Humans of Jeju

Rooted in blues, folk, and rock, she has built a body of work that sings quietly but firmly about the textures of everyday life. Since her debut in 2005, she has spent two decades making music at her own pace, choosing her own language rather than following trends. Her low, resonant voice and restrained yet steady lyrics give her songs a lasting presence. In 2025, she released a special album marking the 20th anniversary of her debut. The album reflects both a careful look back on the road she has traveled and a clear intention to continue living and singing through music. Years of moving between the stage and daily life have shaped Kang Huh Dalrim into an artist of deeper focus and quiet strength.

Lael began making music after a self-written song video, shared during high school, unexpectedly drew attention. After becoming an adult, he set up his own workspace and taught himself how to write, record, and shape his sound independently. His music centers on melody and explores emotions tied to love, memory, and waiting. Both lyrics and melodies often begin with small moments from everyday life, developed through a largely solo process while actively incorporating feedback from others. Starting with his debut track “4AM,” and followed by the Christmas release “Dream of You,” he has translated personal stories into music. Looking ahead, he plans to expand his musical world through a long-term project that connects multiple EPs into a single narrative.

She is a haenyeo diving in Yeongrak ri, Daejeong eup, Jeju, and also works as an interpreter and translator. After graduating from haenyeo school in 2024, she knocked on the doors of several villages and is now part of the Yeongrak ri haenyeo community. As she learned to dive as a form of work, going farther and deeper beyond her fear and hesitation toward the sea, her decision to live as a haenyeo became clear. She says the work of a haenyeo is deeply personal, shaped by each diver’s breath and limits, yet always grounded in collective safety and responsibility, reflected in the rule that no one dives alone. Since becoming a haenyeo, she has worked as an interpreter on haenyeo related projects in collaboration with the Jeju Provincial Government’s Haenyeo Culture Division, and also served as an interpreter at the GIAHS certification ceremony held in Rome. She is now preparing an English language haenyeo podcast titled Haenyeo Hangout, exploring new ways to carry haenyeo stories farther into the world.

Born in Russia and now based in Jeju, she creates picture books as both a writer and illustrator. When she first encountered Jeju’s landscape, she began to wonder how she could faithfully capture the scenes before her, and that question opened a new direction in her work. After years of illustrating textbooks, she settled in Jeju with the desire to craft stories that unfold page by page in her own voice. Meeting the world of the haenyeo led her to observe the skills and presence of women who work in the sea, which grew into the Little Haenyeo series. The haenyeo she portrays are not symbolic figures but people shaped by real labor, real breath, and the passage of generations. Jeju’s light, wind, and terrain continue to offer subjects that return to her daily practice. She hopes to keep expanding Jeju’s stories in new forms and share them with readers in meaningful ways.

She bridges the original taste of cacao learned in Guatemala with the agricultural character of Jeju. The day her handmade chocolates and caramels sold out at Bellong Market, the intention to capture the essence of food in her products became unmistakable. Together with local merchants, she leads “Craft in Sehwa,” recording and expanding the village’s craftsmanship and culture in fresh ways. Through fair trade, she keeps practicing the value of connection, linking Korea and Guatemala, one family to another. Drawing on the care learned from raising five children, she hopes Jeju becomes a place where the next generation can grow their dreams, and she continues to build her brand with that belief.

Boo Hyemi grew up in a home where work songs and folk melodies were part of everyday life, making her path into Jeju’s traditional singing a natural one. Through the unique rhythms of Jeju’s work songs, she conveys the daily lives of women and the emotional landscape of the island. She is active with the Jeju Traditional Folk Song Preservation Association, the Hana Art Korean Traditional Performing Arts Group, and the Jeju Work Song Permanent Performance Team, bringing performances to schools and villages where audiences join her in simple refrains and gestures. By sharing the stories and emotions behind songs like “Eodo Sana” and “Manggeun Sori,” she offers encounters that feel closer to lived experience than passive listening. Recently, she has been exploring short-form videos and modern creative approaches to open Jeju’s sound to broader audiences. Looking ahead, she hopes to form a children’s folk ensemble in Jeju and create new songs that people everywhere can hum and carry with them.

She is a founder who connects scattered moments of “useful time” in the city, linking people with the spaces they need. Through SpaceCloud, Korea’s leading shared-space platform, she has enabled tens of thousands of places across the country to be used by the hour, turning the idea of a lighter, more accessible city into reality. Her starting point was the difficulty of finding meeting rooms during her first job, and today she works between Seoul and Jeju, collaborating with local partners while growing the value of spaces with her team. What began as a small experiment connecting a dozen friends’ spaces has expanded into a platform that now reaches the UK, helping users find the right place at the right moment, and helping hosts make use of unused time. She often describes space as “a business of selling time,” and continues to build fair, flexible access through technology. Looking ahead, she hopes to shape community-living projects in Jeju—places that embody a way of living together—and imagines the island becoming a destination for social developers from around the world. Moving between work and life, between local and global, she keeps designing spaces that grow more alive the more people use them.

