“Night to Shine,” Photo by Yehyun Kim, MA ’19.
Dec. 16, 2020
Yehyun Kim, MA ’19, was recently named the 75th College Photographer of the Year. She’s the first Mizzou student to win the top honor since 2000.
This year’s international competition was “an amazing showing” for the school’s photojournalism program, said Jackie Bell, director of the competition and an associate professor in the photojournalism sequence. Four undergraduates and three graduate students won 13 awards in nine categories, which included Spot News, Portrait and The COVID Experience. Kim won gold in Portfolio, which secured her the title. She also won an award of excellence in the Domestic Picture Story category.
Today, Kim is a member of the 2020-21 class of Report for America, which placed her with the nonprofit CT Mirror in Connecticut. “I consider this job a great opportunity to grow into a photojournalist who creates compelling visual work.”
Whether Kim is telling visual stories in Connecticut or Columbia, she takes the Missouri Method with her.
“The Missouri Method of learning-by-doing has helped me establish the foundation as a journalist,” said Kim, who was a staff photojournalist and reporter for the Columbia Missourian during graduate school. “Accuracy was highlighted through the fact-checking routine required for all reporters. Volunteering to photograph high school football games, I also learned to work under deadline pressure.”
Judging for the 75th College Photographer of the Year concluded on Nov. 1. Judges reviewed nearly 10,000 images and multimedia projects submitted by 569 student photographers from 129 colleges and universities in 29 countries.
