The big picture: Seungho Kim’s ‘perfect’ fried egg

It could be viewed as a face-off between two elements vying for primacy in South Korean households. Since 1960 the country’s fertility rate has been in freefall, plunging from 5.99 to an all-time low of 0.72 in 2023. Fewer women are having children – for reasons including spiralling housing and childcare costs, and career pressures – while many couples are refocusing their love and attention on pets. In 2024, pet carriers outsold pushchairs for babies.

The photographer Seungho Kim was heading this way too: he and his wife adopted a dog as they entered their 40s, “as many other childless couples do”. Then his wife unexpectedly fell pregnant, and in March 2024 their daughter Sun was born. Suddenly the pomeranian had to share his space with a fast-growing girl who Kim describes as “a passionate personality, much like a radiant little sun”.

Their dynamic is at the heart of Kim’s lovely, funny new series Sunny Side Up, which is a finalist in this year’s Sony World Photography awards. In an email exchange, Kim described it as a celebration of ordinariness and an antidote to K-Pop glitz and glamour. “While I aspire to document social phenomena in Korea, I find myself focusing more on my immediate surroundings due to the daily reality of raising my daughter.”

In this instance, Kim, a novice cook, was “taking a commemorative photo of a perfectly shaped sunny-side-up egg, which seemed to spark the curiosity of both my daughter and our dog. hey eventually popped that beautiful yolk.” (He doesn’t specify which of the two was responsible for the popping.)

Since 2023 the birth rate in South Korea has rebounded slightly and Kim believes that, “just as I did, many young people are choosing marriage and parenthood later in life after a period of contemplation”. He hopes the series paints an appealing picture of this life choice for those who remain undecided. “I want to tell the young people who worry they can’t achieve the ‘best’ version of a family that building a n ordinary, even slightly imperfect family is still a deeply meaningful and worthy endeavour.” 

Seungho Kim is a finalist in the Professional competition, Sony World Photography awards 2026 exhibition at Somerset House, from 17 April to 4 May. The promo code OBSERVER15 can be used to redeem a 15% discount on tickets to the exhibition