Originally from Michigan, USA, Stefania teaches English in Jeju while continuing her artistic practice. After a major turning point in her life, she came to the island and has since been learning how to begin again amid its sea, forests, and changing seasons. She enjoys drawing and working with pastels, often depicting people in dreamlike scenes, believing that the act of working with color helps her find calm and make sense of life. As a teacher, she finds the greatest reward in her connection with students and is steadily preparing to pursue art education more deeply in the future. A vegan for nearly fourteen years, she carries her values into daily life through Jeju’s restaurants, traditional markets, and thrift shops. She especially loves nature-filled places like Gwakji and Hamdeok beaches, the trails of Jeolmul Forest, and the cherry blossom-lined streets near Jeju University. She believes that forming genuine connections, even in unfamiliar places, is what makes a city feel like home—and she continues to quietly write her next chapter here on the island.

Nine years after moving to Jeju, Iris has become someone who tells the island’s stories through color. Her studio, Color Lab Jeju, collects the hues found in the island’s nature—the blue of the sea, the green of the forest, and the earthy brown of volcanic soil—and transforms them into design, education, and everyday creations. For Iris, color is more than what we see; it is a language that connects emotions, memories, people, and nature. She has named the seas where Jeju’s haenyeo, or women divers, work—such as Halmang-badang—and continues to record their colors while guiding others to discover their own shades within nature. Through this work, Color Lab Jeju has come to be known as “a lab of empathy through color.” When someone reads the name of a color they’ve chosen and says, “This feels like my story,” Iris treasures that moment. She continues to record the changing light of Jeju, hoping that its colors will live on in the everyday lives of those who encounter them.

Jaeha Ahn and Yena Kim are science communicators who translate scientific ideas into everyday conversation in a uniquely engaging way. Located in Mureung-ri, Daejeong, Jeju, You In One is a science communication café that conveys the message that humans are part of nature, creating a space where people and the environment can learn together. Jaeha began his career studying insects and later expanded his focus to explore entire ecosystems as an ecologist, while Yena, a researcher in animal cognitive behavior, studied great apes and the emotional expressions shared between humans and primates. Sharing the belief that “science begins with everyday curiosity,” the two run youth education programs, exhibitions, and citizen science projects that connect closely with the local community. Among their projects, their projects Recorders of the Western Sea of Jeju and Citibat, a citizen bat-monitoring program, have drawn enthusiastic participation from both students and residents. Bridging science and art, people and nature, You In One continues to explore new ways of learning and communicating from a small village in Jeju.

She began her career in Seoul as both a teacher and a painter, but the pandemic prompted her to seek “a life with a little more room to breathe,” leading her to settle in Jeju. Now based in a small village on the island’s western coast, she continues to explore themes of nature, community, and self through her paintings. Using oils, oil bars, and gel stone, she creates textured works that carry the traces of emotion and memory. As a member of the artist collective My Dazzling Friends, she shares the joy of creation and the quiet healing that comes from making art together. In Jeju, she also teaches children and adults, often saying that “painting is another mother tongue.” After losing sight in one eye, she has come to see the world anew—translating recovery, love, and the simple joys of life into her art.

Erik Moynihan is the co-founder and CEO of Magpie Brewing Company, established in 2012. Born in Canada, he first came to Korea on a working holiday and later settled in Seoul, where he opened Magpie in Itaewon and Haebangchon as a community-centered beer space, becoming one of the pioneers of Korea’s craft beer movement. After founding the Jeju brewery in 2016, he relocated to the island with his family in 2023. He now lives in the village of Donghoecheon, enjoying a life close to nature with his two children, pets, and chickens. Erik describes Magpie as “a space for making and sharing together,” embracing an open culture where music, art, and food connect people. His signature Pale Ale remains one of Magpie’s most beloved and iconic beers. Looking ahead, he hopes to continue building a beer culture rooted in creativity, community, and harmony with Jeju’s natural environment.

A leading voice in preserving Jeju folk songs, she earned the title of myeongchang after winning the Grand Prize at the 26th National Folk Song Contest in 2009. Since 1997, she has studied under the late master singer Go Seong-ok and later opened a folk song class in Dongheung-dong, Seogwipo, to teach younger generations. She has also brought folk songs to local elders and welfare centers through lessons and volunteer performances, receiving a commendation from the Minister of Health and Welfare in 2011. She has guided community programs such as Seogwipo Cultural School and regularly appeared on stage with the Jeju Folk Song Preservation Association. Her voice carries the toil and sorrow of Jeju’s farming and fishing life, yet also the joy within it, keeping Jeju’s tradition alive today.

Choi Jong-ryong is a film director and screenwriter. His feature debut The Melody of Suyeon (Waterdrop) tells the story of children left alone in the world who struggle to protect themselves, and it drew attention by winning two awards at the 2023 Busan International Film Festival. Originally a literature major in creative writing, he spent years writing poetry before discovering filmmaking through an independent film collective. With his short film Journey (2019), he received production support and began his professional career. He later completed his first feature through extensive rehearsals and on-site work with child actors, in collaboration with cinematographer Kang Jong-su, capturing a sense of realism. His films challenge and invert the roles of parent and child, protector and protected, to ask what family truly means. At the heart of his work lies a desire for audiences to act as guardians for children on screen, while shining light on the unseen realities of those left in society’s blind spots. He is currently writing new feature scripts that expand his exploration of family stories, this time delving into the adult world through drama and thriller.

