Dear friend,

If you are hungry for an epic street photography adventure and experience, I cordially invite you to my upcoming San Francisco Bay Area ADVANCED STREET PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP, November 13, 2021:

The iPhone has a great tool for street photography. Not quite as good as the Ricoh GR 3, but good enough.

Something funny I noticed— all of my friends with good jobs and good salaries in life are quite complacent in their lives. Very happy and comfortable, pleased with where they are, no qualms, no gripes.

But the problem — this breeds complacency (pleased with one’s standing and where one is).

So then it seems that the life goal is this: When you’ve succeeded and reached in certain level of success, hate complacency. Always strive for more. This can be striving for more in your photography, to hate complacency in your artistic and creative endeavors.

My favorite and most personal city for street photography:

The best judge of something and its worth:

Do you use it daily, or only on the weekends, or almost never at all?

My critique of Tesla cars and humans in general:

I don’t like beautiful but boring.

(more…)

Why PORSCHE is cooler than TESLA:

I am amazed– the experience of viewing your photos on iPad (Pro with M1 Chip) is insanely great. Why?

Our aesthetic ideal. Thinner socks, thinner soles for shoes, thinner devices (why iPhone Mini is superior to iPhone Pro … the Mini is thinner and slimmer).

ERIC KIM NEWSLETTER >

You’re an artist and a creative visionary. Some ideas for you:

My simple life mission:

Strive to turbocharge myself to the maximum, and to turbocharge others.

Why get a Lamborghini over a Tesla Model S Plaid, when the Tesla is obviously the superior car? The aggressive shark-like design (teeth and all) of the Lamborghini over the mostly … soft and jelly-like looking Tesla Model S.

My theory — masculine design strives towards the aggressive, loud, and “angry”. Thus the more aggressive the design, the better.

Rather than try to conquer others, self dominance and self conquering is a much more noble an interesting goal. Why is that? This is because you could become your own inner tyrant. In fact that is what Nietzsche defines as willpower, the tyrant within.

The best empire is yourself — an empire over yourself.

What does it mean to become a photographer? Simple: the idea that every moment you’re in a state of becoming, and every moment you’re photographing that process. Thus, being in a state of becoming as a photographer is for you to become more cogent and cognizant of your life, realizing how beautiful it is, despite any tragedies and downsides.

We exist. We are in a state of being. However, far more interesting to be in the state of becoming over being.

Being is static. Becoming is dynamic. The notion of “being” is stagnant, boring, and doesn’t go anywhere. However the state of becoming is striving for more, striving for more difficulties, striving for more obstacles, striving for more resistance, and striving for more power and strength. Life is the beautiful struggle of becoming.

Why is RICOH GR III the best camera of all time? The most compact, simple, and powerful performing camera on the market.

Why do people buy things? Not for the thing itself or the ‘performance’ — they buy it for the design.

Why I own DigiByte:

Some ideas towards a more efficient lifestyle:

ERIC KIM WRIST STRAP II: The only strap for RICOH GR III (and II, and I).

Why I am invested in Chainlink:

The more you can link and connect things, the better. You’re the glue.

Once you’ve become the greatest, then what?

A good idea I got from the philosopher Nietzsche: that is, any action which is done instinctually and without thought is a perfect action. Thus, when you decide to act, best not to think about it too much. Rather to just follow your gut.

Perhaps in photography this also holds true. That is, to just photograph anything that your instinct tells you to photograph. Shooting with your gut is a good idea, just like what Anders Petersen says.

Perhaps the lust for more is a virtue.

Disregard what’s “pragmatic” in life. What’s pragmatic in life is often ugly and boring. I don’t desire a future where everyone is driving a Prius or a Honda Accord. True aesthetics is flamboyant, impractical and an ethical-aesthetic ideal.

Just setup the HAPTIC SHOP to accept crypto (Bitcoin, DOGECOIN, Ethereum, Litecoin, etc), and it is exciting to start again from zero, to start from scratch!

In praise of this carte blanche approach:

ERIC KIM NEWSLETTER >

Dear friends,

Contrary to what people think, right now is the best time to be alive, and the best time for street photography!

Contrary to what nihilistic people say, the year 2021 is the best year to be alive.

Turbo thought:

Perhaps it isn’t ‘street’ photography we are doing, but *society* photography.

HAPTIC INDUSTRIES now accepting cryptocurrencies — Bitcoin, DOGECOIN, Litecoin, Ethereum etc for any HAPTIC PRODUCTS.

Powered by Coinbase Commerce

Discover all HAPTIC PRODUCTS >

The reason why crypto is good:

As time goes on, it will become *MORE* valuable, useful and interesting.

