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Physiological Joy
The origin of all joy is physiological:
January 2021
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HOKUSAI Composition Sketches and Studies
Personal HOKUSAI studies:
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Tinker.
Tinker with the settings you can actually control (sleeping setup, white noise machines, noise cancelling headphones, morning and evening routines, workouts, sleep schedule, etc). Tinker with your lifestyle choices and lifestyle flow. Tinker with your diet, what you eat and what you don’t eat (tinker with dairy, legumes, coconut products) and always strive to optimize…
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Congruency
The general gist of congruency: What you do and what you ‘believe’ in are one in the same.
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The Zen of Monochrome
Why is black and white so beautiful as an aesthetic? For me — the sublime zen bliss I get from monochrome:
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Reasons Why to Be Optimistic About the Future
I am a rational optimist. I believe in the future, and am excited for the future. Right now, as we are trudging through the downsides of our covid lifestyles, it is easy to fall into existential dread, and loss of hope and motivation for the future. However, here are some optimistic thoughts for you:
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Creative Cycling
Towards the eternal creative cycle: Draw inspiration from the world around you and from other artists, and keep creating.
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Black and White Photography and Calligraphy
A realization while walking around and shooting some high contrast black and white photos of the snow in the streets: This looks like calligraphy to me. Which makes me think: In order to improve and augment our creative vision for photography, is studying calligraphy a great idea? I think so!
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Why Minimalist Compositions?
I’ve always loved minimalist compositions. But the question: Why opt for minimalist compositions in photography? Some thoughts:
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Home Photography Assignments
If you’re stuck at home, quarantining or whatever — here are some photography assignments you can do from home:
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When in Doubt, Just Shoot It.
The more uninhibited you can shoot as a photographer, the better. Simple idea: When in doubt, just shoot it. Also: When in doubt, shoot lots of different iterations of the same photo. You never know what a photograph will look like until after you’ve shot it. Thus, shoot things as a way to fulfill your…
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A Photography-Full Future
A very happy thought: The future is bright and replete with new photo opportunities for you, new life, new opportunities, new social developments, new technologies and innovations, and future travels. Let us look forward with great optimism to 2021 and beyond — yes, there will be a day once again when we travel, we will…
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My Thoughts on Meditation
Meditation is strange. On one hand, we have all these uber-hippies who swear by it, and then you have monks who do it on the regular. I have always been skeptical and suspicious of the mainstream notions of meditation (even the spiritual ones). Some quick thoughts:
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How to Force Yourself to Relax
In our current crazy world (a world in which productivity is our religion [the cult of productivity]), to relax, to rest, to sleep, to take a nap, or to sleep (more) than 6-8 hours a night is considered a sin. But I would actually say: It takes more courage, skill, and fortitude to force yourself…
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The Philosophy of Purpose
Something I have been thinking about: What is it which *really* motivates us? Is it a sense of ‘purpose’ which motivates us and drives us? Is it curiosity which drives us? Is it a lust for more which drives us? What is our true ‘primum mobile’ (first mover) which motivates us to do anything in…
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How to Always Be Creative
I am addicted to and love to create. To me, being in the zen zone of creating and the “flow” of creation is the optimal state. As the years have progressed, I feel I’ve become more creative the more I’ve disconnected. To disconnect — to gain some sort of “creative isolation” — away from social…
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CAMERA ZEN.
What do we desire? Camera zen. What is camera zen? To just have one camera, one lens you can always depend on… and always shoot, without thinking about another camera … but the camera you’re shooting with.
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Good Photos, Bad Photos
Why do we care whether the photo is “good” or bad?
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The Uber-Artist
My notion of the uber-artist: Going *beyond* basic notions of art. Crafting and creating your own artistic definitions, visions and goals.
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5 Creative Black and White Photography Assignment Ideas
FREE PHOTO MOTIVATION on ERIC KIM NEWSLETTER > Dear friend, Something I believe in: If you seek more happiness, joy and personal meaning in life … photography is a great road. Thus the question then becomes: What are the practical or meaningful strategies I can employ in order to maximize my photography? A simple thought:…
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Creative Optionality
The more creative options you got, the better.
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Propogate
The goal: propagate yourself, your artwork, your ideals, and your ideas.
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Meaningful Advantage or Not?
A thought while walking around the other day: When it comes to life decisions, consider — Does this give me a meaningful advantage in life or not? For example, perhaps with cars — they give you some sort of meaningful advantage if your purpose is to use your car to signal your success, wealth, or…
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Why Black and White Photos Evoke Better Memories
Reason: You gotta squint hard at a black and white photo without much context, which forces you to use your imagination and add color to your past (monochrome photo) memories. As a consequence, the “disfluency” of the image (the fact that a high contrast, sometimes blurry or out of focus photo) isn’t clear is precisely…
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Photo Joy
Photograph your blessings in life and your joys, no matter how small.
