All photos are alike and different in their own way:

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ERIC NEWSLETTER >

What is it that we want in our photography? Not necessarily to get “better“, but to become more confident. More self-confident of ourselves, our photographic ability, and our photographic future.

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You’re a designer *and* photographer.

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Avoid the news, social media, political commentary etc. Why? It is “outrage porn”— optimized to anger and outrage you. It gets us addicted to a sense of injustice, self righteousness and of course … anger and outrage. Which goes nowhere, just like us swallowing our own poison.

Delete the news from your personal life.

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We are usually taught that having dreams are good. But what if dreams were bad — a trap? A fantasy with no upside?

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Whether or not you think college is a scam, it is undeniable that college campuses are great. Great architecture, great student life, great human activity. College and college campuses are a pseudo-utopia.

So the question is whether or not you should go to college, or send your own kids to college. It ultimately comes down to the financial thing. If you can go for free, or highly reduced with student aid, go for it. But as greatest student life in college campuses are, if you have to go into massive debt in order to afford sale, don’t do it.

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I wonder this barbell theory: if you want to maximize your money making potential, maybe it is good to separate your money making profession and your passion. For example, you’ll probably make a lot more money as a lawyer then even the highest paid photographer.

Now or is still possible to make a lot of money as a photographer, but the money making potential of a photographer is much lower than that of other professions.

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What is life? Growth and change. Thus if you just optimize your life towards growth and change, how can you fail?

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What is it that we want in life? Confidence.

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We Will Never Be Pleased.

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The notion of “Just in Time” comes from the Toyota way. Similar to notions of kaizen. Anyways the notion of Just in Time is fascinating to me because it is similar to the notion of ALAP, as late as possible.

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As parents, what I think we want is to make more meaningful photos of our kids. Artistic and more beautiful photos of the kids, that brings us more joy delight and gratitude.

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Nationalism is often seen as bad. But why?

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A philosophical classification system: almost everything in life you could either categorize as ascending or descending. Then the focus becomes to only focus on that which is ascending, and a void understand that which is descending.

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Perhaps if you live somewhere uber-boring like the suburbs, we must be inventive and figure out:

How can we spice up our boring lifestyle — and make it more exciting?

What is ‘perfection’? Perhaps it is simply a striving for more. More perfect, more efficient, more effective.

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WHY APP? The motivation:

From Nietzsche — if a man knows his ‘wherefore?’ he can discover any ‘how?’

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Dear friend,

The unstoppable passion I have:

Trying to discover the maximum amount of passion in my photography, and the maximum amount of enjoyment and joy in my photography.

This decade+ journey has resulted in some interesting takeaways:

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Photolosophy idea.

After much experimentation with Leica cameras, and all the other cameras on the market, this is what I have learned:

Ricoh–Pentax is the supreme (the best) camera brand for photography.

For videos and vlogging things, Lumix–Panasonic is the best.

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HAPTIC INDUSTRIES: my creative passion expressed in physical products:

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Condense:

Make it more dense, thicker, more compact [densus in Latin].

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The best way to condense and compress your photos:

Make video slide shows (.8 seconds for each photo) in iMovie and autoplay it:

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What is life all about? Striving for more.

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If you have a choice and option in life, opt to *NOT* be miserable. Don’t surround, interact or engage with miserable people, consume miserable news, have miserable thoughts, or dwell on past misery or uncertainty.

What should we opt for instead? Exuberant joy. Happiness made visible (Nietzsche’s idea). Triumph. A childlike naïveté towards the world, with great optimism and hope/joy for the future.

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Life lesson about equipment, our tools, things, clothes, cars, etc —

Even though we get the best, we won’t be satisfied.

Then what does this mean?

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Why read? Reading too is a form of consumption, but at least it takes skill and brain input from you to interpret. Whereas many video games, tv shows and films take zero skill to take in and interpret.

Perhaps the best films are the ones which require some sort of interpretation for you — difficult watching, which requires you to try to understand what’s happening in the plot. Films which are difficult and confusing to watch.

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If you seek more happiness in your life, seek more control.

How to make our happiness visible through our photos:

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Control over convenience, control over money power and influence.

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First sent on ERIC KIM NEWSLETTER >

The holidays are coming up. What does this mean?

