Kim Ga-Min from Kyungil University Receives 2018 Leica Korea Award in the category of ‘New Artist Award’. The award was for expressing separation, loss, and comfort with paper "Gime" used in gut.

Leica, a 100-year-old German camera maker, selected Kim G-Min, a senior at Kyungil University as a winner of the ‘New Artist Award’ at the Leica Awards Korea 2018.

'Leica Awards Korea' is a contest that Leica Korea will make its own initiative this year to revitalize the domestic photography culture. It will be held annually for domestic artists on the same schedule with Leica Oskar Barnack Award, an international photo contest sponsored by the Leica Head Office.

Kim Ga-Min, who was selected as the winner of the first ‘New Artist Award’, is a student from the School of Photography and Motion picture at Kyungil University. In black and white photographs, she interprets the paper 'Gime', which is used in ‘gut’, the local customs of Jeju Island, as separation, loss, and comfort.

The solo exhibition of Kim Ga-Min was held from October 10 to November 10 in the Leica Store Gangnam. Leica Camera Korea will continue not only to promote the exhibition and the solo exhibition, but also to support winners’ activities.

The photographer, Kim Ga-Min was born in Jeju Island. She has loved photography since she was a child. She entered the School of Photography and Motion picture at Kyungil University in three attempts and will graduate next year.

One day, like fate, 'Gime' came into her heart. She started to search for materials and made it herself and visited the place where the gut was held.

The photographer, Kim Ga-Min said, "It was a time I thought about God and humanity, life and death, separation and comfort“. She revealed "I have been working on the theme of ‘Gime’ for a year on my belief that it can be a comfort for us living in the present".

When asked about her future plans, she said, "I am faithful to the school class during the weekdays and go to my hometown, Jeju Island, on the weekends to work on photography“. She emphasized, "In the photo field, I have a sense of duty to record Jeju Island as a junior of the late Kim Young-Kap who photographed Jeju throughout his life with passion”.