Yunghi Kim

I had many odd jobs in college from cleaning houses to photography. 

My first job out of school in the summer of 1984, I was a lab technician for Edwin Land, the creator of Polaroid and the Land camera that revolutionized photography. You know the Polaroid instant film, that a lot of people are rediscovering today. I didn't realize it at the time but Edwin Land was sort of Thomas Edison of photography. 

This job was at his think thank called Rowland Institute for Science in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was a safe job with a paycheck every week. My photography professor referred me to the job, so I took it. I was just working with one other person in the state of the art lab and state of the art building. But the strange thing was I would go all day hardly seeing anyone.  

I even met Edwin Land in his office a couple of times, I recall he had a humongous Ansel Adams picture hanging in his oversized office. But after 3 months of working in Mr. Land’s lab, it felt like I was in an air-conditioned dungeon all day, I decided it wasn't for me, I wanted to be out in the streets and taking pictures. So I quit. I never looked back. 

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