Interviewer's note: This is an e-mail interview with Justin Kim.
PG: What are your inspirations in taking photographs? JK: Inspirations.....I guess my primary inspiration
is the desire to document things that are meaningful to me. Those
meaningful things can include beautiful natural scenery, happy people,
or some objects that I feel attached to. When taking these photographs,
I try to compose the photos from a unique angle so that those who see
my photographs can see the different perspectives. Different than their
ordinary points of view. This is challenging but when it works, it
really feels great.
PG: Do you visualize the shot before
taking it? JK: I sure do. Like I said earlier, composition is
one of the most important thing for me to consider and I do try to
envision the photo before I contain things in my view finder. However,
I'm not a good foreseer. Many times, I realize that what's actually
photographed is quite different than what I had envisioned. Sometimes
it's because of the composition, sometimes it's the exposure, sometimes
it's the wrong aperture. This is why I take the "fishnet" approach when
photographing. That is, I take as many shots as possible and find
several good ones out of hundred. (Sigh). Seasoned photographers never
do that. They think hard before seeing things and take one shot and
that's it. I would kill to reach that level of mastery.
PG: As an artist, what feeling do you
want your audience to get from your photographs? JK: I don't normally take photos of things or people
that are too unique. I enjoy photographing ordinary things but from a
different perspective. I'd like my audience to discover that there can
be a thousand different ways to see things.