Based in Jeju, she focuses on fireflies as her main subject, capturing the nights of Gotjawal and the island’s forests. Her work conveys the ecology of nature and the life of light. In her exhibitions, she collaborates with local communities and practices responsible presentation. Each year she photographs during the short firefly season, and in the off-season she studies Jeju’s landscapes and habitats. Through her images, she seeks to offer comfort and hope by showing beings that shine on their own in the dark. She is now preparing her 2026 solo exhibition, Breath of Light, Awakening the Forest, with the goal of building a lasting archive of Jeju’s natural heritage.

Pianist Moon Hyojin and bandoneon player Rim Sinai are the musicians leading the ensemble “Mulbit” together. Moon Hyojin is a composer and performer who captures Jeju’s landscapes and history through music, presenting projects that embody the voices of haenyeo and messages of peace. With the Jeju Youth Chorus, she performed the “Peace Requiem” on international stages, and this September she has been invited to the cultural festival in Osnabrück, Germany’s city of peace, where she will present lectures, performances, and an exhibition. Rim Sinai pursues sounds that move the heart through the deep resonance of the bandoneon, expanding beyond tango to collaborations with traditional instruments such as the geomungo. Together, they reinterpret Jeju’s traditional sounds in contemporary ways and share them with the world, creating melodies that merge light and water, just as their name suggests. Their music carries Jeju’s stories while remaining an artistic experiment of respect, harmony, and creative expansion.

She is a planner who views coffee as a language. After years of working in Seoul’s specialty coffee industry and experiencing numerous brands and projects, she settled in Jeju in 2019 and began to explore what it means to create planning that allows people to live together. Seeking ways for Jeju’s small coffee brands to thrive sustainably, she initiated Korea Coffee Week. This event has grown into an experimental platform that shares sentiments and messages, rather than a conventional trade fair. Each year, under themes such as “Coffee Is Blue,” dozens of brands interpret coffee in their own ways and create one exhibition together. She describes planning as “observing values closely and delivering them more clearly.” Today, she runs Cosmos Coffee Company on the first floor of the Jeju Communication & Cooperation Center, where new encounters between coffee and the local community continue to unfold.

A Western painter and migrant haenyeo, she began diving about four years ago in Taeheung 2-ri, a seaside village in Namwon-eup, Seogwipo on the southern coast of Jeju. Her studies in painting took her from Chugye University for the Arts in Seoul to Chelsea College of Arts in London, and in 2021 she graduated from the 7th class of the Beophwan Haenyeo School. The following year, she joined the Taeheung 2-ri fishing village cooperative as an active diver. In 2023, her first solo exhibition in Jeju, How I Accidentally Became a Haenyeo, earned her the nickname “haenyeo artist.” Much of her work is grounded in photographs and records taken underwater, shifting perspective between the surface and the deep. The Commute series captures haenyeo walking across basalt rocks into the sea with their orange floats, or taewak. The Floating Island series reimagines the taewak as both a safe zone and a small cosmos, while the more recent Na Haenyeo series expands the body and breath of haenyeo into images of cosmic navigation.

He runs the channel "Jeju Eddy," sharing stories of Jeju travel and local life with 140,000 subscribers. Born and raised in Busan, he first came to Jeju in 2017 as a public health doctor, which began his connection with the island, and later he naturally decided to settle down here. His main profession is Korean medicine, and after working in local clinics during his military service, he opened his own clinic in 2023. While balancing the very different worlds of medical practice and video production, he continues to capture Jeju's landscapes, food, and daily life through continues to his content. From practical videos such as "Eight Reasons People Give Up Living in guides on local Jeju" to guides on local restaurants and travel courses, he offers information valuable to both residents and visitors. Looking ahead, he plans to keep creating videos that highlight the real charms of Jeju while also expanding into overseas travel content.

Kim Bo ram is a traditional singer who carries Jeju’s folk songs and labor songs into the present with a modern sensibility. She first came to the island in 2006 after graduating from university for a performance project, and in 2013 she settled permanently after marriage. At Seoul Institute of the Arts, she majored in traditional performance arts, studying samulnori, pungmul, and mask dance while internalizing the power of rhythm and beat. During college, a class in Gyeonggi folk songs led her onto the path of singing, and in Jeju she deepenred her practice under the guidance of the late master Go Seong-ok. Her debut at the Jeju Folk Song Contest, where she sang “Nangttabi Sori” and “Cholhong Aegi,” remains an unforgettable stage in her journey. Today she performs pieces like “Cholhong Aegi” on stages, in schools, and on the streets, while also creating new works that carry Jeju’s sound forward.