K. CHAE

K. CHAE photography

There is two distinct characteristics when it comes to the K. CHAE's photography. First, none of his works are staged. Inspired by master photographers of early 20th century, K. considers himself to be a street photographer first and foremost. Thus he takes pictures not by creating moments, but rather by discovering them. He sees the world in his own little unique ways, and his images reflect the perspectives he has on the world. He chases warmth, happiness, and joy in life.

The one feature people immediately recognize when they look at K's photographs are colors. Vivid and saturated colors are uniformly present in his works. It is something that separate his works apart among others, but it isn't something he came up with just to be different. K. Chae takes colorful pictures becasue he is a colorful person. From young age, K. was intrigued by colors. When he sees the world, colorful things are what attract his eyes. Colors are what makes him move. Willy Ronis once said 'When we take a picture we don't see what is real. We see who we are.' K. Chae believes in the sentiment. To him, photography is not recording what is 'real'.' It is a form of expression. He was drawn to colors, and he himself was such a colorful person. He wears colorful clothes and funky glasses all his life and his photographs are reflections of himself. That is origin of his unique colorful images. K. never takes a black and white images. Not even a single shot.

It is a unique combination. Photographs shot with such old school technique of street photography, yet its result is colorful, contrasty, and saturated. The two don't seem go along together. But that is what gives his work that unique feel. It isn't shown too much when seen on computers, but when his works are printed, which he considers to be the final result of his works, he uses textured papers which he specifically picks for his photographs. When combined together, it looks like paintings. This is by design. Some photographers don't like it when people say their works don't look 'real'. But capturing what is real has never been his intention. K. Chae only wants to photograph what he sees, as how he sees them in his own eyes. And the result is what you see here.

K. CHAE profile

Born in 1979, Incheon, South Korea, K. Chae started moving around in early age. In 1994 he followed his parents to Honduras for a year and half, and it was then he learned his first foreign language- Spanish. It was a unique place to get your bearings on what the 'foreign' world looked like, to say the least. But in retrospect, it all came back to help him as a photographer in the end.

In 1996 his family moved to New York. He graduated high shcool there, and was enrolled into Long Island University in Brooklyn in 1998. Having entered the school without setting on a major, he wasn't sure what he wanted to do with his life. Knew he wanted to be an artist. He tried out art major for a semester, but he never was good at drawing with his hands. However it was a black and white film class he took during that time that showed him a path. To him, it seemed a way to draw without actually drawing. It was the beginning of his life as a photographer.

He didn't immediately pursed photography as his profession however. There were many personal wanderings in between as he tried his hands on music, and then serving for his country in army. For five years he was out of school wandering about what to do with his life. In 2005 he finally returned back to school. Photography world was altered altogether with emergence of digital photography. He bought his first digital camera then, and renewed his love for photography. In 2007, K. finally graduated to earn B.A in Photography.

As a foreigner and a photography major, it wasn't easy getting a job in New York. K. returned back to South Korea after graduation and was hired by Grape Communications, one of Korea's top advertisement agencies at the time, and participated in making television advertisements for some of Korea's biggest brands as a CM Planner of the company for 2 years. But 9 to 5 job wasn't really something he could get used to. His passion for photography only continued to grow. In 2009 he resigned from the position to try becoming a professional photographer.

There are so many different types of photography. He never was inspired by what they call modern art photographers, however. Elliott Erwitt, Willy Ronis, Robert Frank.. those were the names. Old street photographers of 20th century. They traveled across the globe to take pictures, and that was what K. was intrigued by. He decided to photograph the world like they had, but not just as they did. He wanted to capture the world in his own unique ways. So began his lifelong project as a photographer, to photograph the world. Since 2009, he's traveled more than 70 countries, photographing hundreds of cities. However the project is still far from being completed. He hopes to photograph 100 plus countries in the end. To finish his life's work.

In between his photographic journeys K. Chae works in Seoul, South Korea. He's published 4 photography books, had 10 plus exhibitions in the past 10 years. K. also does commercial works in the meantime, his clients list including likes of Sony, Leica Korea, Kakao, Naver, Finnish Tourism Board, among others.