Photographer Jennifer Kim is always on the lookout for unique floor designs and has travelled across the world to capture the most striking, from the mosaic floors of New York's Met Museum to the crescent moon tiles of the Duomi di Siene in Italy and the groundwork of St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne.
Taking pictures of floors is a popular Instagram trend, influenced by accounts like @ihavethisthingwithfloors, which has more than 810,000 followers and the hashtags #feetmeetfloors and #ihaveathingwithfloors. According to research carried out by Carpetright, some of the most Instagrammed floors in the world include the W Hotel in Amsterdam, a star mosaic floor in Disneyland, California, the clock engravings of Via Laietana, Barcelona, as well as the Art Deco tiles of Café de Flore in Paris.
Los Angeles-based photographer Jennifer Kim dived into the trend back in 2015 during a visit to the Art Center in Miami, where the mosaic floors were as creative as the art around her. "As I was wandering through the space, what struck me the most was the mosaic floors in the hallways. They were so colourful and fun - I just started snapping away with my feet in the frame. From then on, I always found myself looking down, hoping to find new treasures," she said.
Jennifer even plans vacations around "floor hunting" and has been to Havana, Melbourne, Singapore, Berlin, Lisbon, London, New York and Paris with her eyes firmly on the ground or on Instagram to find leads from fellow photographers and bloggers.
"When I'm travelling to a new city, I will always search for coffee shops and follow food bloggers; fun floor designs are usually nestled in cafés or trendy restaurants and the food bloggers are all over that. However, according to Jennifer the downside to that is that many Instagram shots are highly edited. "So the floors are actually not what they seem in photos. I've come across this a few times and feel a bit cheated but this is life in the digital age."
Jennifer believes that unique floors are somewhat of a tourist attraction in themselves like street art as people actively seek them out when travelling, whether it's in a museum, cafe or restaurant. "Gen Z and millennials are obsessed with that perfect Instagram shot," she said, while adding that restaurant and cafe owners have caught on to the trend. "You need an 'it' factor like a pink wall with cascading plants, a witty neon sign or a fun floor design," she said.
The most common floor style she's has come across on her travels is hexagon-shaped mosaic tiles in a broad spectrum of colour. "I've seen big and small hexagon tiles all around."
To see more of Jennifer's floor discoveries, see here.