Compare this to fiat currency (like the USDOLLAR or the Euro) which will LOSE value over time.

Why are interest in brand new things? What does this even mean?

HENRI NECK STRAP MARK IV in the now beautiful Blood Red x Mahogany Brown. Also available in PHANTOM BLACK.

What’s the purpose of design? Why is design important?

If you’re interested in the future of photography, it is PDF:

1. PDF: ERIC KIM Photography Composition Studies // Google Drive
2. PDF: Josef Koudelka Photography Composition Studies // Google Drive // Direct Download PDF
3. PDF: Richard Avedon Photography Composition Studies // Google Drive

More books >

ERIC KIM NEWSLETTER >

What do we lack in our photography? Self-pride in our photos. Some thoughts and ideas:

I think what we’re all seeking for is growing in our photography. But how do we do that?

Seek the good pain, the good resistance, and the good stress to make you stronger:

You got everything to gain, nothing to lose.

Turbo thought:

Perhaps the future is going to be a “post money” or a “post currency” future.

Which makes me think — what’s more important than money and currency? Technology.

Perhaps Chainlink as more important than Bitcoin (in the crypto world).

The future — linking things together… from the digital to the physical world?

What is the meaning or the purpose of “perfection” in photography? My thought —

To perfect, means to complete, or accomplish or finish.

Per+facere (to do) in Latin.

Thus “perfection” is nothing but doing something and seeing it until completion.

Thus perhaps we should think of “perfection” as an ongoing task. That as we explore, adventure, experiment and tinker … we’re actually leading towards perfection!

As photographers, what do we desire? We desire to increase our photographic power.

How to do this? Some ideas:How to do this? Some ideas:

Why read? Reading as a boost, a turbocharge, and a stimulus to your own thinking.

Also, reading great thoughts can actually put energy, power and sensation into our legs, muscle and body!

What I love about technology, digital technology, blogging, YouTube, and cryptocurrency: the idea that the value of things is limitless. The sky is the limit. Also with blogging, in theory you could publish infinity amount of blog posts. And also with digital photography, in theory you could shoot 1 trillion photos+.

Like Buzz Lightyear said: to infinity and beyond.

ATTACK
No need to backtrack the progress in your life
Attack and build the stacks of your library of knowledge and wisdom

Attack
There’s nothing you lack or need
Harness your greed for the gains
And learn to love the strain and pain
Cerebral intoxication, Dionysian brain

ERIC

FREE MOTIVATION >

Dear friend,

If you are looking for some photography exercises to build your photographic muscles, some ideas:

The philosophy that the best is yet to come.

Let us crush romantic notions of the past:

The thought on my mind:

How much innovation has *yet* been done in monochrome?

To build off of the anti-romanticism notion:

Let us consider– the best is yet to come.

Our best selves are yet to come. Our best artwork is the best to come. The best designs, films, architecture, modern societal concepts are *YET TO COME!*

Something that I have thought about a long time:

Why do we have a romanticism of the past, specifically … ‘retro’ things?

A strong and solid primer to street photography [if I started all over again]:

Anything you can do to increase street photography options, the better.

My honest appraisal:

My life in photos:

NEWSLETTER

What are we lacking in today’s world as photographers? Pride. Pride in ourselves, and pride in our photos:

What are we lacking in today’s world? Pride. Pride in ourselves, and pride in what we do and create:

In today’s world where you have the Tesla Model S Plaid going from 0-60mph in less than 2 seconds, the question —

What’s the purpose of all these other cars out there?

Answer— aesthetics.

Another funny bias I learned about society: what society and people typically say is good for you is typically bad for you, and what people say is bad for you is often very good for you.

It seems in today’s world, there is a cult of reading. That is, the more you read, the better. But is this true?

Why is it that Ivy League schools deify the ‘endowment’ more so than real human beings? Why is it that we as individuals prize our ‘savings’ more so than ourselves?

Something Steve Jobs talked about a lot.

Been listening to the new DONDA album, and wow —

It is insanely great.

It blows my mind, how is it that Kanye West and his music is at least 1000x more interesting, original, and epic than his other peers?

Not sure if any other thinkers have thought this but,

Ethics are aesthetic.

The difficulty we all face:

We see our lives and environment as boring, and we are frustrated — we hope we lived a more interesting life (or lived in a more interesting city) to make more personally interesting photos.

How to do this? Some ideas:

Assuming that life is about becoming, and that you’re in a stream of becoming, the question is: what do you desire to become?

ERIC KIM NEWSLETTER >

Life is all about aspiration. The more you aspire, the better.