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LONGEVITY.
Artistic longevityTo dance on your levityTippie toesTo gleefully expect another day. Longevityis the goal To outlast the whole world is to burn strong through the fads and phasesTo keep your eyes sharp like lasik Brace hard and hold tightYour camera is your sword — you yield the light. ERIC
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All Photos are Creative Photos
We often discriminate in our photography. We refrain from shooting x, y, z because we are concerned: This will not be an interesting or artistic photo. However this is what I say: Just shoot it, and figure out what to do with it later.
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ERIC KIM 475 POUND SUMO DEADLIFT // ONE REP MAX
New deadlift PR (personal record) // one rep max attempt:
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Art and Nothing But Art!
A life in which we can just focus on our art and artistic production, without concerns for money, fame, followers, likes and finances — isn’t this the summit?
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Everything is Worthy to be Photographed
If we take this advice to heart, there are far more options in photography and options of things to photograph than limits and limitations!
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Towards a More Dynamic Lifestyle
Optimize for dynamic.
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HOKUSAI: Learn from the Masters of Art
“From the age of six, I had a passion for copying the form of things and since the age of fifty I have published many drawings, yet of all I drew by my seventieth year there is nothing worth taking into account. At seventy-three years I partly understood the structure of animals, birds, insects and…
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Artistic Optionality
The more opportunities and options you have to make art and be creative, the better. Thus the goal is this: Strive to broaden your options… to discover many more and new avenues to create art!
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How to Improve Your Visual Intelligence
Visual intelligence — looking at images and being able to deconstruct them, determining *why* the images are great, and seeing the hidden shapes and forms *behind* the images, hiding in the shadows:
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Visual Architecture
Studying Hokusai (Simplified lessons on drawing 1, Volume 2, Volume 3) a very interesting epiphany: The hidden visual architecture of things.
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APEX CREATIVITY
As artists what do we seek? We seek maximal creativity. Physiological power overwhelming, a blissful drunken Dionysian art-creation flow, and to just focus on your artistic creation and nothing else.
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How to Become a More Creative Photographer
Creative photography is the goal. This means: Seeing fewer boundaries between different ways of self expression though photography, staying inspired and motivated in your photography, and to always be shooting.
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The Subject
When it comes to photography, we must consider the subject, the subject matter of our photos, and how and why we photograph them.
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Why Focus on Your Artwork?
Art… the future potentiality of making new art, discovering new art, or our curiosity in pursuing new art works … this is the great stimulus, hope, motivator and optimism in life!
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Visual Impressions
What we are going for isn’t precise visual depiction, but a visual gist and impression. A visual impression: What does the general visual movement, gist, and feeling … how does it embed itself into your own visual memory? For example some Hokusai visual impressions I sketched in iPad and Procreate and some of my own…
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What Interests You, What Doesn’t Interest You?
A good way to live life: only pursue that which interests you, and don’t pursue anything which doesn’t interest you.
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Photographers as Story Tellers
Tell your own story and stories through your photos. Your photos and your photography is the medium (media) in which you communicate yourself.
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Media.
Some thoughts on media:
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PHOTO CREATOR.
Whenever I hear the concept of a “content creator” thrown around, I see it as a disparaging remark/insulting. Certainly when people say “I love the content you put out!” it is generally meant in a positive way. However … what we create isn’t mere “content”. I see “content” like the anonymous pink chicken nugget toothpaste…
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7 Street Photography Assignment Ideas
Some simple street photography assignments to get you going:
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I’m a Simplicicist, Not a Minimalist
A word or concept which does not yet exist: A ‘simplicisist’. We have the term ‘minimalist’ in our modern vocabulary, but not ‘simplicicist’. Certainly the word ain’t as catchy, but I think the term is more accurate. Why? It isn’t minimalism we are seeking, but it is the optimal simplicity we are seeking.
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MUSE by KIM: LEICA M NECK STRAP INSTALLATION GUIDE
MUSE by KIM: the apex strap.
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How to Edit Your Photos More Effectively
The art of editing your photos is the art of image selection; how to know which of your photos are the best and which photos to choose. Some thoughts:
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Optimal Simplicity
For a long time, I always thought minimalism was the goal. Now I’m starting to realize that minimalism ain’t the goal, and it is a trap. Too many of us millenials fall victim to the “minimalism for minimalism sake” or “minimalism as a form of elite virtue-signaling”. What the true goal is optimal simplicity. To…
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Emulate Yourself
In an interview Peter Thiel said of Elon Musk: Elon Musk is not a good role model, as he is too difficult to emulate. But when I think deeper about it: Why strive to emulate others? Why not strive to just emulate yourself?