Leo Kim Photograph Collection
Collection
Identifier: Photo 2145
Scope and Contents
The photography collection of Leo Kim provides a history of his work from 1967 to 2010. It gives viewers a look at the various types of photography he would use professionally showing the growth of his specific photographic vision in areas of photojournalism, editorial, sports, architecture, portraits, and product photography. From his time in Europe how he lived and what he saw to the contrast he saw and experienced in the U.S. that greatly influenced his overall vision. It also shows the type of photography he would use in his personal work producing fine art, landscape, minimalism photography with emphasis in design elements. The collection includes personal images of Leo as a young boy, family pictures of his mother, sister, and two brothers with the remainder of the collection displaying his work as a photographer through those years just before his death providing a well rounded view of his life and career.
The collection starts with the early years of Leo Kim and his family followed by his time at NDSU, his short time at Standing Rock Indian Reservation, his work with The Fargo Forum Newspaper, and working at Lutheran Hospital and Homes then on to creating his own photography business that he started in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
In this collection you will see examples of Leo Kim intentionally using light and shadow, composition, movement, lines and patterns to create his images. Darkroom techniques such as dodging and burning that would make an area of a print darker or lighter. He would use all of these elements when creating photographic images as well as his meticulous attention to detail in all aspects of the photographic process. Ranging from camera equipment, film, composition, to the final printed image. Leo would print the majority of his images on Moab Entrada Fine Art paper but also used resin coated papers as well. Leo had great patients in letting a scene mature and develop before taking the picture as evident in his two published books North Dakota Prairie Landscape and St. Paul Serenity. Highlights from the collection would be his North Dakota Prairie Landscape prints, St. Paul Serenity prints, Still Life and Abstract prints, Commercial work such as the Zubaz Sport Pants photo shoot, the Allen Brady Manufacturing images and his Portrait work.
The collection has been arranged into three major categories. Prints, Negatives, Slides and Transparencies.
The Print Series contains black and white and color prints of various sizes and starts with the early years of Leo and his family which include pictures of the family in Hong Kong, Macao, Austria and Germany. The series continues with his arrival to the United States starting with the Fargo Years 1969-1985, Minneapolis and St. Paul Years 1985-2019, Commercial Photography, HealthCare, Portraits, Unidentified People, Minneapolis and St. Paul Winter, St. Paul Buildings, Black and White Abstract Prints, Color Abstract Prints, Germany, Friends of Leo Kim, Oversized Prints, Oversized North Dakota Prairie Landscape Prints, Oversized St. Paul Serenity Prints, Oversized Still Life and Abstract Prints, North Dakota Prairie Landscape Signed Prints. There are other signed prints as well as prints he displayed for different photography exhibits. Where possible the prints have been cross referenced with the negatives or slides and transparencies.
The Negative Series contains various negative sizes from 35mm, 120mm, to 4x5 inches. This would be the type of films Leo would use from 1969 to approximately (2009) when Leo switched to digital photography using a digital DSLR camera. In the collection are negatives of Leo Kim’s Early Years, The Fargo Forum 1972-1973, North Dakota, NDSU, Fargo, HealthCare, Portraits, Unidentified People, Commercial Photography, Still Life and Abstracts, Travel, Friends of Leo Kim, North Dakota Prairie Landscape Original Negatives. Where possible the negatives have been cross referenced with the prints.
The Slide and Transparency Series contains various film sizes from 35mm, 120mm, to 4x5 inch films. It starts with Motor Cross Racing and Formula 1 Auto Racing taken in Germany in late 1960’s. Then to Farming, Minneapolis Cityscape and Architecture, St. Paul Cityscape and Architecture, HealthCare, Portraits, Commercial Photography, Still Life and Abstract Images, Various Countries, Friends of Leo Kim, North Dakota, Other States, and Alaska. Where possible the slides and transparencies have been cross referenced with the prints.
Note: due to a numbering error, boxes 2 to 13 do not have a folder 1.
