Today we’d like to introduce you to Jacqueline Kyuseo Kim.
Hi Jacqueline, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m a lens-based artist, now based in New York City. My journey in photography roots all the way back from when I was a junior in high school. I moved to a new school by Year 11 in the British curriculum, and as soon as I moved, I had to choose an activity to do for the adventure week that we had that either had a skill to learn, culture to experience, or community to give back to. Since most spots were taken, I decided to go with whatever was left, and it was a photography course for a week. It was when I was able to get my hands on my first camera.
That week gave me a digital camera and an introduction to a new world. Growing up, I never really excelled in much. Always an extremely timid and shy kid, full of self-doubt. That week of photography course didn’t end up with me being the best photographer in school, but it did give me an idea of other things that I can explore and love.
A year later, when I started community college in Hong Kong with a business management major, I reconnected with my old high school friends who were preparing to start attending art schools as photography and painting majors. Every month, we started going on day-long trips to small islands around Hong Kong and taking photos. This was when I was introduced to 35mm film cameras. Until then, the intricacy of digital cameras scared me, and I wasn’t taking enough photos to even say that it was my hobby.
My first 35mm film camera was a Minolta x-370. First two rolls were ruined because I didn’t know how to rewind the film roll properly, but the third roll from Thailand that was shot in ISO 400 black and white film roll gave me a rush of adrenaline, enough to start going on photo walks every week. I would shoot two, three rolls a week and head straight to my favorite film labs to get them developed and scanned by the end of the day (2-4 hours turnaround is a norm in most film labs in Hong Kong). Soon, I started printing my photos and giving them out to friends from my community. I even started having portrait sessions with friends. I was extremely shy and awkward, so the fact that I could communicate with photography and be able to give consolation and joy at the same time made me happy.
It has been a couple months of shooting every week. I met a transfer student from Lesley University who studied Graphic Design. She was in my college to qualify her general education classes in Hong Kong. We quickly became friends when she found out about my passion in photography. I would always get fascinated by how she would be able to figure out what I was feeling and thinking at the moment of me taking the photograph or uploading them. She told me that is what she learns in the art school: making artwork and explaining them, as well as other people’s work with her words. This made me realize that I need to go to an art school to understand what I have been creating and what I could be creating. That summer, I applied to SCAD, Savannah College of Art and Design.
Four years studying photography professionally made me a resilient, detail-oriented, multi-faceted person. Through the years in SCAD, I learned that there are so many different things I could be doing under the name of photography and that it’s not just that one path that everyone glorifies. I’m grateful for all the types of photography as well as other types of mediums in art that I could learn and experience that honed me for who I became now.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Embarking on the complex journey of battling self-doubt and fear of failure in my creative endeavors has been both transformational and challenging. I’m my own worst critic, like most people are, which makes it hard to believe a certain way how people perceive my work. Early on in my college career, when I started collaborating, I was letting people cross boundaries as a project partner. I had to learn the hard way that even if I don’t think so myself yet, I have to stand up for my work and myself. This was the only way that I could build my world.
The journey towards self-assurance is still ongoing, I’m still fighting my thoughts that degrades my achievements. It happens more often since I make work about myself and my childhood. Through every step, I try to remind myself that everyone’s creative journey is unique, emphasizing the importance of focusing on my own progress and artistic expression.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
My body of work revolves around my childhood and nomadic mindset I carried through adolescence till now. I project my questions and curiosities to photographs I take.
My most recent work, “Home is not far away,” is a series of collages with my childhood C-print scans on top of open-field nature in the States. This was my answer to all the “Where is home to you?” or “What do you mean when you say you are going back home?”. I couldn’t pinpoint exactly as nowhere seemed like a perfect home to me. Along with c-print scans, I added scans of archived letters I received from family members that have pieces of love that I thought I lacked. The series in itself became an open ending to my ongoing conversation between my young self and I.
Outside of my projects, I’m drawn to taking photos that are remnants of my memories. Seconds that have the essence of moments that made me who I am now. Rather it be a movement, object, scenery, or an intimate interaction, I seek to take photographs that have warm nostalgia that keeps me going.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I was extremely timid and shy kid through from preschool till pretty early on in college. I remember as a kid, coming home from school and realizing that I haven’t spoken to anyone in school all day. It was more so difficult for me to make friends and be comfortable with who I was. This changed when I moved to Hong Kong because I could be a whole another person in a new country. Soon enough, I made a group of friends whom I enjoyed sharing knowledge with and experiencing parts of life. Through end of my high school, I started taking photos for the first time, which helped me break my shell and be comfortable with my own skin.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jacquelinekyuseokim.com/583544494043
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jacqandphotos/
Image Credits
Snigdha Gopidi
Jacqueline Kyuseo Kim
