In Conversation With Kim Jaekyoung on Street Photography

In Conversation With Kim Jaekyoung on Street Photography

As with any street photographer, Kim Jaekyoung is passionate about capturing everyday moments unfolding on the streets. It all began when his wife gifted him a camera 25 years ago. However, his idea of what street photography shifted when he moved from the city to the Korean countryside more than 10 years ago. “These days, my everyday surroundings are mountains, rivers, and open fields, not dense cityscapes…I find it in the hands of farmers, neighbors on their walks, or mist-covered rice paddies at dawn.”

Still, the unique tension and spontaneity that can only be found in urban environments often beckon him to travel to cities and within and outside Korea. It led him to work in India and other countries, where he documented the “subtle intersection where lives overlap.” It’s not surprising, given how street photography grew beyond just a craft for him, but a way of seeing the world.

“It’s the unexpected combinations—a sudden shaft of light across a stranger’s face, two people unknowingly crossing paths—that pull me to raise my camera. These moments can’t be forced. Most of the time, they appear only when I’m simply walking, open to whatever the street offers. Those surprises are what keep me coming back to street photography.”

While photography has felt deeply intuitive for Kim, he can’t point to a specific moment that shaped his style. Rather, it’s a poignant amalgamation of everything in his life, and the unpredictable rhythm of the streets.

“It’s more like a slow accumulation of everything—my upbringing, the places I’ve lived, the experiences I’ve had. The photographers I admired, along with films and paintings, all left their marks too…over time, my way of seeing has naturally taken on the form it has now. Rather than a sudden inspiration, it’s been a gradual shaping of my inner instincts.”

Copyright ⓒ Kim Jaekyoung

Copyright ⓒ Kim Jaekyoung

Copyright ⓒ Kim Jaekyoung

Copyright ⓒ Kim Jaekyoung

Inspired by the anonymous and the contemporary

He also shares the experience of many street photographers who became drawn to the work of masters, most notably Henri Cartier-Bresson and the magic of his “decisive moment.” Kim profoundly described it as “when time and space fold into one,” resulting in “photos that felt like more than images—they carried rhythm, structure, and a glimpse into life itself.”

Alex Webb was another major influence, who captivated Kim with his layers of color and complex framing. “Even in his visually rich scenes, the emotions and stories were clear. Both of them showed me what street photography could be.”

Fast-forward to the present, he finds more inspiration from contemporary photographers, especially those working in places like Korea and India, where life unfolds with different textures. He even cites anonymous or lesser known photographers as his heroes, drawing motivation to pick up his camera from their fresh perspectives. “After all, a true hero is someone who moves you forward. It’s less about famous names and more about how photographers approach people and space.”

Melting into the flow of the “decisive moment”

Asked about Cartier-Bresson’s iconic photography philosophy, Kim states that while it remains central to his work, he interprets it differently at present. Instead of waiting for a serendipitous, picture-perfect scene to unfold, he tries to “melt into the flow and sense when the tension naturally rises.”

For him, it’s less about keeping an eye out for drama, but also paying attention to things as simple as “the slight distance between people, the turning of a head, or the direction of a fleeting light.” Capturing these subtle yet emotional cues at the right moment serves as the core of storytelling in his photography.

“It’s like the silence between musical notes—small, almost-missed moments often carry the most emotion. It’s about responding instinctively before thought catches up, like scooping up a handful of water from a moving river.”

Kim also sees melting into the flow as the photographer blending into the scene, their presence seemingly almost invisible. To achieve this he understands that he has to spend a lot of time simply being in the environment—watching, waiting, sometimes enduring long stretches where nothing happens.

“Timing is also critical. To catch the brief instant when people, light, and architecture fall into alignment requires intense focus,” he continues. “And for the scene to feel natural, the photographer has to almost disappear. It’s not easy, but when it works—when people and space come together like a story—it’s worth all the effort.”

Echoing the voice of colour

One of the most widely practiced street photography styles is shooting in black and white to minimize distractions and focus on composition, expression, and emotion. Kim aligned with this notion for most of his work, and found that “it reveals the structure and tension within a scene, and sometimes, it even folds the past and present into one frame.” That was until a year ago, when he decided to explore color as well, realizing that some locations and situations simply call for it.

“Recently, I’ve started moving more freely between black and white and color. Color isn’t just decorative—it’s a part of the atmosphere and rhythm of a place. Especially in places like India, color is reality itself. Stripping it away sometimes feels like erasing the essence of what’s happening.”

Now, Kim chooses between black and white and color depending on what the scene requires. “If I want to emphasize emotion and structure, I lean toward black and white. If I want to capture energy, complexity, and life, I go with color. Each voice tells a different story.”

Copyright ⓒ Kim Jaekyoung

Copyright ⓒ Kim Jaekyoung

The ideal street photograph

The tendency to chase perfect composition and technical precision did not escape Kim when he was starting out, and he believed that it’s possible to capture perfection even in unpredictable street moments. Over time, his thinking veered away from the idea that the best street photo should be flawless. He started embracing the emotional weight that small imperfections bring to his compositions.

“A good street photograph makes you stop. Maybe you don’t fully understand it at first, but you return to it, drawn back by something lingering. It holds a clue, but not everything is revealed at once,” he stresses.

The ideal street photo, he finds, is not about explanation, but “the air, the light, the subtle gestures that naturally tell a story…. [they] feel like a piece of reality casually left in front of you, carrying an invisible current of emotion underneath.”

Encapsulating all that in a photo, however, doesn’t come easy. For Kim, the biggest challenge is capturing the relationship between people and space in a way that feels natural and convincing.

“Street photography is an art of observation and chance. To create an image where people and their surroundings harmonize takes more than a quick snap—it demands countless quiet choices.”

Copyright ⓒ Kim Jaekyoung

Copyright ⓒ Kim Jaekyoung

A record of fact and feeling

Most photographers see street photography as an offshoot of documentary photography, where a photo is a slice of reality frozen in time. Meanwhile, Kim’s work often leans more towards the abstract, demanding a closer look for the viewer to process what the photos are telling or making them feel. Or even, what Kim himself was feeling as he pressed the shutter.

“Rather than proving what I saw, I hope my images leave behind what I felt. For me, it’s not about shouting a message. It’s about leaving an echo that stays with the viewer long after they look away.”

This ideology manifests in one of his favorite photos, taken in Ladakh, India in 2010. He shares:

“That year, a rare flood had struck Ladakh, and life was at a standstill. Shops were shuttered, streets were silent, and exhaustion hung in the air.

While walking, I came across a quiet street where motorbikes were parked in front of closed shops. A few donkeys wandered among them, and people passed by in silence, not acknowledging each other, each absorbed in their own direction.

The scene was heavy, yet strangely beautiful. Humans, animals, machines, and the skeletal remains of the city all shared the frame without clashing.

More than anything, there was a quiet solidarity—a sense that life, even battered, was still moving forward in small, stubborn steps.

This photo holds the memory of that time and place for me—the way photography can record both fact and feeling at once.”

Make sure to visit Kim Jaekyoung’s portfolio to see more of his work.