The collection starts with the early years of Leo Kim and his family followed by his time at NDSU, his short time at Standing Rock Indian Reservation, his work with The Fargo Forum Newspaper, and working at Lutheran Hospital and Homes then on to creating his own photography business that he started in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
In this collection you will see examples of Leo Kim intentionally using light and shadow, composition, movement, lines and patterns to create his images. Darkroom techniques such as dodging and burning that would make an area of a print darker or lighter. He would use all of these elements when creating photographic images as well as his meticulous attention to detail in all aspects of the photographic process. Ranging from camera equipment, film, composition, to the final printed image. Leo would print the majority of his images on Moab Entrada Fine Art paper but also used resin coated papers as well. Leo had great patients in letting a scene mature and develop before taking the picture as evident in his two published books North Dakota Prairie Landscape and St. Paul Serenity. Highlights from the collection would be his North Dakota Prairie Landscape prints, St. Paul Serenity prints, Still Life and Abstract prints, Commercial work such as the Zubaz Sport Pants photo shoot, the Allen Brady Manufacturing images and his Portrait work.
The collection has been arranged into three major categories. Prints, Negatives, Slides and Transparencies.
The Print Series contains black and white and color prints of various sizes and starts with the early years of Leo and his family which include pictures of the family in Hong Kong, Macao, Austria and Germany. The series continues with his arrival to the United States starting with the Fargo Years 1969-1985, Minneapolis and St. Paul Years 1985-2019, Commercial Photography, HealthCare, Portraits, Unidentified People, Minneapolis and St. Paul Winter, St. Paul Buildings, Black and White Abstract Prints, Color Abstract Prints, Germany, Friends of Leo Kim, Oversized Prints, Oversized North Dakota Prairie Landscape Prints, Oversized St. Paul Serenity Prints, Oversized Still Life and Abstract Prints, North Dakota Prairie Landscape Signed Prints. There are other signed prints as well as prints he displayed for different photography exhibits. Where possible the prints have been cross referenced with the negatives or slides and transparencies.
The Negative Series contains various negative sizes from 35mm, 120mm, to 4x5 inches. This would be the type of films Leo would use from 1969 to approximately (2009) when Leo switched to digital photography using a digital DSLR camera. In the collection are negatives of Leo Kim’s Early Years, The Fargo Forum 1972-1973, North Dakota, NDSU, Fargo, HealthCare, Portraits, Unidentified People, Commercial Photography, Still Life and Abstracts, Travel, Friends of Leo Kim, North Dakota Prairie Landscape Original Negatives. Where possible the negatives have been cross referenced with the prints.
The Slide and Transparency Series contains various film sizes from 35mm, 120mm, to 4x5 inch films. It starts with Motor Cross Racing and Formula 1 Auto Racing taken in Germany in late 1960’s. Then to Farming, Minneapolis Cityscape and Architecture, St. Paul Cityscape and Architecture, HealthCare, Portraits, Commercial Photography, Still Life and Abstract Images, Various Countries, Friends of Leo Kim, North Dakota, Other States, and Alaska. Where possible the slides and transparencies have been cross referenced with the prints.
Note: due to a numbering error, boxes 2 to 13 do not have a folder 1.
Dates
- 1945 - 2018
Creator
- Kim, Leo, 1946- (Person)
Access
The collection is open under the rules and regulations of the NDSU Archives.
Copyrights
Copyrights to this collection are held by The North Dakota State University Archives.
Biography
Born to Korean parents in what was then, Japanese occupied Shanghai, China on January 19th, 1946, Leo Louis Kim’s early life had a bleak beginning. His parents had fled North Korea before the Korean War and had to also flee mainland China during the Communist Revolution. His father, Peter Kim, was a businessman who had died just a month before he was born. This left his mother, Cecilia Ling Kim, with four young children in a country where Koreans were not welcome. With the help of missionaries, the family made their way to the Portuguese colony of Macao after being instructed by the communist Chinese government to get out of the country. In 1956-with help from the Red Cross-the Kim’s were able to cross into Hong Kong. However, being a British colony at the time, authorities would not let them stay within its borders for longer than seventy-two hours. His mother had destroyed the family's Korean passports believing that it would increase their chances of securing political asylum in Hong Kong. Mistaken, she and her children were forced to shuttle between Hong Kong and Macao, trying to stay ahead of authorities and constantly re-applying for visas.
Forced to navigate through much of East Asia, Leo Kim had been exposed to several languages during his early primary education. The Kim’s spoke Korean at home; however, he had to change between several schools that were taught in French (first grade), Chinese (second & third), and Portuguese (fourth & fifth). He was not introduced to English until he entered the sixth grade. As a young adult, he continued to live and go to school in the Hong Kong and the Macao region. Roughly twenty years later on March 5th, 1966, British Airways commercial airliner flight crashed on Mt. Fuji in Japan shortly after take off from Tokyo. A total of 124 passengers lost their lives including Leo’s Mother. He had been waiting in Hong Kong to meet her when the news broke. He later received a telegram stating that authorities had positively identified his mother.
