Release date: November 2026
Published by Session Press
Distributed in North America by Dashwood Books
First edition of 1,000 copies
Hardcover, 152 pages
Dimensions: 24 x 29 cm
Suggested retail price: $75
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Please contact Miwa Susuda / David Strettell with your orders or inquiries: msusuda@dashwoodbooks.com , dstrettell@dashwoodbooks.com
ISBN 979-8-234-03383-3
Dashwood Books Item #31137
Photographed throughout the early 2000s and composed entirely of previously unpublished works, Kid Echo revisits the world of adolescence first explored in Park’s acclaimed monograph Kid Nostalgia. Through a refined selection of direct encounters with his subjects, the publication celebrates Park’s extraordinary sensitivity toward portraiture. More than twenty years after all of these photographs were made, Park revisits the work with a deeper appreciation for its openness and emotional ambiguity.
Born in Seoul and educated in New York, Park studied both painting and photography at Pratt Institute before returning to Korea, where he began photographing teenagers he encountered throughout Seoul and its outskirts. During his years in New York, Park encountered the work of photographers such as Walker Evans, Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, and Diane Arbus, whose exhibitions shaped his understanding of photography as an expressive and psychological medium. He was equally influenced by French New Wave cinema, particularly the films of Jean-Luc Godard.
Rather than constructing a fixed social portrait of youth culture, Park photographed instinctively, drawn to subtle emotional tensions visible in posture, expression, and gaze. In an interview with writer and curator Marc Feustel included in the publication, Park reflects on his search for what he describes as “the moment of emotion,” inspired in part by Henri Cartier-Bresson’s notion of the “decisive moment.” For Park, however, the goal was not perfect composition or narrative clarity, but emotional presence: “I wanted them to be completely relaxed so their innocence could emerge.”
The emotional complexity of adolescence has long fascinated photographers around the world. Kid Echo resonates with the observational intimacy of Nigel Shafran, the emotionally charged portraits of adolescence found in Johan van der Keuken’s Wij zijn 17 (We Are 17), and the introspective emotional atmosphere explored in Yurie Nagashima’s Empty White Room.
In contrast to the lighter and more immediate physical sensibility of Kid Nostalgia, Kid Echo embraces a slower and more meditative viewing experience. Carefully edited by the artist himself and printed on a heavier matte paper stock, the book emphasizes tonal delicacy and emotional intimacy. While Kid Nostalgia interspersed straightforward portraits with fragmentary images such as back views, cropped body details, and atmospheric gestures, Kid Echo places greater focus on direct and frontal portraiture, allowing for a more sustained and intimate encounter with each subject.
Tender, instinctive, and emotionally unresolved, Kid Echo stands as a rare achievement in the history of youth portraiture, revealing the enduring vulnerability and emotional power of adolescence through Sung Jin Park’s singular photographic vision.
Design by Studio Lin
Text: Conversation with Wing Shya and Karen Smith
Interview: Marc Feustel, Paris, France
Editor: Susanna Chang, New York, NY