By Melissa Danzo, News Correspondent

Lan Kim, a 25-year-old sophomore graphic design major, has made most large decisions in his life based on whims. Acting on an impulse drove him to attend Northeastern, to take up photography, and, in what may be the most significant decision made thus far in his life, to join the Army.

Kim enrolled in the military at the age of 17, while he was a high school senior in Lowell.

“It just so happened I was walking around downtown Lowell and saw a recruiting station. But when I walked in, the Marine office was closed, the Air Force office was closed, and the Army didn’t appeal to me,” Kim said.

However, after an encounter with a recruiter outside the station, Kim went back in and signed a contract dedicating himself to military service for the next eight years.

Kim spent his tours of duty in two separate wars, serving in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He served in Iraq for 15 months throughout the surges of 2006-2007. During this time there was a dramatic increase in American involvement in terms of troops deployed to Iraq and a corresponding increase in lengths of tours for those already stationed there.

“Iraq was my personal hell,” Kim said. “Guys were being killed left and right; trucks were blown up in front of us. We were desensitized in Iraq, and I saw everything I could see.”

At that point, Kim knew he needed a change. His interest was sparked one day when one of his supervisors brought their camera to a mission.

“He brought his DSLR [camera] and showed me some basics of photography and I was thinking, ‘If I’m absorbing something new, obviously I’m interested.’”

Prior to that, Kim had no experience in photography, or any arts for that matter, beyond an aptitude for drawing as a kid. But after enduring the most treacherous months of his life in Iraq, he was willing to try anything different, especially something that had the potential to be enjoyable. So he signed a new four-year contract for the position of “Combat Camera,” finished up his tour in Iraq, and returned to America. He trained for his new appointment working for Army public affairs in photographic documentation of Special Operations soldiers.

That was the point where Kim said he saw a complete turnaround in his military experience. Following training he was deployed to Afghanistan and began his duties as photographer for Special Operations forces. He was no longer surrounded by the nonstop carnage of war, but rather a group of dauntingly physically fit men whom he was expected to keep up with so that he could photograph them.

The result is a series of incredible visuals of life on the front lines. Most of the released images Kim took capture the provinces surrounding Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. They span in subject from Special Operations soldiers working and conducting drills in the Afghani wilderness to more intimate images of soldiers searching private homes. Some images depict the practices that the soldiers were trained in to ensure the cultural values of Afghani civilians were respected.

Yet whenever asked about his photographs from his tour of duty, Kim is powerfully modest, insisting his main priority when in the field was keeping up with the guys he was photographing. He is hesitant to show off his work, but passionate about it nonetheless, citing his work with the military as the gateway that generated his interest in the arts and drove him to pursue a degree in graphic design.

“I see photography as a means to channel creativity,” Kim said. “From here I would like to diversify my abilities to better market myself for a good, fulfilling career. But I’m not there yet.”

Until he is “there,” Kim plans to continue to study at Northeastern and carry on his involvement with the university’s Student Veteran Organization, which gives him the opportunity to reach out not only to other veterans on campus, but also to students who do not know much about the military.

Life on a university campus can be difficult for veterans returning from service and going to school on the G.I. Bill.

Kim says that he knows a lot of other members of the SVO are very driven to get their degrees, but are in different phases of their lives than other undergraduates. While the average college student devotes a large amount of their energy to socialize, many student veterans already have families and other priorities, creating a divide between them and the general student body.

“To a certain extent, I do feel the disconnect, like we are a different breed,” Kim said. “We’ve experienced more than the average college student, but a lot of my peers aren’t here to be social.”

Kim in particular is determined to move on with his life, though when he sees himself in the future, he sees endless possibilities. He has toyed with thoughts of returning to Afghanistan for humanitarian work, returning to the aArmy as an officer, and continuing his education at the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design.

But whatever he decides, Kim has one mantra that is driving through school and his development of his art.

“Just create,” Kim said, quoting a bumper sticker that inspired him. “Be in situations where creativity is fostered.”