Month: June 2021

We are seeking the supreme simplicity in life, design and aesthetics. But once you achieve supreme simplicity in all domains in your life … then what?

Then the next goal:

Create *BEYOND* yourself.

Less is more beautiful:

Not seeking the “best” aesthetic, but the most zen one. The aesthetic which affords you the most peace, calm, quiet and strong stoic tranquility in order to *NOT* think about the design and aesthetic. The best design as the one you never even have to think about! Via negativa aesthetics.

Human art:

Typically from the past. Great cinema — Akira Kurosawa (7 Samurai), classic Renaissance painting (Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael), great photographers (Henri Cartier Bresson, Richard Avedon, Josef Koudelka). Any compositions which inspire you are great.

The secret to boundless self driven motivation for your photography:

Boundlessly love your own photos, far more than the photos of others.

Our photographic aesthetic Dionysian ideal. Perhaps also more tragedy in cinema, art as a superior form of beauty and storytelling.

The Philosophy of Aesthetics

The Philosophy of Aesthetics

• Depressing or Affirmative Art?
  DISDAIN DETAIL.
• Pragmatism as Anti Aesthetic
• AESTHETICS ARE ALL.
• AESTHETICS ARE THE ULTIMATE LUXURY.
• No Aesthetic is Forever
• Black is Boring
• DARKER IS BETTER.
• We Tire of The Beautiful, but Not of the Ugly?
• Minimalism as an Aesthetic and Ethos
• The Zen of Monochrome
• SIMPLICITY IS THE SUMMIT.
• AESTHETICS OVER FUNCTION
• The Desire to Banish Ugliness from Our Eyes
• Aesthetics Above All
• Simple is Sexy
• Towards a Philosophy of Aesthetics in Photography
• The Philosophy of Aesthetics
• ALL KILLER, NO FILLER.
• The Most Compact and High-Quality
• The Beauty of Imperfection
• TASTE.
• The More Obscure and Unclear, the Better.
• Cultivate Your Own Taste
• Image Quality and Great Photos
• Imperfect Photos are More Beautiful
• Do you photograph the world better, the same, or worse than reality? #aesthetics
• Aesthetics are Ethics
• Beauty over Truth #philosophy #aesthetics
• Philosophy of Aesthetics and Beauty in Photography
• Aesthetics in Photography
• Aesthetics Strengthen, Simplify, and Focus
• Not better image quality; more beautiful aesthetics!
• Why Aesthetics?

We photographers as visual poets.

The great thing about having a son:

> Becoming the father I wish I had. 

The goal is the most streamlined photographic workflow. Simple ideas:

1. Just shoot small JPEG (faster buffer speeds, faster time to upload your files, fewer issues with storage space)
2. Use a preset or filter while you’re shooting in JPEG (for example, high contrast monochrome mode or cross process mode on RICOH GR III). This reduces time when it comes to post-processing. If you decide to shoot RAW, just use presets in Lightroom (FREE ERIC KIM PRESETS)
3. When sharing your photos, upload and share/publish them to your own blog (self-hosted, WordPress.org) and try using the ‘Tiled Gallery’ function to best publish and share your work.
4. When reviewing your photos, use the simplest and fastest software possible (for example I like Apple Photos on my laptop, faaaar faster than Lightroom Classic). If you decide to use Lightroom, I recommend the new Lightroom CC (much faster to review photos).
5. When it comes to any photo matters ask yourself: “Is this going to streamline and *SIMPLIFY* and speed up my workflow, or will it complexify and make it slower and more burdensome?” For example, more megapixels, more problems.

“The service is twofold greater when it is promptly rendered.” – Publilius Syrus

Perhaps the key to success or dominance — optimize for speed. For example Tesla Model S in Plaid+ mode, or Google AMP to speed up the web, or anything in photography which speeds up and streamlines your workflow. We love speed, saving time, having less lag, obstructions and fewer kinks in the pipe!

Perhaps then better to do a fast, speedy and prompt job than no job … or better to do something “poorly” and fast, than slow and never.

Your own photos and those of others:

A fun pursuit and photography assignment:

Shoot high contrast abstract photos in monochrome.

For example:

1. Shoot under-exposed photos (as dark as possible). -1 or -2 or -3 exposure compensation.
2. Photograph textures, light, interesting surfaces
3. Look at the sky, or places with extreme high contrast
4. Look for faces in gritty textures or beautiful decay (patina, wabi-sabi aesthetics).
5. Look for patterns, or things which break the pattern (spot the not)

Street photography you shoot for yourself– street photography you shoot for the pure joy of the activity and the experience of shooting street photography.

