This was the first and last family portrait taken of my Mother’s family.

Pictured in the photo are (left to right) my grandfather (Gun Noh Kim), uncle (Nanichi Goto), grandmother (Hee Soon Park), and two little girls: aunt, Kyung Hee Kim and my mother, Young Hee Kim.

This was a tumultuous time for South Korea between the transition period of Japanese occupation and the precursor of the Korean War.

Both my grandparents passed away soon afterward, and my mother and aunt were raised by a nanny. My uncle then moved to Japan to escape the Korean War and lived the majority of his adult life in Japan.

This photo has been in an old album of my mother’s for many, many years. As a photographer, I find myself looking at many photos every day, including ones in our own family albums. Preserving them is near and dear to my heart. ~shared by @mandmphotographie