[2] Kogonada is known for his video essays that analyze the content, form, and structure of various films and television series.

Kogonada is a regular contributor to Sight & Sound and is frequently commissioned by The Criterion Collection to create supplemental videos for its home-video releases.

Kogonada took his pseudonym from Kogo Noda, a frequent screenwriter of Yasujirō Ozu's films.

[15] Kogonada's works are part of a growing movement of video essays as a visual form of film analysis, appreciation, and criticism on the Internet;[16][17] other video essayists include Nelson Carvajal and Tony Zhou,[18][19] as well as film critics Kevin B. Lee and Matt Zoller Seitz.

[20][21][22] Kogonada's 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.

[10] Some examples are his three video essays on the aesthetics of American director Wes Anderson, who is known for using unusually symmetrical framing in his films.