Yunghi Kim

Yunghi Kim has covered some of the biggest international stories in the last 34 years. Kim came to the United States from her native South Korea at age 10. She graduated from Boston University in 1984 and began her career as a photographer at The Patriot Ledger in Quincy, Mass., before moving to The Boston Globe where she was a staff photographer for seven years. Kim was a member of Contact Press Images in 1995 to 2008 and currently is a special contributor. A turning point in Kim's career came in 1992 covering the famine in Somalia for The Boston Globe. She and a reporter were pinned down by heavy fighting and taken hostage by warlord Siad Hersey Morgan. Intervention by the United Nations and CARE resulted in their rescue after 13 hours in captivity. Kim returned to Somalia a few days later to complete her assignment, and again months later to cover the entry of US troops into the region. Her coverage of the Somali famine was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize that year.

Kim is most proud of her documentation of the lives of the former South Korean Comfort Women. These women, now grandmothers, were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese army during its occupation of Korea during World War II. In 1996 her photo essay was published all over the world and helped introduce the Comfort Women to the West. After publication, the Japanese government eventually issued a verbal apology to South Korea which included a promise to account for this atrocity for historic purposes in Japanese historical texts. Her work was the first intimate, behind the scenes profile of the grandmothers.

Kim has received some of the profession's highest accolades, it include World Press Photo Awards, Poyi awards including Magazine Photographer of the Year by POYi (one of two woman to receive it ), The Olivier Rebbot and The John Faber Awards from the Overseas Press Club, Visa D’Or for News from the Visa Pour L’image in France, The White House Press Photographers, Boston Press Photographers Association, Communication in Arts and Society for News Design, recipient of Distinguished Alumni Award from Boston University. Kim has also served as a speaker at the Nieman Narrative Journalism Conference at Harvard University. Past appointed member of NPPA Board of Directors (National Press Photographers Association), 2012 recipient of the United Nations' Leadership Award in the field of photography by The International Photographic Council.

Yunghi Grant

I walked into Iraq

Somalia: Heroes of Photography

Kang Duk-kyung, 67, dying from lung cancer. Here volunteers take her to a doctor's appointment. she is often too weak to get out of bed. Kang Duk-kyung felt rage after hearing the Japanese government on the TV news denying involvement in, or even
Son Pan-im was 17 when she and 10 other women from her village left for what they thought were jobs in Japan. She ended up on an island near Borneo, where she said she was forced to service 20 to 30 soldiers a day. After returning to Korea, she marri
Thousands of Korean women were lured or coerced to work in brothels serving the Japanese Imperial Army during the 1930s and ’40s. Park Ok-ryeon, 77, thought she was being recruited to work in a factory in Japan to do laundry and look after wounded so
Kim Soon-duk, 76, using acupuncture to relieve pain in her legs. She and three other Korean women lived together in a basement apartment in Seoul. They grew up in poor village families and were promised good jobs during World War II with the Japanese
On a Chilly January day Kim Soon-duk , 76, protests outside the Japanese Embassy in Seoul. Every Wednesday since 1992 she and other comfort women have stood outside the Embassy picketing Japanese involvement in Coercing her and other women into sexu
Son Pan-im 68 sits in her living room/kitchen area. Behind her is a painting by Korean artist Lee Kyoung Shin depicting how Comfort Women were taken from their families.
2004 Widow, Kabul, Afghanistan. Miriam, 36, lost her husband at the hands of the Taliban in 2000. She found out he was dead when his body was dropped off at their house. About four months later, her eldest son died of an epileptic-like illness. Finan
Goma Zaire 1994. Nyirakamari Nzajyibukama, 10, finds a bit of joy singing a Rwandan song while resting on a tree stump. She was with her family gathering wood near Kibumba camp.
1996 Journey Home. Yolanda Mugeni hugs her mother-in-law Angeline Iradukunda upon her arrival at the family home in Rhuengeri, Rwanda, after two years in exile in neighboring Zaire. Yolanda’s journey started two weeks before. Her husband was among t
1996 journey Home: Rwandan Refugees Journey home. Looted and abandoned Mugungu Refugees camp, known to be the world’s largest refugee camp. A refugee plays a found guitar. In 1996, the deadliest refugee crisis came to an abrupt close as hundreds of t
1996 Journey Home: .Refugees journey home through the Rwandan mountains. Many would walk for weeks. In 1996, a deadly refugee crisis came to a close as hundreds of thousands of beleaguered Rwandans began their journey home to Rwanda. The two-year l
1992, a glimpse of daily life in Dominican Republic. A girl proudly displays her family’s dinner. Town of Tamayo.
1987 North/ South Korea border. A North Korean soldier at a demilitarized zone, Panmunjom. Joint security area between North and South Korea.
1999 Kosovo War. A family rests in a safe house during their journey in Macedonia. Albanian families in Macedonia set up an underground smuggling network to help refugees to blend into the border town of Likova. To help thousands stuck in the Blace,
1999 Kosovo War. Macedonian soldiers with batang intimidate women at the Blace, no-man's land between Kosovo and Macedonia. The Macedonians authors did not want an influx of refugees in their backyard.
1999 Kosovo War. Osmond Geci, 12 years old, with two-year-old Naim in their cozy new make-shift home. When the far was over, the family came home to find their house destroyed. The only thing left standing was a storage shed, which they gladly clean
199 Kosovo War. Osman Geci, 12 years old, with two -year old Naim in their cozy new makeshift home. All seven sleep on the floor. For a year living like a nomad, roaming, and hiding, waiting for the war to end. He came home to find his house destroye
Peshewar, Pakistan 2001. Two Afghan refugee girls at play near Nasser Baugh refugee camp, Peshawar.
2001 Peshawar, Pakistan. A boy sleeps as women in his family sit and chat. An area that has a large Afghan refugees.
April 10, 2003, Northern Iraq. Kurdish Peshmerga took over the strategic oil-rich city of Kirkuk, aided by Americans. Looting in the streets as a father and daughter walk by a bank building is on fire.
1998 Jakarta, Indonesia. 7000 people shift through garbage dump looking for scraps to sell. Plastic noodle wrappers are prized items; they can fetch up to 15 cents for 10 noodle wrappers. Millions of Indonesians suffered through the country’s worst
1985, On the 200th birthday of the town of Milton, Massachusetts. Participant of the ceremony is photographed through a doorway window.
Mourning Freddie Gray April 28, 2015. Men mourn the death of Freddie Gray at a protest in West Baltimore. Gray died from a spinal cord injury sustained while in police custody. A string of police-involved shootings and brutality claims have launched
2014 Coney Island Winter. Coney Island Winter: Festivities leading up to Halloween on the boardwalk.
1992, Summer weather feature photo, Dorchester MA.
1991, With AIDS, Dean Knott, was preparing for suicide. In 1990, it was pretty much a death sentence if you were diagnosed with AIDS. Treatments to manage the disease came later.
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