The artist's official text frames the show around migration, memory, belonging and the experience of "blindness" inside an unfamiliar culture. It is less a blockbuster stop than a quietly resonant one, and it fits well into a late-October Seoul route. Read the artist's official note →
Park Byung-moon and Yasme Yando, 〈Lives of Coalface Miners〉
Samuno Valley Mining Ecomuseum. 9.30 – 11.1.
Park Byung-moon has spent many years documenting Korean mining towns and the lives of miners. This exhibition places Korean and Spanish mines, and the people who worked inside them, side by side. Even the venue's name carries the memory of place. It is a show with a clear reason for photography to remain as record.
〈Worlds of Photography〉
Hyundai Museum of Kids' Books & Art. 7.21 – 11.1.
An exhibition that explores the many worlds layered inside photographs. Since it is held at a children's book museum, the entrance is light, but it can be read as a place for first-time viewers to see how photographs make and interpret worlds. If you are planning a route with children, it is worth adding before the end of October.
Shows to Take Slowly
Deborah Turbeville, 〈Atmosphere〉
piknic. 10.23 – 2027.2.28. 30 Toegye-ro 6ga-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul.
It opens late in October, but this is one of the largest exhibitions on the list. piknic's official text frames Turbeville as a photographer who worked around 〈Vogue〉 in the 1970s and helped shift fashion photography alongside Helmut Newton and Guy Bourdin. She began as a fashion editor and came to the camera relatively late, but moved away from the industry's polished product logic from the start. Rather than smiling or seductive poses, she looked at the inner world of the figure and the air around it: the word she returned to was atmosphere.
The scale matters too. According to SPACE, the exhibition was organized in collaboration with New York's MUUS Collection, which holds Turbeville's archive, and includes around 200 works: 102 original works including vintage prints, 88 contemporary prints newly produced in New York, and original collages. With early studies and photocollage included, it is better read as a survey of a visual language than as a straightforward fashion photography show. It runs until February 2027, but among exhibitions opening in October, it is one of the essential ones. Read the official piknic page →
Roger Ballen, solo exhibition
Museum Hanmi Samcheong. 10.15 – February 2027.
Museum Hanmi's full exhibition page has not yet surfaced as a separate detailed listing, so the final title and structure still need confirmation. Still, Ballen's official exhibition schedule lists a Museum Hanmi Samcheong solo show from October 15 through February 2027. Museum Hanmi's September screening program, 〈Museum B1: Next Stop, Roger Ballen〉, was also introduced as a preview connected to the October solo exhibition. Given the way Ballen's photographs often merge with installation, drawing and psychological staging, this may deserve a separate 5ft article once the full museum information is public. See the artist's official schedule →
Min Byung-hun, 〈BETWEEN FORMS〉
Particle, House of Photography. 9.18 – 12.20.
Min Byung-hun's photographs have always stood on the side of not saying too much: hazy light, low contrast and forms left as if about to disappear. As the title suggests, this is a place to look between one form and another. It runs until December, so there is no hurry, but if you want a quiet black-and-white show, it is October's clearest choice.
Lee In-mi, 〈Fluid Scape〉
GoEun Museum of Photography. 9.16 – 12.26.
GoEun Museum of Photography's Busan Project 2026. The city is not a fixed background but a flowing landscape. Because it is a long-form photography exhibition in Busan, it deserves a higher priority than many shorter stops if your October route includes the city.
Route Notes
In Seoul, the first and second weeks of October matter most. Lee Kyung-taek's 〈Zero Point〉 closes first at Gaon Gallery on October 5. Jeong Bong-chae closes on the 13th, Lee Ju-hyung and a two-person show at White Wave Gallery close on the 14th, and Gallery AP_9 closes on the 16th. The Martin Parr retrospective runs only until the 18th, so if you have not visited Photo SeMA yet, raise its priority in that same window.
The Daegu Photo Biennale special exhibition was already covered in last month's article. For an October route, keep the link as a reference. The new regional axis this month is Jinju after October 18. If you go for Photo Jinju, plan it more like a walk through the city than a one-stop exhibition visit. If you stay in Seoul, Jaime Permuth's show at SVA Andrew Chang Gallery is a quieter alternative for the same period.
Seoul is also worth revisiting late in the month. Yu Hwa Jung's 〈FACES OF ALL THINGS〉 runs at Comeamico Gallery from October 21 to 27, Deborah Turbeville's 〈Atmosphere〉 opens at piknic on October 23, Roger Ballen's Museum Hanmi Samcheong exhibition is another major axis to check after mid-October, and Canon Gallery's 〈STILL CHUBBY〉 continues through October 31.
In Busan, Lee In-mi's exhibition at GoEun Museum of Photography runs until December. If you have a Busan route in October, it is better to see it slowly.
October's exhibitions are not built around one grand blow. They are made from places looked at for a long time: the surface of Upo Wetland, the end of the mine, the flow of the city and the accumulation of regional photo history. Photography, in the end, cannot hide where it has stayed.
