PARIS DIARY - JEHSONG BAAK

PARIS DIARY
(1998 - Present)

Jehsong Baak, Train tracks, Paris 1998, Paris Diary — Train tracks, Paris 1998

Jehsong Baak, Wojtek, Paris 1999, Paris Diary — Wojtek, Paris 1999

Jehsong Baak, Elise and Oleg, Paris 1998, Paris Diary — Elise and Oleg, Paris 1998

Jehsong Baak, Anne chez Frederic, Paris 2008, Paris Diary — Anne chez Frederic, Paris 2008

Jehsong Baak, Hotel de Ville, Paris 2000, Paris Diary — Hotel de Ville, Paris 2000

Jehsong Baak, Cinema in St. Michel, Paris 2001, Paris Diary — Cinema in St. Michel, Paris 2001

Jehsong Baak, Boy in a cafe, Paris 1998, Paris Diary — Boy in a cafe, Paris 1998

Jehsong Baak, Danielle in metro, Paris 2004, Paris Diary — Danielle in metro, Paris 2004

Jehsong Baak, Anne Guersande, Paris 2005, Paris Diary — Anne Guersande, Paris 2005

Jehsong Baak, Delphine, Paris 2008, Paris Diary — Delphine, Paris 2008

Jehsong Baak, Danka, Paris 2002, Paris Diary — Danka, Paris 2002

Jehsong Baak, Manon, Bordeaux 2007, Paris Diary — Manon, Bordeaux 2007

Jehsong Baak, Untitled, Paris 2010, Paris Diary — Untitled, Paris 2010

Jehsong Baak, Sacha and his dog, Paris 2016, Paris Diary — Sacha and his dog, Paris 2016

Jehsong Baak, Thaïs and her father, Paris 2005, Paris Diary — Thaïs and her father, Paris 2005

Jehsong Baak, Danielle on balcony, Paris 2004, Paris Diary — Danielle on balcony, Paris 2004

Jehsong Baak-Man on a roof-Paris-black and white photography-night photography-window-view from a window-cityscape — Man on a roof, Paris 2019

In late 1997, I quit a job in New York working for an eccentric man from Texas who taught me how to do research for him on everything from stock market futures to precious metals and oil. Not what I was born to do in this world.

I had long had a secret desire to live in Paris, the land of Jean Valjean and Antoine Doinel. So in the spring of 1998, I arrived in Paris with two suitcases and my life savings (which would give me a year…if I were to live like Mahatma Gandhi). Here, I would become a photographer again. I needed to see if I had any more juice left to frame good pictures in the viewfinder and make them mine.

In Paris, I would not be Korean, nor American. I’d just be a foreigner, roaming the streets aimlessly at night, looking for fleeting fragments of beautiful light and soulful encounters with kindred spirits.

More than 20 years have already passed. I think it is time to make a book about this very long journey…a journey through the heart of la nuit parisienne.

PARIS DIARY(1998 - Present)

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PARIS DIARY
(1998 - Present)