Under the sunny skies of a breezy POSTECH spring day, about 300 graduates went out for their graduate photo shoots. In Korea, university graduates take photos not only individually, but also with professors, their major friends, and especially, at POSTECH, with their ‘bunban’ (groups of 20 students who take the same courses in their freshman year).

Graduation photo albums with their meaningful memories of campus life mean a lot, but in Korea, the university graduation photo album holds much more value than that. Albums are sometimes leaked to matchmaking companies and utilized for searching for future husbands and wives. This is why students spend much money for clothing and makeup. On the shooting day, both male and female students usually get made over by makeup artists and hair dressers, at a cost of 30,000 KRW for male students and 65,000 KRW for females.

Although the practical value of the graduation album is controversial, many graduates are willing to spend more than 100 to 500 thousand KRW in order to purchase their suits and dresses. Some students who graduate early or late take graduation photos, before their graduation year, so as to take group photos with friends of the same academic year. Even some take their photos for their graduation album twice.