A Celebration of Colors, Culture & Happiness

photographed and written by Joe Wabe

For 21 years Gwangju, has celebrated its diversity of cultures with the Gwangju International Center Day. This is a once a year get together of all the cultures living in this wonderful city, to celebrate, share and cherish one of their most precious treasures: their heritage. This is a day that reminds us how multicultural the City of Light is.

For the past 10 years, I’ve been part of this wonderful and unique festival: many years as a spectator, other years as a contributor with food and photography, two of my passions. But for the past two events I’ve had the privilege of recording this event as a photographer. The immensity and variety of colors and patterns that every cultural booth had to offer, was overwhelming. I had the opportunity in just one day to travel to most of the Asian continent, with a few stops in the West as well.

As a photographer, to be surrounded with this vast quantity of happy facial expressions and colors it’s more like a dream come true. There is so much to capture in such a small time and space. The best part was the willingness of eeryone to have their photo taken, a burden most photographers have to deal with when it comes to photographing strangers in an outdoor setting.

The festival is over, and even though another 365 days await for the next one, I have recorded in digital film, memories that are timeless, and that are now part of the wonderful history of GIC Day.