How to Train Your Eyes

Self-portrait by ERIC KIM

Your most valuable tool in photography: your eyes.

How do we train our eyes to see better? Some ideas.

1. Turn off your phone

MARGIELA MASK // How we see the world with our phones to our face.

Our phones are always vibrating, blinking, and making loud noises.

If we are constantly bombarded with the stimuli of our phones, how can we see the real world around ourselves?

To me, I only see street photographs when I am not distracted by my phone.

As a practice, if I go shoot street photography, I turn off my phone completely, leave it at home, or keep it in airplane mode. I then end up seeing more stuff to photograph.

2. Visual dead-lifts

Saigon, 2017

If you want to get ripped in life, do deadlifts.

Sài Gòn, 2017 #ricohmafia

If you want to train your eyes to become more powerful, look at great photos. Look at the work of the masters, but then seek to kill them — to become better than them.

Saigon, 2017 #cindyproject

When you are doing deadlifts in real life, you gotta focus. For me, I can focus at the gym by listening to music, and I get into the ZONE. I’ve listened to Kanye Wests‘ ‘YEEZUS’ album (Black Skinhead is my favorite song) at least 100 times in the gym. It gets me in the ‘Zone.’

Saigon, 2017

When you are looking at your favorite photographs or art, don’t let yourself get distracted. Only focus on that. Perhaps put on your headphones when you’re studying art, and tune out the world. Invest in some noise-cancelling headphones (BOSE QC-series are the best), or just use in-ear earbuds that isolate noise.

BOB DYLAN // one of the greatest musicians of all time.

Treat your studying of art as your zen-experience. I look not at just photos, but all art. Picasso, Basquiat, and Leonardo da Vinci inspire me.

3. Make more pictures

Reach for the heavens! ERICKIM

You can make pictures with a camera, or without a camera. I make pictures by snapping photos or by drawing, tracing, on my iPad. Or doodling on a piece of paper.

MCLAREN x ERIC KIM

The more you practice — the more you will train and perfect your eye.

Conclusion

CUBIST CINDY BY ERIC KIM

When in doubt, MAKE MORE ART. Produce photos, pictures, and images 80% of the time — only try to consume 20%.

BE STRONG,
ERIC

TRAIN YOUR EYES WITH ERIC KIM >