Dear friend,

It is currently 9:19pm and I’m enjoying a nice sencha green tea, and meditating on life here in Saigon.

ERIC KIM SAIGON DIARY I

Just wanted to give you a life update.

Inspirations

I’ve currently been inspired by:

• Jean Michel Basquiat
• Issey Miyake
• Picasso
• Irving Penn
• Lisette Model
• Martine Franck

Books

I’ve been reading:

• The Complacent Class by Tyler Cowan
• SCALE
• The Joyful Wisdom by Nietzsche

Projects

• Supporting STREET CLUB in ERIC KIM FORUM
• Helping support Cindy in her research in the Vietnamese libraries here in Saigon. We got around 20 more days left here, until we go to Japan for workshops in Kyoto and Tokyo.
• Building new Haptic products with Cindy, like the upcoming SAIGON SATCHEL camera bag, LEARN FROM THR MASTERS HAPTICPRESS book, and ARTBOOKS by HAPTICPRESS

Meditations

I’ve currently been doing all my work on an old iPad Air, with the new beta version of iOS. Huge fan. I see the future of mobile computing all on iPads. Honestly at this point I don’t like using a laptop, unless I gotta use Lightroom.

We’re living in a $20 night hotel…super nice. Less stress than living in an apartment. No worrying about buying food, cleaning. Only focus on doing work.

Life in Saigon is amazing. Great food (our favorite restaurants are “Pizza 4Ps” and “Ciao Bella.” Also the Saigon Center Mall is phenomenal, great Japanese food and Korean BBQ.

If you’re a young and single entrepreneur, Saigon is the place to be. Great coffee shops, and super fast wifi. For coffee, I recommend VCR (Vietnam Coffee Republic).

Memento Mori

Everyday, I’m trying to hustle hard and appreciate every moment of living. To keep creating, promoting open and empowering information and art.

I see myself evolving which is fun. Not just photography, but all art. I’m fascinated in fashion, hip hop, poetry, sculpture, interior design, architecture, Bauhaus, Cubism. I aspire to be the next Steve Jobs. I’m currently thinking of new innovative ways to think about photography, imaging, and the future.

The secret to life

For me, I think I’ve figured out the secret of life, which is to create art.

Art as illustrations, images, pictures, music, theater, dance, film.

Also to empower other artists. Cindy is doing this with HAPTICPRESS.

Writing

I want to continue making essays at the intersection of photography, art, digital culture, social media, technology, philosophy, stoicism, zen, and sociology. Every essay is just an “attempt” at a greater truth. I’ll never gain the “ultimate truth”– but I can certainly find a few interesting truths along the way, and I want to share that with you.

Thank you

As always friend, thank you for always supporting me and Cindy through this journey. I couldn’t have made it this far without you.

BE STRONG,
ERIC

Visual diary

A current list of snapshots I’ve saved on my iPad, to hopefully inspire you too. This is my current mood board, and visual life, and mind stream/collage:

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