published in the June 2019 printed issue of Groove Magazine

“Don’t judge the book by its cover”, this cannot be truer than in the case of Ligrye, a tall and lanky fellow who’s almost always seen wearing black. One look, and you’ll know he parties all night. But there’s more to him than that. One couldn’t have guessed he graduated with three university degrees: Psychology, Economics and Industrial Sociology. After graduation, he had a short stint working for Philip Morris in his home country, South Africa. But as fate would have it, he packed his bags, at the age of twenty-three, and began his adventures in South Korea.

He was greatly influenced by a good friend who had good things to say about working in Korea. This was in 2012. He was employed as a teacher and  was assigned to a small town, just out of Seoul. It was an exciting time for a young man to discover new places, new people, and his new self.

In his first year here in Korea, he got himself a camera. Behind the lens, he saw beauty in different contours and soul in various forms.

From this innocent discovery of a love of photography, he started to collect soulful photos of Korean males, thus BOYS OF SEOUL was born. BOYS OF SEOUL is a photography exhibition with Korean males as his subjects. His subjects are photographed to show different sides of masculinity, strength, and beauty. Groove asked if his subjects were gay; Ligrye took the opportunity to explain that his androgynous subjects do not stereotype themselves as a certain gender. The photographs show the strength and characters of the subjects, whether they are gay or not. The collection has made its way to Cape Town, Bangkok and just recently, Kuala Lumpur.

Had he always known that he was gay? “I have always been a creative,” he replied. Without looking to associate creativity with gender, he tried to expound on how he has always been interested in the arts and music while growing up.  Korea provided a venue for him to further explore his creativity and unabashedly succumb to his sexuality. It was then that he started to thrive. 

Music continuously connects him to the night life of Seoul. He DJs regularly at Cakeshop, Contra and Soap. Aside from Seoul’s dynamic night life, he gets to perform outside the country and is even set to tour in the coming months while enjoying the perks of being based here in Seoul. which gives him the opportunity to establish himself as a promoter. He talks about the events he has organized with pride, one of the recent events being bringing over Juliana Huxtable to Seoul in the first week of April. Juliana was born intersex and is a strong figure in the world of DJing.

What’s in store for this creative talent? He is a photographer, a DJ and a promoter. Photography engages his creativity. DJing takes him beyond Seoul and still perks him up because the job is inherently full of life. Being a promoter exposes him to an exciting crowd where he belongs, and he wants to entertain that same crowd. Given all the things he is doing now, he thinks the signs are all there: he aims to open an events company.

Why not? Cheers to his unceasing journey of self-discovery and persistence in the perfection of his art.

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