A chance for us to think about what kind of experiences we want to invest in, and what we want to do and accomplish.

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What do we really want in our photography? To discover our true voice and vision in our photography. To differentiate our photography from others.

But how does one do this?

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What is popular is often wrong. Also, what is popular is often bad.

Rare is better. The rare for the rare.

My simple prediction: in the next 30 years, we will see NFT and nonfungible tokens increase in use and popularity. Also, the trend for digital possessions, and digital ownership, rather than physical ownership.

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What do we hate the most when it comes to movies and films? When it is predictable and cliché.

But why is it that we want people to be predictable? Why is it that we want predictable investments? Why is it that we want a predictable life?

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Perhaps to be more productive and creative, don’t just stick to 100% arabica coffee. Integrate robusta into it.

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I have a photographic memory. That is, my memories are just photos. I don’t actually remember actual events, but I remember the photos surrounding them.

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Are experiences worth it if you don’t remember them? Probably not.

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I am all for buying experiences, not stuff. and this is where Airbnb is so great:

Airbnb is both an aesthetic, home and living and lifestyle experience, and typically good for reawakening your mind, creativity, and photography.

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Finally was able to make it out to Joshua tree, after many years of living in Southern California. Highly recommended for a quick family road trip. Just rent a nice Airbnb close by, and it seems that spending two nights there in the Airbnb is sufficient.

During the day, go to skull rock, to go on an epic rock hike. To be surrounded by these monumental stones is quite awesome. Also the Ryan Mountain Trail, to strengthen your legs and get epic views.

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Some things you can ask for this holiday season:

1. Ricoh GR 3, or Ricoh GR 3X. Eric Kim wrist strap or Eric Kim neck strap for your Ricoh GR.
2. An Airbnb experience and travel experience, for yourself, your friends, family, or partner.
3. Outlier.NYC black merino wool T-shirt
4. ask somebody to gift you a workshop experience
5. If you don’t already, ask somebody to gift you HBO Max to watch the new Dune movie. or ask somebody to gift you Apple TV+ to watch the new foundation series
6. Ask somebody to buy your kettle bell. Either a 70 pound one, or 105 pound one if you’re stronger.
7. Ask somebody to buy you some good hiking shoes, if you’d like to hike. Or aspire to hike more.
8. If you like meat, ask somebody to gift you a butcher box
9. If you want to get into powerlifting, or get stronger, ask somebody to gift you a gym membership
10. Black Merino wool leggings, or black merino wool shorts.
11. iPad Pro M1 chip, to expedite your photography workflow with USB-C, and using Procreate for creativity.
12. A good photography book, or several
13. If you want to learn something, a Udemy course
14. If you like music, ask for an Apple Music subscription. I actually prefer this over Spotify
15. Ask for a dinner experience. Ask a friend or family member to take you out and get some all you can eat Korean barbecue
16. The gift of time: maybe on Christmas day you can institute a no devices or work policy

The saying that diamond is made from pressure. Also, compression tights, compression clothing as good for your health. Also in praise of compressed files, like zip files. Also compressed design, being able to fit more force in a smaller footprint.

maybe for better well-being, and better health, wear compression clothing. Funny enough when I wear a compression tights and leggings, I think I’m actually more productive with my creative work.
also, the power of compressing your thoughts in fewer words, fewer sentences.

Dear friend,

What is my personal modus in photography? Simple —

Helping you achieve your personal maximum in your photography.

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A quick money and entrepreneurial thought:

Best to take lots of small financial risks rather than make a few foolish really-big expensive financial investments (I think it is a very bad idea buying a new car, and buying a home).

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Not sure what the purpose of your life is? If your passion is photography, it is simple:

It is to make photos.

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Do not separate your ‘work’ and ‘career’ with your passion (photography). They are the same thing.

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When you’re not sure your audience will like it or not, just take the risk and publish it.

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Our motto (John Wick inspired).

The future of photography, publishing, and possessions — all digital.

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A random thought this morning —

Perhaps digital possessions are superior to physical possessions.

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Even though at times we may feel there is nothing to photograph:

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If you want the best and happiest life, perhaps hiking must be a part of your lifestyle regimen:

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Why travel? A good way to reset. Reset the way you do things, your daily routine, how you see and interact with the world.

