©Moonsung Lee, Untitled, from the series Still Lifes from Home, 2023

I discovered the work of Moonsung Lee shortly after quarantine lifted during the COVID pandemic—when a sense of temporal space and spatial aspects of time seemed to overlap and intertwine. For example, the curtailment of physical mobility coincided with my social world broadening via Zoom and Instagram, which allowed access to focused study and worlds of community. For someone like me, possessed by shyness and a ravenous mind, the connection and quietude resulting from these circumstances made encountering Moonsung Lee’s images a revelation. His close observation, aesthetic elevation of the mundane, and direct and measured ways of seeing seem, similarly, to expand and bundle facets of time, space and atmosphere within each other—like an ongoing process of cultivating meditation.

©Moonsung Lee, Untitled, from the series Domestic Photographs, 2026

Please tell us your name, where you are from, where you work, etc.

My name is Moonsung Lee. I was born and raised in Seoul, South Korea. I moved to the U.S. in 2007 to study animation. Until 2024, I spent about 17 years as a character animator and layout artist (CGI cinematography) in the Cinematics department at Blizzard Entertainment. I now run a bakery with my wife.

I work within the tradition of straight photography and lyric documentary. I began taking photography seriously in 2023.

©Moonsung Lee, Untitled, from the series South of Orange, 2024

What kind of training, formal or informal if any, have you received?

No formal training in photography. I hold a BFA in Illustration/Animation. I’m exploring and curious to see where the work leads.

©Moonsung Lee, Gee Family Portrait, 2023

In what fields, and by whom, are you influenced, directly and indirectly, and why?

Straight photography and Lyrical Attentiveness: Walker Evans, William Eggleston, Stephen Shore, Joel Sternfeld, and the Düsseldorf School (Bernd and Hilla Becher, Thomas Struth, Simone Nieweg, Bernhard Fuchs, Laurenz Berges, etc.). More recently, Imagist and Objectivist poets, especially William Carlos Williams, whose approach to the poetic image closely parallels how I think about photography.

©Moonsung Lee, Untitled, from the series Domestic Photographs, 2025

What types of investigations, methods and subject matter does your work explore?

The transformative power of photography when applied to mundane, overlooked, and aesthetically unremarkable subjects. I want to confront them directly and describe them in as much detail as possible, which is why I work in medium and large formats.

© Moonsung Lee, Untitled, from the series Still Lifes from Home, 2023

Within what contexts does your work exist (books, print, digital, virtual, social media, etc.)?

Social media, prints, and zines.

©Moonsung Lee, Untitled, from the series South of Orange, 2023

Has this shifted over time, in terms of circulation, communication, technical and production values?

Not significantly.

©Moonsung Lee, Untitled, from the series South of Orange, 2026

How do these considerations impact what, how and why you make what you do?

When pre-visualizing a shot, I imagine it on the page of a photo book.

©Moonsung Lee, Untitled, from the series Domestic Photographs, 2026

What audiences do you have in mind when producing work?

People who appreciate photography as a distinct art medium in its own right.

©Moonsung Lee, Untitled, from the series Still Lifes from Home, 2023

Does this shift once a series or body of work is completed?

No.

©Moonsung Lee, Parking Lot in Yongsan, 2026

I have three ongoing projects started in 2023, and I am not sure how long they will take.

©Moonsung Lee, Untitled, from the series Still Lifes from Home, 2023

Do you physically or virtually show your work (e.g., in New York, San Diego, online, etc.)

Regularly on Instagram, as well as submitting to various open calls and group exhibitions.

©Moonsung Lee, Lamps Plus, from the series South of Orange, 2023

What is the cultural landscape like in which you function (e.g., commercial galleries, academic institutions, non-profit organizations, artist collectives, social media, etc.)?

Mostly social media, alongside growing involvement with local photography associations.

©Moonsung Lee, Untitled, 2026

What level of visual literacy and art historical knowledge would you say is useful in understanding or appreciating your work?

A basic grounding in modern fine art photographic history helps place where I am coming from and what I am after.

©Moonsung Lee, Untitled, from the series South of Orange, 2023

Is there linkage between world and local politics, or pop culture within your work?

Not significantly.

Within what contexts do you wish for your work to be circulated?

Exhibitions and publications (books or zines).

©Moonsung Lee, Untitled, 2026

What kinds of questions would you find interesting in being asked?

The medium of photography itself; Continuing a tradition rather than inventing a new one or chasing a trend; What we consider beautiful or ugly…