After his mother's death, Leo was able to join his older sister who was living and studying in Vienna, Austria. Having recently finished high school in Hong Kong, he enrolled at the University of Vienna to study German and art history. The classes, of course, were primarily taught in German, adding yet another language for Leo to decipher. Here he was exposed to the work of Henri Matisse, Henry Moore, and the colorful photographs of Ernst Has, which heavily influenced Leo’s own early photography. While the aforementioned artists inspired Leo's early work, his initial interest in photography did not come from them, but from language. Since Leo was forced around much of East Asia as a child, and parts of Europe in early adulthood, he had been exposed to and had to function in at least five different languages. Having not the time nor desire to master any of them, photography thus became his primary language. English remained relatively difficult for Leo even throughout his years in the United States.
Having lived and gone to school in Austria for a few years and running short on funds, he began looking at photographs of the United States. In 1969, and at the age of twenty-two, he decided to touch down in North Dakota. He chose North Dakota because of the advertised low cost of living, college tuition, and the wide-open spaces, compared to the cramped and overpopulated region of Macao. At the time, North Dakota had a total of 540,000 people in the entire state compared to Macao’s 58,000 per square mile. The serenity and peacefulness of the state left a lasting impression on him. He enrolled in the School of Science at Wahpeton in North Dakota before transferring to North Dakota State University, School of Architecture the following year. Early on he had thoughts of becoming an architect; however, it was here that his life-long hobby of photography- and his experiences studying different languages, art history, architecture, commercial photography, and photojournalism- culminated into the beginnings of his professional career.
He began by freelancing and taking pictures for The Spectrum. Around the same time, he was brought onto the 1971/1972 Bison Annual for designing, photography, and coediting. They employed him part time during the school year and full time during the summer. He continued his early work at The Forum as well as the editor of The Standing Rock Star in Fort Yates at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. After departing North Dakota State University, Leo Kim continued to support himself contracting as a professional photographer with his company, Leo & Associates. Many projects came through via referrals from previous projects he had worked on. One of which was in affiliation with Lutheran Hospitals and Homes in Fargo, North Dakota; where he helped produce several annual reports.
Having lived in the United States for nearly a decade, Leo Kim now age thirty-four, eventually met Beth Kristine Smith who was twenty-nine. They ended up marrying on May 3rd, 1980 in Fargo, North Dakota. Their marriage was short lived however, as the two divorced on November 10th, 1982. In 1985, Leo sold his house in North Dakota and eventually made his way to the Lowertown neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Here he set up his photography studio in an old John Deere engine factory. It featured two shooting bays, a small darkroom for personal workings and film loadings, and an office with lots of plants, of which he reportedly enjoyed caring for.
In Minneapolis, he continued with his corporate and commercial photography. Here he also experimented with still-life, abstract, and portrait photography. While his still-life and abstract photos were not always for assignments, he would always be experimenting with light, angles, exposure, and color. Many companies sought out Leo to gain a creative look at their company’s seemingly mundane products. One example was Quadon which was a company that used injection molded plastic, rubber, and aluminum die castings in consumer products. It was Leo’s job to shed a creative light on their products and use cases. Continuing in focusing his commercial efforts, he completed projects for companies like Dupont, Innovex, John Deere, Wells Fargo, Honeywell, Rockwell International, American Express, Mohawk Paper Mills, the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Chamber Music Society of Minnesota, University of Minnesota, and Fairview Hospitals of Minneapolis. He had also worked with Jo Davison, the creative director at the Edison Group in Minneapolis to produce a brochure for Bay West.
After years of balancing life events, and the competition of keeping hard-headed clients happy he decided to pack up again. He traveled to North Dakota to take on a new project. Between the years 1998 and 2002, he traveled around the entire state of North Dakota. Capturing its serene landscapes, he visited all 53 counties, 224 towns, and spoke with dozens of individuals in cafes, churches, and even in the middle of fields. In a journal, he kept track of some of his expenses and some parts of his adventure. Some of the stories and photos of the North Dakota countryside were compiled into the book in 2003 titled, North Dakota Prairie Landscape. He dedicated the book to the people of the state. Even though Leo deliberately kept people out of these photographs, there would certainly be evidence that people inhabited the land. His core focus with the book was to always find the beauty in the seemingly mundane and serene. This continued into his second legacy project-St. Paul Serenity. The final product for St. Paul Serenity was a book of 44 black-and-white photos that contained many of the city's natural parks and urban squares. The first edition was published in 2010. Leo ran a short campaign to fundraise for the book to help keep the work of publishing it in the local economy of Minneapolis.