My joy of photographing bodies (legs, feet, bodies, torsos, hands, faces) is this:

The human body is pure poetry.

In life, there’s a trillion things for us to pursue (money making, crypto and investing speculation, and other random pursuits). But perhaps out of all these pursuits, photography as the most interesting and worthwhile one.

It isn’t a “simple” lifestyle we want, but a more *streamlined* one — with fewer annoyances and blockages and “friction” which prevents you from doing what you truly desire to do in life.

Why it is probably best to just buy the cheapest (manual transmission) car:

Minimalism because I easily bore of things and nothing satisfies me. I just strive to get the “least hateful” design, and just stick with it — even though it’s never perfect. And when it’s perfect I also easily bore of it.

Thus don’t think of minimalism from an aesthetic or ethical perspective, but a highly practical one.

“The best or nothing”, and if you got the best, just stick with one. Towards a “luxury” Spartan design ethos.

Yes perfect exists. But once you get it, achieve it or buy it, things are boring. Thus never seek happiness, fulfillment and satisfaction from perfect — but perhaps the pursuit of perfection is the goal and the way.

The ethos of the creator:

As minimalist as possible:

“I bought every V12 engine, wish I could take it back to the beginning.” – JAY Z

The purity and innocence of the beginner mind. Take yourself back to your high school self — what did you believe in and dream of, before getting corrupted by the outside external world? Internal desires, motivations and belief systems and ethos over external ones superimposed on you by others or society.

Curiosity as the root of philosophy. A life with no curiosity is a dead life.

One doesn’t need to cultivate curiosity — one just needs to return to ones childlike curiosity about everything in the world! You don’t need to force a child to be curious — it is just his natural state of being!

Curiosity as the art of observation, and having lots of questions. Sociology as questioning social norms and the way things are traditionally done. To challenge convention as the heart of the curious individual.

Think black and white, high contrast, textures, macro mode:

And photography helps us capture and immortalize this!

Aspire
Fly higher
Kiss the wings of God
Keep flying higher
What level are you on?

Aspire
Breathe in hope
No nopes or dopes to hold you back

Keep it black, simple and clean
No need to dream beyond the sheen
You’re the star, you’re the team.

You’re the ultralight beam
Direct and clean
Stay focused and mean
You’ve got this, my brother and queen.

ERIC KIM

Our entrepreneurial motto in life. A life with no risk taking is boring. And boredom is far worse to be feared than any other pain or suffering in life!

More reading means less thinking. If you want to think more, read less and stimulate your brain less.

My personal desire and pursuit:

How to extract the maximum out of life.

Seeking maximal engagement, creation, sharing and becoming.

I’m starting to think that what’s more important in photography than feedback and critique is motivation, new ideas, new techniques, new sights and new experiences. Thus don’t worry too much on getting feedback on your photos on how to become a “better” photographer or how to “improve” your photography, but new ways and opportunities to have fun, shoot, innovate and make new images and things!

Motivation over feedback.

Strive to make your photography life more simple and more streamlined, easier. Easier camera settings (program, P mode, autofocus and auto ISO), and make it more fun. The easier we can make the technical settings and the easier the camera we shoot with (RICOH GR III), the more fun we can have in photography, the more we can experiment, adapt, learn and innovate in our photography!

Why minimalism? Not minimalism as just an aesthetic — but minimalism as reducing friction and “activation energy” in your life which means less “paralysis by analysis” decision making in order to get you out more, exploring more, doing more, adventuring more, shooting more, experiencing more, and becoming more.

Thus the goal is to simplify and minimalize all the superfluous details, to solidify and streamline the truly important and critical crucial things in your life — like your hunger for adventure, exploration, art, and photography!

Less is Better

• MINIMALISM & MAXIMALISM.
  True Luxury is Less.
• Easier to Subtract than Add
• Minimalism is the New Elitism
• Minimalism as Consumerism 2.0
• Why Simplify Your Life?
• Minimum Viable Technology
• Why I Hate Heavy Cameras
• Minimalist Photography
• Why Less is More in Street Photography (and Life)
• Less, But Better
• Reduce
• Purge

To be quite honest and frank, nowadays with the global pandemic it is a success to even leave your house.

