ERIC KIM

How to Work on a Photography Project

Practical ideas:

You don’t ‘force’ yourself to work on a photography project

A project is simply an undertaking of creating a collection of images on a certain topic which is important or meaningful to you.

For example, here are photos from my grandfather’s funeral:

  • busan

These are the lessons:

  1. Photograph anything and everything which is meaningful or interesting to you “in the moment”.
  2. Don’t feel the need to edit so tightly. Better to stay loose and flexible as you go.
  3. Good to stick with one camera, one lens, one aesthetic/approach during the project.

Revisit your old projects

This is key:

Look at your old projects.

I derive almost as much joy at looking at old photos as looking at new projects.

For example, when I look at the books I’ve made, I derive GREAT JOY!

And to me, BOTH e-books and print books are meaningful to me.

BOOKS BY KIM

My favorite books:

PHOTOGRAPHY PDF BOOKS

  1. MONOCHROME by ERIC KIM
  2. ONLY IN AMERICA by ERIC KIM
  3. SUITS by ERIC KIM

EBOOKS

Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Mastering Street Photography
Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Mastering Street Photography
  1. HOW TO SEE: Visual Guide to Composition, Color, & Editing in Photography / Kindle Edition
  2. Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Mastering Street Photography / Kindle Edition
  3. STREET HUNT / Kindle Edition
  4. STREET NOTES: Mobile Edition / Kindle Edition
  5. MODERN PHOTOGRAPHER / Kindle Edition

FREE EBOOKS

  1. STREET PHOTOGRAPHY 103
  2. Dynamic Composition Manual
  3. Photography Startup Manual
  4. PHOTOGRAPHY MASTERCLASS
  5. PHOTOGRAPHY ENTREPRENEURSHIP MANUAL by ERIC KIM
  6. STREET PHOTOGRAPHY MANUAL by ERIC KIM
  7. THE PHOTOGRAPHER by ERIC KIM
  8. The Art of Street Photography
  9. 100 Lessons From the Masters of Street Photography
  10. Zen Photography
  11. Personal Photography Manual
  12. Street Photography Contact Sheets Volume II
  13. Street Photography Contact Sheets Volume I
  14. Street Photography Composition Manual
  15. Street Portrait Manual
  16. Street Photography 101
  17. Street Photography 102
  18. Color Manual
  19. Monochrome Manual
  20. 31 Days to Overcome Your Fear in Street Photography
  21. Letters From a Street Photographer
  22. Street Photography Aphorisms, Heuristics, and Sayings

Back to projects

A project can be as rigid or loose as you want. I like the dynamic, flexible principle.

Sometimes you are rigid, sometimes you are flexible.

I call this the ‘bamboo’ theory: bamboo is BOTH insanely strong, and insanely flexible.

Documenting a certain time and place in your life

One way to approach a photography project:

Just make a collection of images of a certain time and place in your life.

Also, you can just allow yourself to shoot ‘randomly’, then edit and sequence the photos LATER.

General/loose idea

For example my ‘City of Angles’ project:

To shoot street photography in Los Angeles, and to show my own personal view of the beautiful (fallen) “angels” of the city.

  • Jazz hands. Hollywood, 2011
    Jazz hands. Hollywood, 2011
  • The city of Angels. Eric Kim Black and White street photography. Los Angeles.
  • The city of Angels. Eric Kim Black and White street photography. Los Angeles.
  • The city of Angels. Eric Kim Black and White street photography. Los Angeles.
  • The city of Angels. Eric Kim Black and White street photography. Los Angeles.
  • The city of Angels. Eric Kim Black and White street photography. Los Angeles.
  • The city of Angels. Eric Kim Black and White street photography. Los Angeles.
  • The city of Angels. Santa Monica. Eric Kim street photography
  • The city of Angels. Eric Kim Black and White street photography. Los Angeles.
  • The city of Angels. Santa Monica. Eric Kim street photography
    Santa Monica, 2011
  • The city of Angels. Eric Kim Black and White street photography. Los Angeles.
  • The city of Angels. Eric Kim Black and White street photography. Los Angeles.
  • The city of Angels. Eric Kim Black and White street photography. Los Angeles.

Projects are whatever you want them to be.

Whatever project you decide to work on, work on a project which you feel deeply about.

Start it when you feel like it, stop it when you feel like it!

ERIC