Something that I have thought about a long time:

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

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

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

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My honest appraisal:

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My life in photos:

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NEWSLETTER

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

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

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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.

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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.

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

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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?

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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?

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Not sure if any other thinkers have thought this but,

Ethics are aesthetic.

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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:

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

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ERIC KIM NEWSLETTER >

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

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Either make things luxury [extra], or give it for free.

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RICOH GR III as the best camera of all time:

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What is our enemy? Creative stagnation. What the way? To conquer and overcome it.

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What is the will, or willpower? The desire to dominate. To become master. To overcome boundaries and obstacles, and transform that which stands in your way into your fuelpower.

Channel your hunger to dominate in productive, artistic and creative ways.

We are often told that to get into photography as a business is a very bad idea. On the contrary, it is the industry the most ripe for disruption and innovation:

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This is the intersection of all I love and find interesting and fascinating to myself:

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Ask — will this benefit or harm me?

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Don’t sit on the sidelines:

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When in doubt, opt for bold. To be lukewarm or tepid is boring. Don’t filter your thoughts — go for extreme bold.

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A more robust notion of success:

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Complacency is the enemy:

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For camera, RICOH GR III. After that, Fujifilm XPRO3 with Fujifilm 23mm f2 lens.

For strap, ERIC KIM NECK STRAP or ERIC KIM WRIST STRAP for RICOH GR. HENRI NECK STRAP for Fujifilm, Leica, Sony or any other mirrorless camera.

For bag, Thinktank. I love their camera travel backpacks.

For clothes, all black merino wool everything. The best T-shirt as outlier.NYC merino wool shirts, for pants simply wear black merino wool leggings, paired with black Marino wool shorts. Socks black merino wool socks, and for shoes Nike free shoes.

Solo photography — photos you shoot for yourself, of yourself and the life around you:

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The best way to prevent any regret in life, especially with speculative investing matters:

Just buy it.

Better to take a risk you’re interested in, and being wrong than to be prudent and be left at the sidelines.

Bitcoin, just buy some on Coinbase. The only two other cryptocurrencies I find interesting are Digibyte (faaaar faster, 40x faster than Bitcoin and 10x faster than Litecoin) and Chainlink (links are everything). The only cryptocurrency I’d be wary of is Ada Cardano, which seems like a scam (whenever an innovation is attempted to be created top-down by academics and researchers, this is bad).

In photography matters, if you’re curious about the Leica rangefinder experience, just buy it and return it if you don’t like it, or just resell it.

Towards a more risk-loving lifestyle.

If anything interests you even 1%, just try it and buy it!

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I’m more impressed with the Fujifilm XPRO3 over the Leica M10. So if you have the option (even though you can afford both), get the XPRO3. More innovative (no LCD screen), autofocus as better than manual focusing (zone focusing), and better image quality, JPEG presets and high ISO capabilities.

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As artists, what’s our primary preoccupation? Aesthetics.

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First of all,

Cliche isn’t that big of a deal.

It doesn’t matter whether someone has done it or not in the past. What is important is that you enjoy doing it.

For example, would you not drink coffee because everyone else does it, and everyone else has done it before? Or would you not have a coffee this morning because you’ve “done it before”?

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A street thought:

Authenticity is far more important than ‘originality’.

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There seems to be this bias everywhere. That is, all clichés are bad. But are clichés really that big of a deal? I think not.

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We are often told that life has much grey in between. But I don’t like the idea. I prefer the idea that life is binary — black and white, strong or weak, to keep or ditch, friend or not friend.

Consider with consumerist and purchasing behaviors as well — either you buy it, or you don’t.

Perhaps the further we can advance life as being binary, the better. Or simply put:

Avoid the middle, avoid the grey, avoid the boring and mediocre in life.

All or nothing. Barbell philosophy. Embrace the extremes.

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Optimize your life for street life.

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SHOOTING IDEAS:

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IPAD IS GREAT:

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Hey streettogs,

Just came back from Seattle after teaching my Seattle MASTERWORKSHOP, and some street photography thoughts:

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As much as I love color, color seems too obvious.

I say far more innovations await monochrome. Avoid the color-trend right now in photography/street photography. Monochrome is timeless and king.

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I love Seattle:

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Street thoughts on my mind:

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Just got back from Seattle, and when reviewing my photos:

The photos I shot on monochrome are far more interesting to me than my color photos.

Why is this? My simple thought:

Color photos are too obvious.

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Assuming that it is all about you, and you’re the end goal into yourself, then —

What should we focus on in our lives?

I say solo photography. Solo entrepreneurship.

And out of all these types of photography, what is the highest and greatest? Simple, I say street photography.

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Transform yourself into a unicorn and a pony:

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Love Seattle and Capitol Hill for street photography, travel, and the dynamism of the city and friendly folks.

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Simple life lesson — with physical things, goods and tools (and even homes), bigger and heavier is worse. Even if it’s bigger and faster or stronger, it’s worse than something smaller, more agile, nimble and quick.

iPhone Mini over iPhone Pro. Normal size iPad over the bigger one. Smaller minimalist luxury apartments over big homes. Smaller cars (Model 3) over bigger ones (Model Y, X and S).

A simple thought about decision making: optimize for what is best, not what is most convenient.