Thus the new way to think about street photography: no good or bad street photos, it is all good.

Any street photography to get you out of the house, moving interacting with people and shooting is good. Good for your physical health, mental health, and artistic-creative health.

In today’s Brave New World, what is the attitude we need to thrive? Ruthless adaptation is the technique and the way.

What do we desire and hunger for? An ever feeling of expansion, growth, fullness, and augmentation of physiological power and well-being.

How is this achieved? Great sleep, nutrition (meat), fresh air and bright sun, physical and physiological well being and strength in your muscles, a zen stoic sense of calm, fearlessness, bravado, strong and thick black coffee in the morning, brisk walks during the day, a clear mind, and an insatiable hunger to do more, experience more, and become more.

The apex of photography technique — to shoot without thinking.

A realization and re-interpretation or re-articulation on the concept of ‘productivity’:

It isn’t actually ‘productivity’ we want, but power-expression.

I realized this becoming a parent. You suddenly have 100 fewer hours in a day to do your ‘productive’ things. And certainly once you become a parent, your productivity will go down at least 500%.

But then– is it really ‘productivity’ we want? I say no. The biggest pain being a new parent is dealing with the loss of physiological energy (thank god for sleep training). And then what brings us joy? Not being ‘productive’, but having great physiological strength and power we can express to the world via our words, thoughts, photos, art-work, or ideas!

A concept I got from my friend Jeffrey Lam:

The great thing about living in very close walking distance to a park (2 minute walk) is that it requires little to no ‘activation energy’ to go there to workout.

Also another thing I realize now I got a kid:

If I want to quickly get in and out of the house, I need the ideal shoes with the least ‘activation energy’ to quickly slip on and off (which has ended up just being simple black slippers).

Which makes me then think:

What are some other domains in life which we can best harness the ‘least activation energy’ concept to thrive more in life?

Some ideas:

1. In the domain of photography, the least activation amount of energy in photography: Simple point and shoot compact camera (RICOH GR III) always in your front pocket, shooting in P program mode, small JPEG, high contrast black and white (the ‘set it and forget it‘ ethos). Autofocus. Ability to use with one hand. Being able to shoot without thinking. Any superfluous technical settings (like shooting manual, etc) as a positive detriment to your photography.
2. With working out, just do the simplest workout which is the easiest for you to do. For example if you’re just stuck at home, buy a kettlebell and do kettlebell swings and lifts. Or if you go to the gym, stick to the simple and highly effective workouts (deadlift, squat, floor bench press/dumbbell press).
3. With music, don’t use bluetooth headphones (having to get them to sync is always a pain in the ass). Best to just play it off your speaker. For example as I write this, its easier to just play music off my laptop speakers than trying to find my bluetooth headphones to sync it to. Same goes with playing music directly off my phone speakers (I’ve started to just play music real loud off my iPhone at max speaker setting when at the gym, so I don’t need to use headphones).

The least amount of activation energy, and the maximal amount of force expression is the goal!

ERIC

Let us be like children and treat our photography (play) very ‘seriously’ — just have fun with photography; this is the great way to always stay inspired in your photography and never tire of it!

Children are most drawn to human faces. We adults are the same! Lesson:

Shoot more faces!

In praise of street portraits, or photos which reveal and show the faces of your subjects!

What we are heading towards:

Art photography.

Photography as ‘art tech’.

Why I always keep all my devices (iPhone, iPad, and MacBook laptop) in Beta Mode (always with the BETA version of all the operating systems) is this:

Life is more fun when you are always in beta-testing mode.

Also the underlying philosophy behind arsbeta.com

Ambition is the great tonic of life. My hunger and desire to create the most epic images that the world has yet seen before.

The camera as a technological tool to create art out of nothing, or perhaps the only ingredient we need is embodied reality, our legs, our imagination and creativity.

We are often taught that it is good and virtuous to invest money in our “future “, and to secure a prudent retirement future. However that notion is upholding Puritan values of self sacrifice for the greater good, not necessarily your good. I say instead to stake out a few thousand dollars into spend that money extravagantly on yourself, towards your own tools, arts experimentations and random speculations, then to spend it on other entities, stocks, funds, or even crypto currencies.

speculate in yourself, and invest in yourself. You are the ultimate good and aim.

Self entrepreneurship is the goal.

What is photography? An active *CURATION* of images (curation means what you ‘CARE’ [cura] for).

