Over the past few years in South Korea,
it has become increasingly common to come across articles about individuals found dead in small, isolated rooms,
having lived alone without any contact from family or friends.
Often, even the police struggle to locate their relatives.
The number of people choosing—or being forced—to live alone is growing.
Some disconnect from society entirely, remaining unseen until they are discovered after death.
This social phenomenon, first recognized in Japan, is called Kodokushi, or "lonely death."

There are many possible reasons for this:
aging, struggling to adapt to the rapid changes of the modern world, relentless societal pressures,
or perhaps causes we cannot fully understand.
For some, solitude is a choice.
For others, it is an inevitability imposed by circumstances.


One journalist in South Korea wrote an article about a man found dead, alone, and abandoned,
attaching a picture of a memo possibly written by the man before he died.
It allows you to imagine the trace of his life.
There was one sentence in the memo written in Korean:

“이 날이나 저 날이나 매일 같은 날이구나"

“Whether it’s this or that day, they’re all the same.”

I think about those who are told to see, to walk, and to socialize but are denied access to society.
I also think about those who, despite being blind, are somehow invited in.

I take photos almost every day—paint chips falling off a wall in someone’s house—
believing they might one day prove his words,
or disprove them.
Have they?

picture from Hankyoreh News