Dear Visitor,
These 411 photos were made in 1972 at the Star of the Sea Orphanage, Incheon, South Korea. The photos were NOT made for publication or public exhibition. Originally, they were for internal records, as well as for correspondence from the orphanage to the Catholic Church, friends, and benefactors. So, even decades later, the ethics of distributing photos of non-consenting but clearly identifiable children, now likely to be adults living in South Korea or elsewhere, REQUIRE us to respect their privacy. That is why this page is BY INVITATION ONLY, accessible only to those who were in the care of the Star of the Sea Orphanage as children.
We ask that you NOT share this page or these photos in any public or online venue, and that you NOT publicly identify any children in these photos by name. It is likely that most of these children aged out of the orphanage, live in Korea, and will be fiercely protective of their privacy.
This is how we honor ALL orphans, both aged-out and adopted, while giving you a connection to your past. If you have any questions about these photos, please contact me at gm@glennmorey.com.
Sincerely,
Glenn and Julie Morey
Directors, Side by Side Project
How these photographs came to exist
In 1972, an American, Pam Mendelsohn, was married to a U.S. Army doctor stationed in Seoul. Uninterested in sightseeing, tending house, or the social life of an officer’s wife on a military base, she went looking for more meaningful ways to spend her time in Korea. Within six days of arriving in Korea, she found herself on a train to Incheon, then in a taxi bumping over rough and icy roads, searching for a Catholic orphanage called Star of the Sea and a nun, Sister Bernadette.
Mendelsohn spoke no Korean. She did, however, speak French, as did Sister Bernadette, who immediately put both her and her 35mm camera to work, photographing the children opening their Christmas presents from the orphanage’s patrons and supporters from abroad. For the next ten months, Mendelsohn worked alongside Sister Bernadette, serving the 155 children living at the orphanage, most between four and sixteen years of age. Most were girls and were considered unadoptable, although few had disabilities. Some were mixed race. Everyone subsisted on a simple, often homegrown, often foraged diet that started with dried eel. Many suffered from illnesses of the kind easily addressed with the right medications and care. The children’s origins were unknown to her, beyond the fact that some were dropped off by their parents, some by taxi, and some simply found in Incheon, Seoul, and the surrounding areas. Children were occasionally adopted out of the orphanage through agencies like Holt, but none known by Mendelson while she worked there. Perhaps most significantly, she helped arrange for the orphanage to receive medicine, medical care, and surplus U.S. Army food and supplies.
When Mendelsohn left Korea, she also left her former life as a book publicist, remaking her career into one of public and social services and non-profits, particularly in the service of displaced children and the disabled. The photographic documentation of her time at the Star of the Sea was stored away, untouched for a half century, until she visited a NYC exhibition of the Side by Side Project, inspiring her to give her photos into the stewardship of the Side by Side Project.
22 rolls of film from 1971, exactly as Mendelsohn gave them to us, entirely unedited and uncaptioned—tiny glimpses of the lives and stories of the children who came to be in this small orphanage in Korea.
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