Michael Vince Kim: Interview
Michael Vince Kim: https://www.instagram.com/michaelvincekim/
https://www.michaelvincekim.com/
who is Michael Vince Kim:
Michael vince kim was born in Los Angeles, California, US.
Michael is a photographer based in West of the world. During his last year and final year in university hebbecame interested in Korean dialect spoken by ethnic Koreans in the once so called USSR. He continued working on issues of displacement and diaspora, about the story of a thousand Koreans who, in 1905, were deceived into indentured servitude in Mexico.
He is the recipient of the Magnum ‘30 Under 30’ Award, the Royal Photographic Society’s Postgraduate Bursary, and the Magnum Graduate Photographers Award.
In 2017, he won the first prize in the People Stories category of the World Press Photo Contest which is a great step into the life of a photographer.
The Interview:
Q:What do you specialize in? within photography would you say
R:I don't like planning in terms of specialisation - I just go with a concept or an idea and execute however seems intuitive at the time.
Q:What is your favourite style of shooting so far?
R:(see above)
Q:What is the biggest hurdle that you have had to face so far?
(unaswered)
Q:How have you overcome that hurdle or how have you dealt with it?
(unaswered)
Q:Do you take all your images or do you have associates/assistant to take that final shot?
R:I always take all of my images and never have an assistant or fixer.
Q:Who’s your biggest inspiration that gave you an idea for a piece of work or in general?
R:My personal background, my family history.
Q:What made you want to start photography?
R:I never actively pursued it. I've been interested in photography for fifteen years already, having been handed down my father's camera from the 1980s when I was fifteen. Although I originally wanted to study photography at university, I ended up pursuing a degree in Film Directing, and then studied Linguistics. That personal journey is what lead me to Kazakhstan to document the dialect of the Soviet Koreans and I took the opportunity to do a short photo series with which, to my surprise, I was selected as one of Magnum's '30 Under 30'. I ended up going back two more times to continue the project and things progressed naturally from there.
Q:If your income is through photography how do make that income and if not where do you find the time and funding for these projects?
R:The past couple of years I've been relying on grants as well as some commercial work.
Q:What motivates you to keep pushing you to create these types of images and content?
R:Self-expression.
Q:If you could go back to the day you remember you officially started your work within photography, what advice would you give yourself?
(unaswered)
Q:Where do your ideas come from for projects? and how long do you spend on a project?
R:You need to be receptive to potential ideas; they can come from anywhere: a conversation, observation, literature... I try to spend as long as I can on projects. I still feel like the ones I started are ongoing.
Q:Thank you so much for this time that you have you gave me. For this final question, I would like to ask what advice would you have for me as a growing photographer?
R:Delve outside photography as much as you can.
My Response:
I want to thank Michael Vince Kim for replying to me and also taking the time and effort in talking and answering the questions that I ask have asked him. I wish I could possibly get to know him much more personally and find out more information about him for himself rather than researching and finding things off over online.
Something I will say that is my fault Is that I bugged Michael about completing the questions but yet it took me so long for a response from me to say thank you for the effort and time he gave me as he’s a busy person for sure, so I want to apologise and say sorry it took so long, but talking to and have some back and forth messages with Michael he seems very interesting as a photographer and I like his style of work, and I may look more into the style he shoots his images.
What makes Michael so interesting to me is that he said he never actively pursued it, it was more a thing that interested him that just ended up building up around him and he ended up pursuing a degree in film directing and photography became a side subject/ hobby that has become clear a successful thing for him and his work.
Also, Michael doesn’t really specialise or consider himself to be set on 1 style of work he more of works around an object/ subject with what he thinks would look and work best in a certain technique, which I really like and this building my interest as this is the style I work at and rather than sticking to 1 forum of work.
There’s no bad things I have to say to Michael or how he works, all I want to say is thankyou and sorry for taking so long to reply as this was beyond long and this is my fault on time effort so something I’m going to take away from this interview with Michael is to “Delve outside photography as much as you can.” But also, clearly, I need to keep my timetable on road and not leave things looming that are important such as this. But the advice that I have been given I will take on board and incorporate into my work.
Overall, I would like to say, thank you to Michael for spending time talking to me and being very patient with me and answering the questions that I asked as some of them are simple and others are fairly personal. Can’t wait to see more work that he has.
Michael's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michaelvincekim/
Michael's Blog: https://www.michaelvincekim.com/
