Month: January 2021

The origin of all joy is physiological:

Personal HOKUSAI studies:

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 …

The general gist of congruency: What you do and what you ‘believe’ in are one in the same.

Why is black and white so beautiful as an aesthetic? For me — the sublime zen bliss I get from monochrome:

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 …

Towards the eternal creative cycle: Draw inspiration from the world around you and from other artists, and keep creating.

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 …

I’ve always loved minimalist compositions. But the question: Why opt for minimalist compositions in photography? Some thoughts:

If you’re stuck at home, quarantining or whatever — here are some photography assignments you can do from home:

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Why do we care whether the photo is “good” or bad?

My notion of the uber-artist: Going *beyond* basic notions of art. Crafting and creating your own artistic definitions, visions and goals.

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 …

The more creative options you got, the better.

The goal: propagate yourself, your artwork, your ideals, and your ideas.

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 …

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 …

Photograph your blessings in life and your joys, no matter how small.

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 …

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 …

New deadlift PR (personal record) // one rep max attempt:

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?

If we take this advice to heart, there are far more options in photography and options of things to photograph than limits and limitations!

Optimize for dynamic.

“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 …

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 …

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:

Studying Hokusai (Simplified lessons on drawing 1, Volume 2, Volume 3) a very interesting epiphany: The hidden visual architecture of things.

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.

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.

When it comes to photography, we must consider the subject, the subject matter of our photos, and how and why we photograph them.

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!

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 …

A good way to live life: only pursue that which interests you, and don’t pursue anything which doesn’t interest you.

Tell your own story and stories through your photos. Your photos and your photography is the medium (media) in which you communicate yourself.

Some thoughts on media:

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 …

Some simple street photography assignments to get you going:

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 …

MUSE by KIM: the apex strap.

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:

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 …

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 …

I believe all photographers will benefit hugely from owning an iPad. Even the cheapest one is fine — only $329! Why iPad? Well, after experimenting with all the different ways of editing and selecting …

I was thinking: How much *should* you shoot in photography? And my general thought: The more you shoot, the better. Why? Creative iteration. The more you shoot, the more you learn. The more you …

Certainly there isn’t a certain quota of photos you should everyday, but at the same time, it doesn’t seem to hurt to shoot a lot of photos everyday. Lately I’ve been quite productive with …

I think I finally have this Henri Cartier-Bresson quote figured out: The beauty of photography is that you can reveal beauty in even the smallest thing. Or in other words: All things, no matter …

Why photography? It is the great affirmation of (new) life. I myself wouldn’t desire a life and existence without photography.

Creative fears: They typically have to do with your fear of negative judgements from others.

Good fear: fear which keeps you alive. For example my fear of dying if texting while driving, or walking on the street while texting. Bad fear: fear of social chastisement which prevents me from …

Get free photographic motivation on ERIC KIM NEWSLETTER > Dear friend, Some quick creative motivational ideas to get you going:

The basic idea: Your best creative ideas will come *INDIRECTLY* to you. Your creative ideas are best when you are creatively ‘promiscuous’ — you disregard borders, boundaries, and genres. You draw creative nectar and …

Just because you’ve already done it once doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it again. Eternal and perpetual creativity is the goal:

If we think about humanity, there is an innate instinct for us to procreate. The natural sexual drive of both men and women in order to create children. Certainly without the will to procreate, …

If we extrapolate this “via negativa” concept to productivity and motivation the question to ponder: What kills our motivation? And what “un-inspires” us?

Perhaps the best way to become a “better” photographer is mostly through the negative (Nassim Taleb). For example: To make better compositions, best to *SUBTRACT* and try to get rid of the distracting elements. …

Perhaps this notion of having “positive role models” is not useful. Why? We often put the personalities, characteristics, and pursuits of certain individuals as *above* us. For example, we all want to become more …

If you have a passion for black and white photography, does this mean that studying calligraphy (black paint on white canvas) can also give you artistic insights and good “creative cross pollination”?

A thought this morning: Photography *is* painting. We get this intrinsic joy from painting. Photography as painting with light. Thus perhaps the more painterly thoughts we can have, the better?

Or why I think everyone should have a blog:

We must play for the long game. This means: Focus on your photography, artwork, artistic production for life. The infinite road — photography as your passion that will burn on forever. And how do …

A thought: When we desire x, y, z … is it ‘worth it’ if it will only directly benefit us, with no chance of benefitting others? My thought: Perhaps the only good selfish actions …

A fun workout you can do at the gym (or at home, assuming you got some heavy dumbbells or kettlebells): A heavy one-handed overhead press.