ERIC KIM

What is Your True Tastes or Preferences in Life?

Ignore what society or “experts” tell you “what is good for you”. Instead, focus on spending much time with yourself, your own thoughts, and to meditate to yourself:

What do I really want for myself? And what are my true tastes and preferences in life?

Do this for,

  1. Lifestyle choices (do you really prefer a simple or minimalist life, or is it what others tell you how you “should” live your life?)
  2. What possessions, tools, things, equipment do you really want? For example do you want a Leica camera because it’s the best camera for you, or because of the mystique of the brand, and because of the price?
  3. Do you really want that luxury or sports car, or that watch, or that bag because you really want it or because others persuade you to sucker you into thinking that you want it?

Don’t get suckered or milked by a system which tries to “educate” you on what ‘good taste’ is!

Anti Shame

Let us not shame others, nor should we live in a way in which we feel ashamed of ourselves.

Why I Prefer Richard Avedon over Henri Cartier-Bresson

Why I might like Richard Avedon over Henri Cartier-Bresson:

  1. Avedon as more confident, humanistic.
  2. Avedon as realizing the ultimate beauty is the human and human form. HCB thought it was geometry, surrealism.
  3. Avedon as more prolific. HCB gave up after around 30 years. Avedon went well into his 80s, towards his death.
  4. Avedon as being bolder with his artistic vision. Avedon as admitting that his photos were about himself, whereas HCB had the pretense that he was the “objective outside observer”. Also the difference between HCB’s portrait of the duke and duchess vs Avedon’s depiction.
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Josef Koudelka Photography Composition Studies

Great Josef Koudelka compositions:

  • CZECHOSLOVAKIA. Prague. August 1968. Protesting the Warsaw Pact troops Invasion at St. Wenceslas monument.
  • IRELAND. Connacht. Aran Islands. 1977.
  • SPAIN. Villanueva de los Castilleros. 1978.
  • CZECHOSLOVAKIA. Prague. Play: Nightingale for Dinner (Rossignol ‡ dÓner/Nachtigall zum Abendessen) Play written and directed by Josef TOPOL. Theatre Beyond the Gate (Divadlo Za Branou/ThÈ‚tre derriËre la Porte/Theater vor dem Tor). 1967.
  • CZECHOSLOVAKIA. Prague. 1969. Theatre Divadlo Za Branou (Beyond the Gate). “Lorenzaccio”, a play written by Alfred de MUSSET and directed by Otomar KREJCA.
  • CZECHOSLOVAKIA. Prague. 1964. Theatre On the Balustrade. “King Ubu”, a play written by the French playwright Alfred JARRY.
  • FRANCE. 1987.
  • FRANCE. Paris. 1986.
  • IRELAND. Croagh Patrick Pilgrimage. 1972.
  • FRANCE. Brittany. 1973. Gipsies.
  • PORTUGAL. 1976.
  • FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA. Serbia. Belgrade. 1994. Women demonstrating for peace in Sarajevo.
  • IRELAND. 1976.
  • CZECHOSLOVAKIA. Straznice. 1966. Festival of gypsy music.
  • SPAIN. 1977.

PDF: Henri Cartier-Bresson Photography Composition Studies

In some regards, I think that Henri Cartier-Bresson is highly UNDERRATED. By looking through ~5,000+ of his photos, here are some under-known photos I analyzed, and the elegant arabesque (curve) compositions I uncovered:

PDF

Henri Cartier Bresson Composition Studies – ERIC KIM – v1Download
Henri Cartier Bresson Composition Studies – ERIC KIM – v2Download

Video slideshow

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Money for What?

We all obviously like money, and desire money. But for what?

  1. Do we want money to buy things?
  2. Do we want money to simply give us a ‘basic income‘ for basics of living (paying rent, basic food, utilities)?
  3. Do we want money as a form of ‘keeping track of our success in life?’ Money as used as a metric of success?

Some thoughts:

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How Does Your Camera Matter?

When people say, “the camera doesn’t matter”, what they really mean to say is:

Your skill as a photographer doesn’t increase proportionally with the expense of your camera.

For example having a $10,000 camera won’t make me 10x skillful than if I have a $1000 camera.

So this is what I want to explain — how the camera matters in photography.

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Why Entertainment?

To ‘entertain’ literally means “to hold the attention” [of x].

Many of us like to be ‘entertained’ (by others). Generally speaking, entertainment is seen as a passive act.

My thoughts and questions:

Why do we get bored, and why do we want to BE entertained (passive receiving), instead of actively entertaining ourselves (by producing, making, and creating)?

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