Kogonada made his first video essay "Breaking Bad // POV" in January 2012.

Using clips from the American television series Breaking Bad, the video displays the series' use of numerous point of view shots from unusual angles and objects. Kogonada was inspired to create the video essay while he watched the series, noticing a recurring visual aesthetic used throughout the series.

Kogonada's first commissioned work was for Sight & Sound magazine in February 2013, titled "The World According to Koreeda Hirokazu", which highlights director Hirokazu's regular focus on everyday life in his films. Since then, most of his video essays are commissions for companies which include the British Film Institute (publisher of Sight & Sound), The Criterion Collection, Samsung, and the Lincoln Motor Company.

Kogonada's works are part of a growing movement of creating video essays as a visual form of analysis, appreciation, and criticism on the internet, with other known creators of video essays including Nelson Carvajal and Tony Zhou, as well as film critics Kevin B. Lee, Matt Zoller Seitz and Scout Tafoya. His video essay "Hands of Bresson" was chosen by filmmaker Robert Greene for Sight & Sound as one of the best documentaries of 2014, with Greene stating that works like his "make clear that the line between nonfiction film and video essay is at best blurry and the best work should simply be celebrated as cinema."

In March 2016, Kogonada was part of the official jury for the 16th LPA Film Festival at the Canary Islands, Spain, where he taught a master class and had screenings for 14 of his video essays at the "Bande à part" section.

His second feature "After Yang" premiered in Cannes 2021 at Un Certain Regard