I am a documentary cinematographer with 20 years of production experience who specializes in cinéma vérité camera operation and filming in challenging conditions. I find a tremendous amount of satisfaction in collaborating with emerging directors with stories from underrepresented spaces, and have a keen interest in personal narrative docs. As a Korean-American, I have only known a life of transitioning across cultures, grappling with the liminality that ebbs and flows between moments of othering or belonging. It deeply informs my documentary cinematography where there is an ever-present tension between observing and participating, between objectivity and subjectivity, and it has honed my instincts and decision-making as a vérité operator--what I consider to be the most challenging work within the cinematic arts.
My projects have taken me across six continents, filming in demanding locations where a thoughtful, empathetic, and culturally informed approach to engagement with (and without) the camera is especially valued--places like Tibet, Venezuela, the Amazon, Chad, the Arctic Circle, the Navajo Nation, Russia, and Haiti. I also strongly believe in the local stories made in one's own neighborhood or even one's own living room.
I hold an MFA in Film from American University, where I focused on documentary and social change. I was a fellow for the Center for Media and Social Impact, as well as a research associate for the Center for Environmental Filmmaking. I have also worked extensively in higher education, where I regularly teach documentary production courses, and recently advised the production of a Student Academy Award nominated documentary. Along with my fine art degree, I hold an M.S. in Integrated Marketing Communications from Northwestern, which greatly informs my strategic thinking and planning as a storyteller and cultural worker who measures the value of his art not through a commercial lens but through its outreach efficacy and capacity to create meaningful public discourse. I am a proud member of both A-Doc and the Documentary Cinematographers Alliance.
