Hyunmin Jeon
- Anna Lilli Garai
- Apr 26
- 4 min read
Updated: Apr 29
Hyunmin Jeon spends his weekdays writing code and his weekends chasing light. Photography started as a way to slow down, to notice the details in everyday scenes that most people miss. A shadow on a wall, a shape in a window, the way someone walks into a frame—these are the moments that catch his eye. His background in coding gives him structure, but his photos are all about feeling. There’s order in his compositions. Each image is about balance, timing, and trusting what he sees. For Hyunmin, taking photos is about paying attention to the small things that are already there.
Q: Your photos strip things down. What usually catches your eye first?
A: I'd say for the most part it comes down to two cases. The first being when I notice a compositional element that I feel would make for an interesting photo, such as areas of high contrast between light and shadow, mirrors, and so on. From there, I proceed to wait for the right subject to fall into the right place within my frame, and try to capture that moment. The second is when I just take in the scene in front of my eyes in its entirety, with everything already seeming to have fallen into place. All I do from there is try to eternalize that moment in front of me, so that others can see it through my point of view.
Q: You’ve said photography helps filter the world. What kind of noise are you trying to quiet?
A: The motivation for me starting photography in the first place was because I felt I needed a perspective shift. I was getting so obsessed with trying to search for something new to bring me the happiness that I was looking for that I looked past what was already in front of me. I felt that I could use photography to filter out the boring and mundane aspects that everyone associates with everyday life and show how beautiful it can be.
Q: Your background is in code. Has that shaped how you see the street?
A: I think that having a career as a software engineer makes me want to be more creative, and push myself to think more unconventionally when I go out to shoot photos.
After being stuck in a chair coding for five days a week, I definitely want to spend my weekends focusing on the more artistic side of things. But personally, I feel that having that contrast is a good thing, since having experience being on both ends of the stick makes me appreciate the other that much more, since I know and can appreciate how different it is. I'll be honest though, I can't say it's made me appreciate coding any more than I already did before, but at least it pushes me to try to get out there and be more creative!
Q: There’s a strange order in your compositions — tight, but never too clean. How do you know when to stop?
A: To me, ideally in street photography, there is always some element that makes it clear that the photograph comes from a raw moment. Where through the photographer's efforts and vision, they create an image that almost seems staged, but the viewer can tell that it is candid.
I feel like that is where the charm of street photographs comes from, and it is something that I strive to accomplish with my images.
At least for myself, I can't say there's a surefire way for me to capture an image I am satisfied with, but I always try to make sure first and foremost that the image captures a natural, authentic moment.
Q: Some images feel like they’re holding something back. What’s your take on what stays out of frame?
A: I think that everything in your image should either add to or work harmoniously with everything else in your photo to create the final product. I find that if I try to force an image to work, I get this weird sense of something that feels like vertigo when looking at it later, with the image giving me an unbalanced feeling. But I feel that sometimes I play it too safe, and that there is still a lot more for me to improve on.
I want to work on being able to be in chaotic scenarios and find the balance within them, capturing images that work even with a lot going on in the frame.
Q: What keeps you going back out to shoot, even on days when nothing clicks?
A: I like to apply a greater philosophy that I use for life in general to situations like this, where I face being discouraged because there was a day where nothing worked out the way I wanted it to. My pursuit of photography isn't something that has to be bounded to a timeline, where if I don't accomplish something by a certain deadline, I've failed and now my journey is over. I really only have failed if I give up, but as long as I keep trying I will create art that I can be proud of. This is something that I have ingrained as a way of life for me, and allows me to continue with my passions even when I am struggling with them.
