Dear friend,

A suggestion when you’re working on photography projects, or selecting/editing your best work. Don’t share dull/boring photos:

I had this idea when reading Nassim Taleb‘s new ‘Skin in the game’ book, where in his preface he mentions that he wrote his book to be a “non-dull” reading experience. Which is interesting to me– because we don’t always know what is ‘exciting’ or ‘good’, but we generally know what is dull/boring.

Eric kim iPad trace city of angels

Of course, what is dull/boring for me isn’t always dull and boring to you.

So the practical recommendation is this:

Don’t share any of your own photos that you find boring/dull.

Eric kim sketch iPad Pro city of angels - composition -

I went down a bit of a rabbit hole, studying the etymology of the word, ‘dull’.

Upon going to Wiktionary, I learned the definition of ‘dull‘:

Proto-Indo-European *dʰwel-, *dʰewel- (“to dim, dull, cloud, make obscure, swirl, whirl”)

To dull means (in proto-indo-European) to ‘dim, cloud, make obscure’. Which means, dull things lack sharpness or clarity.

Eric kim sketch iPad Pro city of angels - composition - leading lines

What is the opposite of dull? Sharp — able to cut easily.

But interesting enough, the word ‘sharp’ goes into Latin with the word ‘acerbic’ (bitter/sour), which I find interesting, because we usually relate ‘sharp’ as knives, not a ‘sharp’ taste. More info on the word ‘acer‘ (which also happened to be the name of my first computer – the ‘Acer Aspire’ — which is a good name now that I think about it).

Eric kim sketch iPad Pro city of angels - composition - triangle lowrider

Anyways, I don’t think you can control whether your photos will be ‘interesting’ or ‘boring’ when you’re out shooting. The only way is through the editing/selecting process.

You have bundles upon bundles of hay (all your thousands of photos), and you have to find the few golden needles within (your good photos).

Eric kim sketch iPad Pro city of angels - composition - triangle lowrider

So as a practical takeaway– recognize the fact that you cannot always control whether you will make good photos or not when you’re on the streets. Rather, be diligent when you’re combing through your photos, and seek to only share photos that you find interesting, meaningful, and non-dull!

Here is a selection of more of my photos from my ‘CITY OF ANGELS‘ project — painted on top with the iPad Screenshot tool. Here is a video tutorial of me doing it with Henri Cartier Bresson’s Photos:

Kind of similar to what William Klein did with his contact sheets (he painted on top of his contact sheets, and made these artwork in itself):

CITY OF ANGELS

DETAILS

START HERE

Portfolio

SUITS

Download PDF >

ONLY IN AMERICA

Download PDF >

red cowboy Los Angeles — Los Angeles, 2013

CINDY PROJECT

PHOTOGRAPHY

PHILOSOPHY

ERIC KIM NEWSLETTER

Join ERIC KIM NEWSLETTER and be the first to get exclusive content, free ebooks, presets, and upcoming workshops coming to your area:

BOOKS

Buy books, not gear:

PHOTOGRAPHY PDF BOOKS

EBOOKS

Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Mastering Street Photography

FREE EBOOKS

See all downloads >

Photo Book Reviews »

Below are my favorite photo books:

75+ inspirational photography books »

Buy books, not gear.

If you want a quality-education in street photography, I recommend either buying, borrowing, or browsing though some of the books below. Books that are bolded are some of my personal favorites.