Something I learned from my friend and student Richard Reed:

Reduction is an extremely effective compositional concept, both in photography art and life.

Reduction in terms of making your photos as dark as possible (ADAP) by using minus exposure compensation. Or reducing distracting and superfluous distractions in the background.

Contrary to what people believe, I actually think Seattle is highly *UNDERRATED*. Great vivacity in the city (I love Capitol Hill), the people are very friendly and also very unique, and the grit (and growth) of the city is fascinating.

The best coffee in the states (Vivace, Vita, Victrola — the 3 v’s). Also seeing all the new skyscrapers and growth of the city is highly fascinating and hugely optimistic!

I would personally prefer living in Seattle over the Bay Area or SF.

What do we desire and hunger for as entrepreneurs? To move the world. To shake the world.

Consider the success of Amazon — moving people, moving packages, things, products.

Tesla — moving people in cars (autonomous).

With music, literally moving the muscles of people.

Nike — shoes that (literally) move people.

For us, perhaps to make photos that move others (emotionally or literally). To share ideas that also literally move others!

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Simple thought:

We can divide almost everything to boring or not boring.

Boring or not boring music. Boring or not boring films. Boring or not boring people, thoughts, ideas, design, photos, artwork, etc.

Simple way to live life:

Just opt for *NOT* boring!

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AFFIRM
BE FIRM and rigid in your purpose in life
Knife sharp, stay straight
Disregard the placation or relation with others
Disclaim the popular acclaim of the masses
Skip the classes and drop out of popular ideals
What direction is your virtue and effort? Only you can steer the wheel!

ERIC

Simple thoughts:

1. Bitcoin as a word is easy to pronounce and say, regardless of the foreign language. Even my mom and Cindy’s mom can pronounce “Bitcoin”— imagine them trying to pronounce “ethereum” or any other cryptocurrency name.
2. Orange is dominant: Orange as the brightest and most eye catching color. Note the silencer tab in iPhone is orange, NIKE boxes are orange, traffic cones are orange. The most prized Hermès accessories as orange.
3. Pirate bay seems to currently only accept Bitcoin as their sole donation cryptocurrency. Strong skin in the game marker, or the reflection of seeing what people do rather than what they say.
4. John Wick: consider how all the characters of John Wick exchange services for “a coin”. Because Bitcoin is now worth so much, it’s easier to simply exchange 1 Bitcoin for 1 Car (like 1 Bitcoin for 1 entry level Tesla Model 3), or perhaps exchange 20 Bitcoins for a home, etc. Leave the small and micro exchanges to credit card companies and cash.

Always refrain to categorize and classify yourself. No anchoring. There is nothing else or nobody else who you could compare yourself to. Furthermore, it is our ego and our pride that we cannot stand being likened to anybody else but ourselves.

Classification as a trap and a prison.

That which we hate is stagnation. That which we love is growth.

Thus when judging yourself, others and investments ask yourself:

Is this stagnant or growing?

For example in cryptocurrency, Bitcoin as growing. And this is good! Avoid any speculative investing which you see as stagnant and uncertain.

Optimize yourself for growth

Optimize yourself to continue growing, and avoid any stagnant traps. All stagnant traps include genres, classifications, and categories.

You cannot be classified, because you’re in a category of yourself.

In someways, I think seeking financial independence is a trap. What is far more important is artistic independence. There are a lot of people who are financially independent, but morally, ethically and artistically enslaved.

Why do we seek financial independence? Because we currently hate our current existence. In someways when we think about the religious notion of afterlife, we all strive towards it. Perhaps the striving for financial independence is simply the atheist notion of an “afterlife“.

Only do that which your internal self drives you and compels you to do. Avoid weak inner compellations.

DIFFICULT IS THE WAY:

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Rather than seeing your life and your photography is two separate things, better to see them as one integrated thing.

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The new you is better than the old you:

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Life and growth is all about the dynamic, not the static.

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Just watched the last 300 movie (rise of an empire) and I found it not as satisfying as the first original one (300). Why? This is what I concluded:

The main character (Themistocles) is not as buff and impressive as King Leonidas (Gerald Butler).

Similarly speaking, the Greeks of Themistocles army aren’t even a quarter as impressive as the 300 spartan soldiers who accompanied King Leonidas in the first 300 film.

Thus in terms of films that get your adrenaline and testosterone up, it seems that having main characters who have more muscle and brawn as more impressive.

And most of all, our aesthetic ideal more towards the Hercules concept (Farnese Hercules): the more brawn and muscle, the better.

Thinking about the philosophy of efficiency:

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Rather than thinking what is better or worse, perhaps better to think about your lifestyle and strive to optimize for what is more efficient and effective for you.

Adrenaline is good for us street photographers.

For example, how do you know if a scene might be an interesting street photo or not? Simple — if it gets your adrenaline up!

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It seems in today’s world we are so obsessed with “content”. But perhaps rather than thinking about “content”, it is better to think about yourself.

Anything and everything you create is simply an external manifestation of you.

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How I understand photography:

The end goal of photography is infinite, therefore, we must embrace the idea of an ‘eternal return’ to our photography, in our never-ending quest for more experiences, more photo-taking, and more artistic creation!

Never stop chasing that horizon!

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