Dear friend,

Recently I’ve found a huge new spurt of creative inspiration for photography, and have been shooting more on a daily basis than ever. What has helped me? Let me share with you what has worked for me:

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If you want to make more interesting photos, make more surreal photos:

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Dear friend,

If you’ve ever had ‘photographer’s block’, and felt creatively frustrated, and have no inspiration or will to shoot — I hope this advice can help you.

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30 Inspirational New Year’s Photography Resolutions: Kick off your photography with a fresh new start with this new FREE PDF Visualization by Annette KIM.

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HAPTICPRESS presents a new Visualization to inspire you for the new year’s: “ZEN OF ERIC: On Photography, Life, Art, and Work.”

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Dear friend,

I don’t know about you—but I’m prone to disappointment in my photography and life.

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Freshly pressed creations by the talented Annette Kim to inspire you this new year:

• Free Visualization: “Zen of Eric: On Life, Art, Photography, and Work“,”Introduction to Composition in Photography“, “Travel Photography Tips“
  • –> Download ALL Free Visualizations on Street Photography
• Photographer’s Hand Artwear: Cultivate the five traits of a photographer artist.
• Haptic Hoodie: Stay warm and inspired this winter.

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I’ve been thinking — there are so many good photos and images now in the world. What is the practical benefit, or value of a photograph?

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Hesitation is the death of us.

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This is a spin-off of the wise saying from Socrates: “The unexamined life isn’t worth living.”

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A recent thought I had: photography is fun precisely because it is a series of visual experimentation.

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I was recently at the house of my friend Yves Vernin, and saw the phenomenal book, ‘In The Balkans‘ by Magnum Photographer Nikos Economopoulos, and was blown away by his epic compositions.

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If you are hungry for direction and inspiration in your photography, try these 10 simple and practical photography assignments:

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Dear friend,

Some more fun photography philosophy to wax poetic about — this time, let’s consider the photographer as a vessel.

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Dear friend,

I’m gonna try to share some personal thoughts on purpose and happiness.

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Dear friend,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year’s from me and Cindy in Marseille!

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Happy Holidays from the HAPTIC family. We are excited to announce the following new products in our HAPTIC shop:

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If you want more bold colors, integrate both red and green into your pictures.

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Directed, Concept, Produced, Poetry by Cindy Nguyen

Director’s Statement (Cindy Nguyen, 2017)

It’s simple, really. We like to pause, look around, and think about life. We made this to invite you to join us in conversation about what is important/not and to ask why/why not?

With end of the year festivities, we took a moment to pause and reflect. In this moment of quiet meditation, we converse honestly about life, gratitude, and redefining expectations around ‘success’ and the artistic process.

Happy Holidays from Cindy & Eric. We wish you a new year of hope, honesty, and rediscovering your inner child.

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Sounds by
Haruka Nakamura – Arne
SoulChef – Hello
J Dilla – So Far To Go
Blazo – Brisk Yellow
Que Sera – Wax Tailor
Marseille, the city
Tokyo, the city

More Reflection Essays

My Life Lessons From 2017

33 Inspirational Photography New Year’s Resolutions and Assignment Ideas

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Cindy Nguyen: “I made a film about my soulmate and creative partner. It is an intimate conversation about creating art, embracing change, and holding onto childlike wonder. I hope the film offers a moment to contemplate on the beauty and impermanence of life.”

Directed, Produced, Concept, Poetry by Cindy Nguyen
Artist interview with Eric Kim
Marseille, 2017

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Dear friend,

The reason I love street photography is to harness the spirit of the “flâneur” — or the person who walks aimlessly, with grace, and doesn’t have a final destination in mind.

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Studying the work of Rene Magritte and the surrealists has given me a new-found appreciation for the masterful photos of Henri Cartier-Bresson.

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Photography is all about finding beauty in the common, ordinary, and mundane.

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Good way of living: automate the unimportant things in your life, to give focus to what is truly important in your life.

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Dear friend,

I think I have discovered the secret to happiness and photography — and I want to share this secret with you.

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In this essay, I will attempt to define art, and explain why I believe it to be essential in being human.

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Dear friend,

As the new year is coming up, here are some new years resolutions we can apply to our photography:

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Dear friend,

I want to use this opportunity for me to count my blessings, and also thank you.

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HAPTIC presents the Ultimate Beginner’s Guide for Street Photography Series — visualizations of essential photography lessons and tips by ANNETTE KIM. Annette researched, synthesized, and visualized the key lessons to present to you a fun, easy to read VISUALIZATION of photography fundamentals.

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To be more creative, and to learn how to have more child-like delight in photography, LOOK UP!

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Surrealism is a classic technique we can use in our street photography.

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If you don’t love what you photograph — why photograph it?

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If we return to our beginners or child-like mind in photography, when we started off before concepts or rules, there is no such thing as ‘genre’ within photography.

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ERIC KIM x Ricoh GR II x Prague/Marseille:

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Dear friend,

Do you remember when you first started photography, and how fun and childlike it was?

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What is the purpose of art and photography? My idea: to create optimism, hope, excitement, and positivity for the viewer, and for society as a whole.

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Kyoto, 2016, by ERIC KIM x RICOH GR II:

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Tokyo, 2016, RICOH GR II:

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One of the best compositions you can apply to your compositions: triangles.

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Let us delve deeper into composition, this time with the “Golden triangle”, also known as the “Golden section”, or the “Golden rectangle”.

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One of the ways our mind sees: we chunk together related pieces of information, and just see one piece. This helps simplify our vision:

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Matisse is currently my muse, with his minimalist compositions, his playful use of form and color, and his masterful cutouts.

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If you want inspiration for your photography compositions, here are some examples from my work that hopefully can give you some fresh new ideas:

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Why I love shooting with an LCD screen:

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Inspiration from one of the old-school masters, Edward Weston:

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Composition is the art of arranging the visual elements within your frame.

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Dear friend,

A realization: photography in itself is meditation.

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Dear friend,

Cindy and I just arrived here in Marseille, in the south of France, and will be here for the next month working on creative projects like new videos, blog posts, and other information to empower you.

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Sergio Larrain: one of the greatest composition masters in photography.

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Cindy Nguyen: “I made a film about my soulmate and creative partner. It is an intimate conversation about creating art, embracing change, and holding onto childlike wonder. I hope the film offers a moment to contemplate on the beauty and impermanence of life.”

Directed, Produced, Concept, Poetry by Cindy Nguyen
Artist interview with Eric Kim
Marseille, 2017

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Why is it so scary for us to delete our photos?

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Eric and I will be taking some time off with our family and will partially close the HAPTIC shop December 26, 2017 to January 24, 2017. A limited inventory of our products will be available on Amazon and shipped as usual until supplies run out.

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Fresh new free PDF visualization on Introduction to Photography Composition by ANNETTE KIM (part of the free PDF series on Introduction to Street Photography).

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Inspirational quotes in French/English, from the master: Henri Cartier-Bresson

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Some of my favorite compositions from Henri Cartier-Bresson, some of his less known works.

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May 16, 2017 is the day I deleted my Instagram.

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5 practical street photography tips to get your creative juices flowing:

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Conquer your fears and meet new peers in London, NYC, Kyoto, and Tokyo in 2018:

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Trigger your creative spirit with PHOTO JOURNAL.

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I think the best photos are the ones to photograph of everyday life.

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One fun visual pun or joke you can play — overlap the subjects face with something else, to make a surreal street photograph.

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