SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- The San Francisco Foundation announced today that Soo Kim of Los Angeles, California is the winner of the 2013 John Gutmann Photography Fellowship, an annual award given to an emerging artist who exhibits professional accomplishment, serious artistic commitment, and need in the field of creative photography.

The prestigious award, established by the late photographer John Gutmann (1905-1998), and administered by The San Francisco Foundation, brings with it $7,500 to support the development of Kim’s creative work. Eminent photographers and curators Richard Misrach, Sandra S. Phillips, and Leland Rice were this year’s jurors.

“Soo Kim has been making original and distinctive work which the committee found the most original work submitted,” said Sandra S. Phillips, Gutmann Fellowship juror and senior curator of photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. “We are so happy to award this work with the prize it deserves.”

Kim is an artist and educator whose work has been exhibited in London, Seoul, The Hague, New York, and Los Angeles. Her works are in many public and private collections, including the Getty Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Albright-Knox Art gallery, and The Broad Foundation, among others. She is represented by Angles gallery, Los Angeles.

“I'm honored to be a recipient of the John Gutmann Photography Fellowship Award, and humbled to have been nominated and have my work recognized by the selection committee,” said Kim. “The award will allow me to continue my investigations of photographic and sculptural planes, and also help fund new experimental work.”

The jury also selected David Bush of Germantown, New York to receive an Honorable Mention and $2,500 award. Bush has been photographing for 20 years. At the age of 16 he built a darkroom in his parent’s basement and taught himself the basics from the back of a Kodak box. His work has been widely exhibited in galleries and museums across the United States.