By the end of Leo’s career, he had produced roughly 3,607 prints, 29,966 negatives, and 11,400 slides. In addition to all of his photos and finished projects, he kept many school notes, Christmas cards, and nearly every letter sent to him throughout his life. Many of his clients noted he would always leave a personal touch to whatever project he was working on and maintained close contact with them, often reaching out every six months to network. He seemingly preferred one-on-one contact rather than contact via email or similar medium. He was always noted to be very personable, humble, intelligent, and creative. Over the years, his work has been featured in various publications, such as the Photo District News, Photo Design, the Star Tribune, Stuttgart (Germany) monthly magazine, and Minnesota Public Radio. His work appeared in art galleries all throughout the Midwest and in parts of Europe, including the North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks and German American Institute Gallery in Heidelberg. His photography also garnered him several awards, such as the Gold Award for corporate photography from the Photo/Design magazine, New York, and many regional professional publications. He would always try to view what he was working on as if he were seeing it for the first time with no one to influence his perceptions. Leo Kim passed on August 18th, 2019, at the age of 73.
Forced to navigate through much of East Asia, Leo Kim had been exposed to several languages during his early primary education. The Kim’s spoke Korean at home; however, he had to change between several schools that were taught in French (first grade), Chinese (second & third), and Portuguese (fourth & fifth). He was not introduced to English until he entered the sixth grade. As a young adult, he continued to live and go to school in the Hong Kong and the Macao region. Roughly twenty years later on March 5th, 1966, British Airways commercial airliner flight crashed on Mt. Fuji in Japan shortly after take off from Tokyo. A total of 124 passengers lost their lives including Leo’s Mother. He had been waiting in Hong Kong to meet her when the news broke. He later received a telegram stating that authorities had positively identified his mother.
After his mother's death, Leo was able to join his older sister who was living and studying in Vienna, Austria. Having recently finished high school in Hong Kong, he enrolled at the University of Vienna to study German and art history. The classes, of course, were primarily taught in German, adding yet another language for Leo to decipher. Here he was exposed to the work of Henri Matisse, Henry Moore, and the colorful photographs of Ernst Has, which heavily influenced Leo’s own early photography. While the aforementioned artists inspired Leo's early work, his initial interest in photography did not come from them, but from language. Since Leo was forced around much of East Asia as a child, and parts of Europe in early adulthood, he had been exposed to and had to function in at least five different languages. Having not the time nor desire to master any of them, photography thus became his primary language. English remained relatively difficult for Leo even throughout his years in the United States.
Having lived and gone to school in Austria for a few years and running short on funds, he began looking at photographs of the United States. In 1969, and at the age of twenty-two, he decided to touch down in North Dakota. He chose North Dakota because of the advertised low cost of living, college tuition, and the wide-open spaces, compared to the cramped and overpopulated region of Macao. At the time, North Dakota had a total of 540,000 people in the entire state compared to Macao’s 58,000 per square mile. The serenity and peacefulness of the state left a lasting impression on him. He enrolled in the School of Science at Wahpeton in North Dakota before transferring to North Dakota State University, School of Architecture the following year. Early on he had thoughts of becoming an architect; however, it was here that his life-long hobby of photography- and his experiences studying different languages, art history, architecture, commercial photography, and photojournalism- culminated into the beginnings of his professional career.
He began by freelancing and taking pictures for The Spectrum. Around the same time, he was brought onto the 1971/1972 Bison Annual for designing, photography, and coediting. They employed him part time during the school year and full time during the summer. He continued his early work at The Forum as well as the editor of The Standing Rock Star in Fort Yates at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. After departing North Dakota State University, Leo Kim continued to support himself contracting as a professional photographer with his company, Leo & Associates. Many projects came through via referrals from previous projects he had worked on. One of which was in affiliation with Lutheran Hospitals and Homes in Fargo, North Dakota; where he helped produce several annual reports.
