Daily rituals with Jiho

Nestled into the Waitakere Ranges, photographer Jiho Yun lives and works with her partner Sam Choi of Walk in the Park. Their home studio echoes their surroundings, a celebration of native wood and peacefulness. It is here we catch Jiho on her tea break, making delicious snacks in her yellow kitchen and then basking in the afternoon sun. 

On daily rituals
I am focusing on recovering my body's energy as it has been lost from bad diet habits and lack of exercise. 

My new ritual is, as soon as I get home after work, I chop some vegetables, put them in the oven, and go for an hours walk. I then dip into our pool to cool down. The vegetable are perfectly cooked and ready to eat after swimming. A light dinner and regular exercise definitely makes me feel nice and brings me more energy. 

My morning moment with tea

I sometimes sit and have a cup of tea in our glass conservatory, because the floor is same level as our garden and it makes me feel like I am sitting in the middle of the bush. It gives me a meditative moment, especially when the sun is falling down and evening breeze is coming through. 

On cooking at home
I really like to make everything simple; simple cooking methods, simple ingredients and simple flavours. 
Especially summer season vegetables, they are amazing both raw and cooked.
I normally prepare carrot, courgette and beetroot with the spiralizer and add some herb pesto, which I made out of herbs from our garden, then mix with leafy vegetable, nuts, lemon zest and juice. It is easy, quick and so delicious.

My favourite space at home

I absolutely love my tiny little kitchen. It's small in size, but has a unique arch-shaped window, from which you can see our garden, the surrounding bush and the city in view. I love its lemon yellow-coloured kitchen top and olive green tiles. These colours make everything beautiful and gives me a vibrant and positive energy. I cook here everyday, and also brew tea, kombucha, make pickles and kimchi.

The importance of being close to nature
I used to live in an apartment in a big city before moving in to New Zealand, and always craved greenery and the ocean. Now, living in New Zealand, I can see the forever changing organic surroundings without any extra effort. This certainly gives me a privileged feeling, like I am having a holiday after work! 

Growing my own organic herbs is becoming more and more necessary to me, they nourishes my table. 

On keeping a healthy lifestyle
I recently had bad back and menstrual pains, and found that I have a terrible habit of always standing on one leg or holding my bag on one side. Both of which eventually made my spine kink. These days, I am trying to move slower and listen to my body, practice using the energy of my body evenly.

On keeping creative endeavours fuelled
Although I have very narrow and limited hand skills, I often find myself making something with my hands. They are mostly things I haven’t tried to do before, like knitting, drawing, paper making, collage with scrap papers, and so on. I don’t necessarily want to make them all perfect, I am just very satisfied once I have figured out something new — things that look complicated to me like knitting a jumper. All of these little challenges give me a more varied view and helps me to build my own tastes.