Koreatown Dreaming

Starred review from August 21, 2023
Photographer Hahn’s animated and vivid debut celebrates how Korean Americans have made their lives and livelihoods in enclaves across the country. Wending mostly through Los Angeles’s Koreatown, with stops in New York’s and districts in Hawaii, New Jersey, and Virginia, Hahn captures the proprietors of mom-and-pop businesses that serve as the heartbeat of their communities, including Kim’s Home Center, which opened in 1973 Los Angeles to make available “goods that wanted from back home,” such as rice cookers and other kitchenware; Dallas’s Encore Family Karaoke, which “remains a beacon of old Koreatown... even as newer Korean and Asian communities have moved into more-affluent parts of the city”; and Wilshire Photo Studio in L.A., whose owner, Gilbert Lee, is aware that there is “barely any future left” in brick-and-mortar photography stores, a sense of uncertainty that commingles in these photos with pride in his trade. In snapshots paired with a brief essays about each establishment, Hahn takes a brilliant look at the resilience and ingenuity of immigrants who have battled economic hardship, racism, and the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic to carve out lives for themselves in America—stories that he contends are particularly essential at the moment: “In an era of heightened racial discrimination... telling makes the case that we’ve been here and will continue to be.” This is exceptional. Photos.

October 1, 2023

Documentary photographer/film director Hahn offers a detailed portrait of Koreatowns in nine U.S. cities: Los Angeles; NYC's Manhattan and Flushing, Queens; Atlanta; Honolulu; Dallas; Annandale, VA; and Fort Lee and Pal Park, NJ. Hahn uses his images as a vehicle to shed light on the broader experiences of the Korean diaspora in the United States. This book, in one or two-page entries, profiles dozens of Koreatown businesses--divided into the broad categories of retail, services, and restaurants--and the people who run them. Each entry includes a brief history, and many discuss how their businesses have been impacted by the COVID pandemic. Hahn's work is enhanced with essays by Lisa Kwon, Katherine Yungmee Kim, and Cathy Park, and there is a touching epilogue by rapper Jon "Dumbfoundead" Park too. Readers will appreciate the beautiful and poignant photographs included throughout and the short chronicle of Koreans in the United States at the beginning of the book. VERDICT Recommended for anyone interested in the experiences of Korean Americans. For a more detailed exploration of the topic, consider Koreatown, Los Angeles: Immigration, Race, and the "American Dream" by Shelley Sang-Hee Lee.--Joshua Wallace

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