Something I’ve been wanting to work on for a long time:

A comparison between the original Blade Runner vs the New One (2049).

Some thoughts:

Denis Villeneuve (Director of the new blade runner) said in an interview: “Cinema is poetry. And poetry is free.”

Perhaps we should apply this philosophy to photography as well. And you are the sole Director of your photography film life experience. Your photography is free, and photography is your ultimate creative canvas.

If photography is our art, then our camera is our arts creation machine. Isn’t the power of the camera magical? That this machine could create art objects out of nothing, perhaps all we need is embodied imagination, our legs and our hands, a little bit of creativity, and our own imagination.

Shadows are wonderfully simple thing to photograph, and to make abstract mysterious images. Focus on shooting more shadows— it is very fun and interesting.

This quote from the philosopher poet and aphorist Publilius Syrus puzzled me for a long period of time. But I think I understand it at least in the terms of photography.

The general gist is that even the smallest, most microscopic, macro mode, small detail or thing can become a beautiful and great subject photograph. Morale of the story: use Ricoh GR3 and macro mode to look for more small tiny details which we might often overlook in order to make beautifully elegant simple images.

When I first heard Kanye tweet “I watch blade runner on loop” I was intrigued to rewatch it. And I was not disappointed — it’s a truly great film. Beautiful, great cinematography and color schemes and palettes — worthy of any visual artist to watch, analyze and study!

Photolink — inspired by Chainlink (chain.link). The idea —

Uncovering and sharing how all photos are connected.

Why Bitcoin and cryptocurrency is so interesting to me — open source money. A glorious future with nobody controlling the money, but humans and people and technology.

Bitcoin and cryptocurrency as the future of money, commerce, and interpersonal relationships and connections.

Also my fascination with “micro payments”— a Bitcoin being able to be infinitely small micro portions (.00001 BTC Bitcoin for example)— future of payments for online creators?

Made with ‘cookbook’ theme, on Affinity Publisher:

Towards a more effective, interesting, and creative way to publish and share your photos.

Social media (Facebook, Instagram) is lame platforms to share your work. Why? The procrustean bed — just uploading one photo at a time (to maximize your likes). Sure you can do the ‘slideshow’ feature in Instagram and Facebook, but nobody really likes it. And thus the needless social media treadmill of just maximizing your follower and like numbers.

>> See SEN. E-ZINE

Why do I love fashion, product design, automotive and car design, graffiti, architecture, photography, painting, films and sculpture? My extreme joy of visual things. Visual things also as personified through human beings and the built social environment.

moral of the story: spend more time investigating analyzing and creating visual things. Any visual thing which inspires or motivates you or brings you joy and delight is good.

Further investigations in 3-D art, virtual reality, augmented reality, comic book and graphic book compositions, abstract art, and of course your own photography.

I got a grocery market within walking distance from my home, which is a Whole Foods and surprisingly it is a very fun place to shoot street photography and just kill time. RICOH GR III is super low key and stealth to shoot while at the grocery store:

What is the difference between photos and photographs and pictures? Well, back in the day they used to call paintings pictures. Now they call paintings paintings, and they call photographs pictures.

But what are we doing as photographers? We are creating and painting your own pictures via photos. Thus perhaps to go on photography is to continue shooting, creating, making and innovating in our photography, pictures or photographs, whatever you decide to call it.

Almost everything in life has a certain degree of novelty. For example Lamborghinis and scissor doors, and to even an extent the Tesla model X and the falcon wing doors. We all are searching for novelty in our lives and our consumer goods, but once the novelty wears off, perhaps in a week or two, then what?

My answer: perhaps the insatiable desire and lust to continue creating new art and creating new things, whether in the analogue or digital is the goal.

Thought —

Perhaps much of the existential dread, ennui, and maybe even depression is because many moderns aren’t having kids anymore.

For myself at least, I realized — when you’re raising a kid, you’re too busy to even have the free time and effort to ‘think’ about your purpose in life, or other existential things. Perhaps (childless) philosophers suffered from this — too much time on your hands without a simple purpose (raising a child, keeping it from starving to death, etc). Having a kid is the most straight-forward way to have a strong sense of purpose, meaning, and feedback in life.

One of the easiest ways to make more interesting and enigmatic photos — drastically under-expose your photos. Make your photos ‘as dark as possible’ while still being able to see *some* detail: