We were lucky to catch up with Valerie Y O Kim recently and have shared our conversation below.

Valerie Y O, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

In 1987, in Hawaii, I was presented with a dilemna. Soviet and American children wanted to have their Peace Camp and were looking for resources to make it happen. The American organizing group, called the Youth Ambassadors, were out of Washington State, with friends on Maui, Hawaii and all over the US.

The children’s intention was to create deep friendships as youth, so that they would never grow up to be enemies. This was occurring as the US and the USSR emerged from the Cold War. Peace Talks were scheduled with General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and US President Ronald Reagan in the fall of 1987.

I was a freelance photographer, also doing production work in the film business that came to Hawaii. I decided to make a film about the children to help raise money and awareness of their efforts.

I went to Los Angeles to find companies and crew who would offer their services for credit…for peacemaking. Soon we had a producing team gathering donations for camera equipment, grip and electrical equipment as well as truck rentals. Everything else went on our credit cards.

We followed the children from Los Angeles to San Diego, and on to San Francisco. We then flew to New York City to pick up other crew to cover the children’s efforts. We arranged to record the children at Disneyland, and we arranged for shopping for shoes for the Soviet children in American department stores . We recorded the children discussing commonalities and differences in their cultures and we interviewed Americans watching the process. We called the film “Waging Peace,” a term coined by an American child in letters to Soviet children. It was quite a campaign.

We took a year to post the film, having to raise more money and services for post-production which included film processing and sound work, making video transfers, color corrections, editorial and other post-production services and music. It took a long time to pay off our credit cards, even with the tremendous donations we received.

We ended up with a 25-minute film, which we gave to the Youth Ambassadors to use to raise money and awareness.

Given the current state between our two countries, who can say if taking this risk paid off. We did create an awareness within the film community and hopefully in the wider community of what the children were doing. We found a vast community of like-minded film crew and companies who all desired peace. And we helped expand the influence of the children’s efforts thirty-five years ago.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I was born and raised in Hawaii, and lived in Los Angeles, working in the film business for 20+ years.

Keeping in mind, a sense of a wider community, I have a focus that is beauty-based, that comes from an interior emotional place. When shooting commercially, I help clients to hone in on their own significance, to find the relevance in their products and desires with their target community.

The emphasis of my work is now on fine art. During this time of overwhelming change, security has been shaken. What we knew as true has come apart. What has happened? This inquiry is my focal point.

My practice brings me into the present moment. I explore my interior world and I am often surprised.

I look for a larger view. In my current series, “Brilliance of Now,” I tap into portraits, adding personal narratives to nature. Here I create more spacious dialogues between us. Here I cross into an ephemeral dimension. Keeping the emotional borders geometric, the stories become translucent. I am creating visual fairy tales, bringing human life and earth together in a single frame.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

After making the film “Waging Peace” I realized I could either pursue a creative career in film; directing, or writing where the aspects of making money would be secondary to the creative pursuit. I realized that I needed to satisfy my survival needs first, to make a living wage.

I have a Masters Degree in Public Health and had worked in the Mental Health field and I had wanted to go back to school in art or film. Instead I took jobs in the film industry, eventually becoming a Union 399 Location Manager working on large-scale films in Los Angeles. In this pivot, I was able to  create personal work between films, leading to solo exhibitions and group shows of fine art photography.

Working as a Location Manager afforded me the practical costs of mounting shows in equipment, printing, framing, and developing the work in workshops. This also afforded me the opportunity to learn practical management and budgeting on film sets and to ultimately work with creatives on large-scale projects.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

For me, the most treasured aspect of being a creative person is the opportunity for exploration. It is a privilege to spend time in practice, watching the inner wilderness and to juggle this with the reality of living on this planet. It is consistently amazing, and a journey filled with small miracles and joyful connections. It is a life of constant discovery and new skills.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.valyokim.com
• Instagram: val_kim_studio
• Facebook: Valerie Kim or Valerie Y O Kim
• Linkedin: val kim
• Other: https://vimeo.com/345087586?embedded=true&source=vimeo_logo&owner=89520394

Image Credits
All images by Valerie Y O Kim