We asked a handful of our favorite people to look back at 2018 and remember it through the photographs they took. From i-D contributions to personal pictures of friends, family and strangers on the street, this is Yaeji: My Year in Photos.
Kathy Yaeji Lee is a 25-year old Korean-American musician, better known as Yaeji, or lovingly as Kraeji Yaeji. She captured our attention with her dreamlike electronic music, from Yaeji EP to EP2, and was featured in The Radical Issue last Spring. In her music, Yaeji embraces her Korean heritage — singing and rapping in both Korean and English — transcending language and exploring identity. “Whenever I write music, it’s so local and immediate and prominent for me,” she told us earlier this year. “It’s what I experience day-to-day.” Yaeji lives in Brooklyn, NY, where she first fell in love with the house music scene, but she’s spent much of the year on tour, performing at music festivals around the world.
Grandpa
My family and I stay in Tokyo for every new years. I was happy my grandpa is still healthy and can travel with us.
Will & Susie moved
Will and Susie are some of my first friends in New York. I documented their loft before they moved to the west coast. I used to come by when they were screen printing records.
Mom at the botanical garden
My mom visited me in NY and I took her to the botanical gardens for the first time.
Shoes
This house is always filled with friends, love, and laughter.
Dinner
We would cook dinner for each other. This is when Bao was visiting from Berlin. Our favorite group activity — Drawful — is in the background.
Squishies
We bulk ordered these from China. It’s squishy and cute and lives on top of my speakers now.
Serpentine
My most memorable performance of the year. I composed a 26-minute piece for a small intimate show in London for Serpentine Gallery. Everyone was blindfolded.
Homemade Korean food
I’m trying to cook more Korean food. I miss it a lot.
Stretching
From Sustain-Release.
Salenta’s Bubble Sax
Gas station toys became our main entertainment while on tour.
Enayet & Sunset
This was the first time we toured in a van. We shared many sunsets as a group together.
Fall Tour
My most comfortable-feeling and loving tour yet. So happy from sharing memories with friends and meeting with so many people who move to my music.