Our two Seoul publications — Elska Seoul and Elska Ekstra Seoul

Last week me and the team at Elska Magazine published our latest issue, this one made in Seoul, Korea. For the past three years we've been travelling to cities all over the world (twenty-one so far), meeting loads of local gay guys, and then taking their pictures and their stories to publish in issues of Elska. Each city presents its own challenges, but Seoul was one of the most challenging of all.

Image of Nahwan J, from Elska Seoul

Typically we find participants by making announcements on social media that we're heading to whatever city and asking our readers to spread the word. Sometimes this is all we need to do, but sometimes we also need to randomly message guys on apps like Instagram or even Jack'd (rather popular in Korea) to find more participants. In Seoul we messaged hundreds of men but everyone seemed too afraid to get involved. Seoul is an incredible city — modern, exciting, cool — but not for gays. Society is traditional and pressure to be a certain kind of man means that most queers remain 'discreet' about their sexuality.

Image of Hendrik L, from Elska Ekstra Seoul

For a while I was afraid that this would be the first Elska issue to actually fail, but then we managed to get in touch with a few local artists, activists, drag queens (not Kim Chi though!) who stepped up. One in particular called Woo Yeah (a rather fun anglicisation of Woo Yae) was so enthusiastic that perhaps 1/4 of the 18 guys we eventually met came via him. In the stories these men contributed, it became clear that the trouble we had finding them was indeed due to cultural conservatism and not bad luck. When you read the issue you'll realise how difficult it is to be gay in Korea, but I'll let them tell you in their own words. Get the issue here: bit.ly/elskaseoul