Documentary & People Photography From Korea’s Winter Sea: A Fisherman’s Story by Youngjun Song
Korean photographer Youngjun Song has been honored with both the Platinum Award and the prestigious title of Photo of the Season in the Documentary & People Photography – Lifestyle Photography category at the Best Photography Awards UK 2025 Autumn Season for his poetic and profoundly human work, the sincerity of a fisherman.
A full-time automotive engineer, Youngjun uses photography as a form of introspective travel—an artistic space to observe the overlooked rhythms of everyday life. His award-winning image centers on a solitary fisherman working in a winter seaweed farm, the vivid green of the crop glowing against a cold, muted ocean. The photograph elevates a simple act of labour into a study of dignity, resilience, and our enduring dependence on nature’s quiet generosity.
More than a documentary image, the work becomes a meditation on the rituals and sincerity embedded within human labour—an aspect of daily life often unseen yet essential to the world’s quiet functioning.
Interview
Q – Could you share the background and setting of this award-winning photo?
Youngjun: I work as an engineer in the automotive industry, but photography allows me to explore experimental expression through travel. During a rare winter holiday, I embarked on a long journey and encountered a seaweed farm glowing a vivid green, standing out against the cold, grey sea. This photograph reflects the purity and sincerity of human labour within nature, as well as the fresh, life-giving food it produces. Through the fisherman’s enduring effort against the biting winter wind and waves, the sea offers its gifts. Amid the vastness of the farm and the patience it demands, I aimed to capture the quiet dignity and resilience of those who live and work by the winter sea.
Q – Is there a particular detail in this photo that you especially love?
Youngjun: If the photograph had focused solely on the seaweed farm, it might have appeared flat and one-dimensional. However, the fisherman’s hands delicately tending each strand of green seaweed beneath the cold water allowed me to convey the emotional depth and quiet resilience of a life devoted to the sea.
Q – Did you have any specific inspiration or artistic concept in mind during the creation?
Youngjun: I believe that labour is sacred, and that through the fruits of our work, we are able to lead richer and more fulfilling lives. Through my photography, I hope to share and evoke empathy for the emotions and stories embedded in the labour of others.
Q – What do you hope viewers will feel or reflect upon when they see this photo?
Youngjun: Genuine individuals quietly devoted to their work exist everywhere. I see it as the photographer’s role to reveal the pure humanity and hopeful spirit expressed through their noble lives. Photography should not merely capture what is visible to the eye, but also express the emotion and soul of its subjects through a sensitive, humanistic perspective.
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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cafespace
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