When Documenting The Homeless, This Photographer Ended Up Finding Her Estranged Father

Credit: Diana Kim
Credit: Diana Kim

Sometimes in life, we lose touch with those who once held an important role in our past. Not all relationships are meant to last, and that truth was accepted long ago by photographer Diana Kim. So imagine the 30-year-old’s surprise when one day, while documenting Honolulu, Hawaii’s homeless population, she connected again with her father who had been absent from her life since five years of age…

When Kim was young, her father owned a photography studio and inspired in her the ambition to learn the same art. By the age of five years of age, however, her parents divorced, and eventually her father grew “distant”… until she lost touch with him completely.

As a university student in 2003, Kim began documenting Honolulu’s homeless population and has been doing it ever since. One day in 2012, though, her life changed. She spotted her father among the people she was photographing and decided to reach out to him. Though she tried talking to him, he wouldn’t respond.

Kim wasn’t deterred, however, and kept trying to engage him in conversation for a year and a half. Over that period of time, he was never able to make eye contact.

Credit: Diana Kim
Credit: Diana Kim

The artist documented their encounters in photos, and, when it seemed least meant to be, her father turned a corner and Kim was finally able to enroll him in mental health care.

Said Kim to NBC News:

“Our paths crossed for whatever reason. And I truly believe it was because were were truly meant to help each other and grow together.” 

The pictures from her father’s homeless days are stark black and white, but today, the pictures are in bright color, imbued with smiling faces.

Credit: Diana Kim
Credit: Diana Kim

Watch the video above, and read the entire article at NBC News here.

Diana and her father in 2015. Credit: Diana Kim
Diana and her father in 2015.
Credit: Diana Kim

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