What is Jason Isip's Photography?

It is a running X joke about photographer Jason Isip's soft handycam shots of East Asian women, kicked off by his January 2024 Slowdive-scored snow-smoking clip.

Where did Jason Isip's Photography come from?

From a video Isip posted to X on January 13th, 2024, of a woman smoking in the snow to Slowdive's 'When the Sun Hits,' which pulled over 3 million views.

What does Jason Isip's Photography mean?

Online it works as shorthand for a melancholic, dream-pop-scored aesthetic centered on East Asian women, with users pinning any sad-looking clip on Isip.

How do you use Jason Isip's Photography?

Users typically quote a moody video or photo and joke that Isip is behind the camera, as @sinqhole did in the original 'cold asian woman' quote tweet on January 13th, 2024.

Is Jason Isip's Photography still popular?

The bit peaked in mid-January 2024 with posts like @sushi1vr's recreation and @burgerplugg's steering-wheel edit, and stuck around as a classic reference for that aesthetic.

Jason Isip's Photography

2024viral videoclassic

Published August 31, 2026

Jason Isip's Photography, also known as Asian Girl Smoking in the Snow, refers to the melancholic handycam aesthetic of photographer Jason Isip, whose January 2024 clip of a woman smoking to Slowdive's 'When the Sun Hits' set off a wave of X parodies about his signature muse.

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Overview

Jason Isip's Photography, also called Asian Girl Smoking in the Snow, is shorthand on X for a very specific aesthetic: soft handycam footage of East Asian women looking pensive, usually scored to shoegaze or dream pop. The name comes from Los Angeles photographer and videographer Jason Isip, whose January 2024 clip of a woman smoking a cigarette in falling snow to Slowdive's 'When the Sun Hits' pulled millions of views and turned his whole body of work into a running bit1.

The joke works two ways. Some posts affectionately mimic Isip's grainy, wistful camera style, while others tease that his entire career depends on finding one melancholic Asian girl at a time to point a lens at2. Once the tag stuck, any sad-looking East Asian subject on the timeline, from a Korean couple crying to music to a girl slumped against a steering wheel, got flagged as Jason Isip content3 4.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

X / Twitter

Creator

Jason Isip

Date

2024

Jason Isip had been building up his archive for years before the meme hit, posting to Tumblr as @jasnisip starting December 27th, 2019, then to Instagram in January 2021, X in April 2021, and TikTok in October 20221. The catalyst post landed on January 13th, 2024, when Isip shared a handycam video on X of a woman smoking in the snow set to Slowdive's 'When the Sun Hits.' The clip pulled over 3 million views and 15,000 likes inside five days5.

How It Spread

The parody wave started the same day the original went up. On January 13th, X user @sinqhole quote-tweeted the clip with the line about being 'out with jason isip in freezing temperatures' while he pulls out a camera to film 'you being a cold asian woman,' racking up more than 15,000 likes in five days1. On January 14th, @mcloivng attached the Face of Unemployment meme to Isip's work, joking he would have no job without Asian women1.

The format quickly generalized past Isip's own posts. Also on January 14th, @rabbitsfavorite quoted a YouTube clip titled 'korean couple smoking and crying to sad music' with 'I know a certain photographer who would not play about them,' pulling over 13,000 likes2. By January 16th, @sushi1vr had staged a full recreation of the snow-smoking video for around 6,000 likes3, while @burgerplugg captioned an Isip photo of a girl resting her forehead on a steering wheel as 'spongebob after failing his boating test'4.

How to Use This Meme

The template typically involves finding a moody clip or photo of an East Asian woman, especially one smoking, crying, or staring off into weather, and framing it as Jason Isip's next shoot. Common conventions include name-dropping Isip in a quote tweet, pairing the image with a Slowdive or shoegaze track, or joking that he is on assignment whenever someone spots a melancholic subject on the timeline.