Yunghi Kim/Contact Press Images Yunghi Kim takes a photo while working on a project about black farmers in 1998. Kim, an award-winning photojournalist who has covered stories all over the world, started the Trailblazers of Light, a website that celebrates women in her field and the contributions they've made. One of her most well-known projects was her story documenting South Korean "comfort women," sex slaves used by the Japanese military during World War II. These are the pioneering women of photojournalism

Yunghi Kim/Contact Press Images Yunghi Kim takes a photo while working on a project about black farmers in 1998. Kim, an award-winning photojournalist who has covered stories all over the world, started the Trailblazers of Light, a website that celebrates women in her field and the contributions they've made. One of her most well-known projects was her story documenting South Korean "comfort women," sex slaves used by the Japanese military during World War II.

Photojournalism has traditionally been a male-dominated field.

But throughout history, women have made their mark on the industry.

Yunghi Kim is one of them, and she wants to make sure her peers get the recognition they deserve. Especially those who started their career in the film era, before the advent of the digital camera.

"They were courageous. They were fearless," she said. "And they were trailblazers because they were in a sea of men."

Kim says there is a "silent generation" of women photojournalists who are often overlooked. Maybe their work was never digitized. Maybe their work is sitting right now in the basements of newspapers, magazines and photo agencies, buried in an archive they can't access and may never be able to.

So Kim took it upon herself to do something about it. She started a website, Trailblazers of Light, to honor these pioneers of photojournalism.

More than 500 photojournalists are listed on the site, going back to the late 19th century. These women have reported from all over the world, often in war zones and other dangerous places. Many of them broke glass ceilings where they worked and paved the way for future generations.

It's important that these women, and their contributions, are not forgotten, Kim said.

"It had to be done," she said. "It was a sense of duty to the women."

Follow the Trailblazers of Light project on Instagram and Twitter.

Editor's note: Bernadette Tuazon, CNN's director of photography, is among the picture editors recognized on the Trailblazers of Light website.