I had wanted to make a record of our village from above for a long time. We live in Wigong-ri in Gapyeong, a small cluster of houses tucked into a valley and surrounded by mountains on three sides. From the ground, we can only see one part of the place at a time. From above, the relationships become visible.
Seeing the village as one place
I flew the drone and looked for the view that included the houses, the road, the fields beginning to green, and the mountains holding everything in. Our house appeared small from that height. It was surrounded rather than isolated. That was the detail I wanted to keep.
Aerial footage changes the scale of a familiar home. The same roof that feels large when it needs cleaning becomes one small shape among many. The road connects the houses. The fields show the direction of the season. The mountains explain why the light and weather can change so quickly.
Turning footage into a layered frame
I used the aerial image as the source for a 3D frame. The idea was to separate the scene into layers rather than leave it as one flat photograph: mountains at the back, fields in the middle, and the village toward the front. The depth is made, not found. It is a small physical interpretation of the view.
The frame does not reproduce the village perfectly, and it is not intended to function as a map. It keeps the order of the landscape—the way the distant mountains hold the nearer houses—and gives that order a place on the wall.
Why the small imperfections matter
After making the frame, we also revived a broken pot. It had cracked clean through and had been sitting in the garden for months. A little cement and some patience brought it back into use. The crack did not disappear, and that was fine. A repair can be visible without being a failure.
The same is true of the frame. The layers show their edges. The village is not presented as an untouched postcard. It is a place we live in, work around, and keep making things for.
A note about making an aerial record
A drone view can reveal more than a person expects, including homes and people who did not ask to be photographed. Before flying, check the current local rules, weather, and privacy conditions, and keep personal footage private unless the people and places in it are comfortable being shown. Our frame stays inside our home because the point was to remember where we live, not to turn every detail of it into a public view.
What stayed with me
Some mornings I stand in front of the frame before the day starts. Seeing the village from above puts the scale of things right. The house is small, the valley is large, and a life is made from the connection between the two.
