Photos by Kim Hong-Ji
Every summer millions of tourists are attracted to a small beach town named Boryeong, in South Korea, and it’s for the mud. Specifically, for the 2 week long Boryeong Mud Festival that began in 1988, now attracts 2.2 million visitors a year, and most famously for its final weekend, which usually falls on the second weekend in July. For all who missed it or never heard of it, notable Reuters South Korean Photographer Kim Hong-Ji, covered much of the excitement, quite different from much of his other work.
Although it does seem that mud festivals and mud runs have been increasingly popular across the western world in general, this one actually serves to be beneficial for your skin. In 1996 a range of cosmetics was produced using mud from this area in the world. Beneficially, the cosmetics were said to be full of minerals, bentonites, and germaniums, all of which occur naturally in this mud. In order to promote these cosmetics, the Boryeong Mud Festival was conceived, and offers plenty of mud massage programs set to remove impurities, to fun events such as mud wrestling, a mud fireworks fantasy, survival games, zipline rides, and a lot more. On the mudflat there is also the chance to participate in Marine style training.
Check out Hong-Ji’ photos, and find more photos from the Festival here.
“Photographers from around the world need to do their best to capture what has not been captured before.” – Kim Hong-Ji
[Via RUETERS]