Don’t buy it for the flashy aesthetics because you will sooner or later bore of it.

Also anti perfection notions in aesthetics. All aesthetic ideals are trends. Even wabi sabi.

Force expression either in physical strength, or force of ideas.

As an artist, our desire to discharge our creative energy and force via our art works!

What do you do once you get the perfect body and physique, the perfect car, perfect kid and wife, perfect camera, perfect lifestyle, etc?

Simple —

We must strive to go BEYOND “perfect”.

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ERIC KIM NEWS >

Why is that we photographers have so low self-esteem?

For example:

We don’t like to call ourselves ‘photographers’ when introducing ourselves, because we don’t make a living from it.

Or,

When we say photography is our passion, we don’t call ourselves ‘artists’. We see artists as painters, and photographers as a lesser-being.

But what if we saw photography as superior to painting, and other forms of artwork?

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Something I realized after much thinking and study: it seems that photographers see painters as superior to them. Thus the desire is the photographer is to become a painter, because the history of painting is longer and more legitimate than that of photography.

But perhaps the best is for the photographer to think of himself or herself as superior to the painter?

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Traditionally we have been taught that consistency in artwork is good. for example, we are taught that once you have discovered your definitive style, you should just stick with it until your death.

But perhaps this conviction is bad and a prison.

So then what is “consistency“? my thought:

When you are pursuing a certain idea or concept, you continue working on it because it continues to fascinate you. But once it no longer fascinates you, you must abandon it and move on.

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To have too strong of a conviction towards one thing is bad. Why? We will live too long to be trapped by one idea or concept.

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The great thing about art: you don’t need to justify your art or your aesthetic taste to anybody else. You merely assert it.

Thus don’t feel like you need to justify or explain your art or your aesthetic taste to anybody else. Just make it, and publish it.

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Nowadays there seems to be a bias towards single origin, or 100% pure things. but what if a hybrid model, a blended model, or a crossover design was actually better?

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What types of photos make me feel the most fulfilled? Photos that bring a smile my own face. Photos of my loved ones, people those who I care for, and photos which I interpret as my artwork (Street photography, abstract photography).

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So many more opportunities to shoot if you embrace abstract photography!

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What is the best life? The life in which we have the opportunity to express or test our courage. therefore, let us not waste time on things which don’t require our courage.

For example, it doesn’t take courage to buy something. It doesn’t take courage to buy a certain car, buy certain clothing, or buy certain objects. what does take some courage is speculative investing, and ultimate courage: speculation in Yourself.

Self speculation.

We love Tesla cars, and all the innovation behind Tesla and the genius behind Elon Musk and his grand vision. but rather than just buying a Tesla, why not just use the money to create your own ideal vision of the future, to create your own Tesla?

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Nietzsche once said, “I am dynamite!“ it seems that this sentiment is quite true. We love explosions. We love explosions in movies and films, we love when people explode with power, and with movies we love it when the main characters explode with rage.

But in today’s soft world, we are no longer allowed to express anger and passionate emotion. We are told to restrain our emotions and not express them.

But why brings us the most joy? I think it is this explosion, whether it is coitus, or metaphorical explosions when it comes to artistic and thought matter.

Maybe this is why we really love loud cars, sing space take offs, and other displays of immense power. Personally one of my greatest joys is watching other powerlifters hype themselves up before a one rep max powerlifting attempt.

Lesson: Figure out how we could better harnesses explosive energy, to express more of our explosive power.

In photography, make the best of what you got.

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But how long do we want them to last?

For cars, perhaps at least 30 years, or at least 200,000 miles.

For phones, at least 4 years.

For laptops, at least 6 years.

For digital cameras, at least 3 years.

For films, great films will be good for 50 years.

For philosophers, at least 100 years is sufficient.

For human life, at least 70 years is sufficient (according to Nietzsche). I would prefer 120 years, but 92 years will also do (when my grandfather passed).

Why low key Photography, black and white, low key all black clothing, etc?

The upside of being more stealth and ghost-like. To go everywhere like a phantom, not being recognized.

The genius of the Wachowskis for staying outside of the public eye, so they can go out in public without being noticed or harassed. Consider the misery of famous people who cannot even take their family to a restaurant without being assaulted by paparazzi.

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