Having lived in the United States for nearly a decade, Leo Kim now age thirty-four, eventually met Beth Kristine Smith who was twenty-nine. They ended up marrying on May 3rd, 1980 in Fargo, North Dakota. Their marriage was short lived however, as the two divorced on November 10th, 1982. In 1985, Leo sold his house in North Dakota and eventually made his way to the Lowertown neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Here he set up his photography studio in an old John Deere engine factory. It featured two shooting bays, a small darkroom for personal workings and film loadings, and an office with lots of plants, of which he reportedly enjoyed caring for.
In Minneapolis, he continued with his corporate and commercial photography. Here he also experimented with still-life, abstract, and portrait photography. While his still-life and abstract photos were not always for assignments, he would always be experimenting with light, angles, exposure, and color. Many companies sought out Leo to gain a creative look at their company’s seemingly mundane products. One example was Quadon which was a company that used injection molded plastic, rubber, and aluminum die castings in consumer products. It was Leo’s job to shed a creative light on their products and use cases. Continuing in focusing his commercial efforts, he completed projects for companies like Dupont, Innovex, John Deere, Wells Fargo, Honeywell, Rockwell International, American Express, Mohawk Paper Mills, the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Chamber Music Society of Minnesota, University of Minnesota, and Fairview Hospitals of Minneapolis. He had also worked with Jo Davison, the creative director at the Edison Group in Minneapolis to produce a brochure for Bay West.
After years of balancing life events, and the competition of keeping hard-headed clients happy he decided to pack up again. He traveled to North Dakota to take on a new project. Between the years 1998 and 2002, he traveled around the entire state of North Dakota. Capturing its serene landscapes, he visited all 53 counties, 224 towns, and spoke with dozens of individuals in cafes, churches, and even in the middle of fields. In a journal, he kept track of some of his expenses and some parts of his adventure. Some of the stories and photos of the North Dakota countryside were compiled into the book in 2003 titled, North Dakota Prairie Landscape. He dedicated the book to the people of the state. Even though Leo deliberately kept people out of these photographs, there would certainly be evidence that people inhabited the land. His core focus with the book was to always find the beauty in the seemingly mundane and serene. This continued into his second legacy project-St. Paul Serenity. The final product for St. Paul Serenity was a book of 44 black-and-white photos that contained many of the city's natural parks and urban squares. The first edition was published in 2010. Leo ran a short campaign to fundraise for the book to help keep the work of publishing it in the local economy of Minneapolis.
By the end of Leo’s career, he had produced roughly 3,607 prints, 29,966 negatives, and 11,400 slides. In addition to all of his photos and finished projects, he kept many school notes, Christmas cards, and nearly every letter sent to him throughout his life. Many of his clients noted he would always leave a personal touch to whatever project he was working on and maintained close contact with them, often reaching out every six months to network. He seemingly preferred one-on-one contact rather than contact via email or similar medium. He was always noted to be very personable, humble, intelligent, and creative. Over the years, his work has been featured in various publications, such as the Photo District News, Photo Design, the Star Tribune, Stuttgart (Germany) monthly magazine, and Minnesota Public Radio. His work appeared in art galleries all throughout the Midwest and in parts of Europe, including the North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks and German American Institute Gallery in Heidelberg. His photography also garnered him several awards, such as the Gold Award for corporate photography from the Photo/Design magazine, New York, and many regional professional publications. He would always try to view what he was working on as if he were seeing it for the first time with no one to influence his perceptions. Leo Kim passed on August 18th, 2019, at the age of 73.
Extent
3607 Photographic Prints (3617 photographic prints)
29966 Photographic Negatives (29,966 negatives)
11400 Photographic Slides (11,400 slides )
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Photographic prints, negatives, slides, and digital files created by photographer Leo Kim. Commercial and artistic photography from his career set in North Dakota and Saint Paul, Minnesota. Also includes related notebooks, publications, correspondence and other materials related to his life and career.
Provenance
Donated by Mary Ruff (Acc. 2015-135irs)
Property rights
The North Dakota State University Archives owns the property rights to this collection.
Creator
- Kim, Leo, 1946- (Person)
- Title
- Finding Aid to the Leo Kim Photograph Collection
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Institute for Regional Studies Repository
Contact:
West Building N
3551 7th Avenue North
Fargo North Dakota 58102 United States
ndsu.archives@ndsu.edu
West Building N
3551 7th Avenue North
Fargo North Dakota 58102 United States
ndsu.archives@ndsu.edu