Esther M. Choi’s work as an artist and writer explores how systems of representation shape our understanding of nature, history, and cultural value. With a background in photography and architectural history and theory, her practice spans photography, time-based media, and publications.

Choi’s work has been exhibited internationally and featured in T: The New York Times Style Magazine, 032c, Elephant, and others. Her artist’s book, Le Corbuffet (Prestel, 2019)—a conceptual cookbook about cultural consumption—was a finalist for a 2020 James Beard Foundation Photography Award. In 2024, her photographs for T: The New York Times Style Magazine were nominated for an ASME National Magazine Award. Her editorial commissions have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, T: The New York Times Style Magazine, Elle Decor, Vice, Dazed and Confused, Another Magazine, Le Monde, and Cultured Magazine, among others.

In 2020, Choi created Office Hours (2020–24), a socially-engaged knowledge-sharing project that connected thousands of cultural workers representing the global majority across more than 30 countries. She also created the four-part YouTube series Public Service (2024–25) that featured notable BIPOC cultural practitioners and scholars in conversations about catalyzing social and cultural change.

Choi is the co-editor of Architecture Is All Over (Columbia University Press, 2017) and Architecture at the Edge of Everything Else (MIT Press, 2010). Her cultural criticism has appeared in Art Papers, Harvard Design Magazine, Perspecta, Artforum, and e-flux. Her essays are included in Hippie Modernism (Walker Art Center, 2015), Radical Pedagogies (MIT Press, 2022), and Reaper (JRP Ringier, 2017).

Her research and projects have been generously supported by the Ford Foundation, Canada Council for the Arts, American Council of Learned Societies, Social Sciences Humanities Research Council of Canada, Canadian Centre for Architecture, Graham Foundation, Society of Architectural Historians, Harvard University, and Princeton University, among others.

Choi holds a joint PhD in Architectural History and Theory and Interdisciplinary Humanities from Princeton University, a MDes in Architectural History and Theory from Harvard Graduate School of Design, a MFA in Photography from Concordia University, and a BFA in Photography from Toronto Metropolitan University.

She was a 2022 Getty/ ACLS Postdoctoral Fellow in the History of Art. Choi has taught at institutions including OCAD University and The Cooper Union. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.