The 2018 Winter Olympics were held here in Gangneung and in the neighbouring County of Pyeongchang. Skiing and similar sports were held on the mountains in Pyeongchang and stadium events such as hockey, skating, and curling were held in Gangneung.
The women’s hockey rink and a practice facility were built at the university where I work. The university’s old gymnasium was torn down to make room for the rink and the Department of Physical Education had nowhere to practise basketball etc for a couple of years. All the professors I know in the department were very unhappy. The football field was also unusable for a long time because the construction company put all their equipment on it.
The Olympics are over and the rink has been converted into a gymnasium for use by the university and the public. The conversion took a long time because the government didn’t give the university the funds to do so for many months. More complaints from the professors and students. And no one is happy about the gymnasium except the university’s PR department because maintaining such a facility is very expensive.
I don’t have a photo, but the university recently installed huge windows in the upper part of one side of the gymnasium. They did it in the hopes of letting in more light to save on the building’s enormous electricity bill. The original architect must be crying at what was done to his/her creation. It’s an extremely utilitarian and ugly job with no thought to the beauty of the building as a whole. And a student told me the new windows illuminate part of the roof but nothing more.
Love the grain in that first shot. Beautiful.
Ah the glorious legacy of Olympic Games – winter or summer games, there’s always a price to pay. Check out the story of the abandoned Olympic stadia in Athens for a real downer: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/gallery/2014/aug/13/abandoned-athens-olympic-2004-venues-10-years-on-in-pictures
I hope your University can find imaginative ways to keep the Stadium in use – without closing the English Department to pay for it.
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Those are some very sad photos you linked to. I think the Olympics should always be held at Mount Olympus and maintenance of the facilities paid for by those countries wanting to participate. I think all the facilities for the 2018 Olympics are being used. Some were dismantled after the Olympics. Some of the ski slopes were reforested, for example.
Too late to save the English department. The whole College of Humanities was put up against the wall a few years ago to make way for departments related to K-Dramas (make-up, hair, music, production, etc) and a pilots’ course and a flight attendant degree programme.
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The film in the first photo was Kodak Tri-X 400, by the way. I’m glad you like it.
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It ticks all my boxes….interesting composition, light bits dark bits and grey bits, grain & geometry. You could print this big and it would take it, I reckon.
I’ve never used Tri-X apart from some really old stuff I found in a bulk loader once (it was awful). Tri-X is really expensive in the UK, so I mostly stick with Ilford, or Foma now for large format.
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I’m not sure when I last used Tri-X. Possibly that roll. 🙂 I usually buy Ilford now when I do buy black and white film. HP5+ or Pan50. Kodak for colour photos. Fuji film is either too expensive, too hard to find (here), or is too cool for my taste. Especially Provia, which is otherwise an excellent film.
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