WHY I’M SHOOTING PHOTOS DURING COVID

black and white ERIC KIM selfie

Right now seems like a precarious time to be shooting photos. Why am I doing it? My rationale:

1. It is important

To document history ; isn’t this essential to humanity? And to me,

To have the courage, audacity, and ‘recklessness’ to shoot photos when something is important — this is good.

For example, the photos of the Great Depression. During the housing crisis. Vietnam war. Key moments during history; if no photographers documented this, how could future generations of humans learn?

2. Street photography during covid?

ERIC KIM Street Photography POV 4K: Construction Worker Layers COVID-19
Thayer street. Providence, 2020 #covid
Thayer street. Providence, 2020 #covid

Right now seems the best time to be shooting street photography. Face masks. The way people interacting in the streets and public is fundamentally different.

I used to romanticize the photos of Robert Capa and Henri Cartier-Bresson; globe trotting the world during all these historical events and wars. Now the war has become biological; we are at war with this virus. Why not document it?

3. Self documentation

During COVID-19, best to just document your own (‘boring’) life!

4. Good for physical and mental health