Things you do for the sake of it (doing it is the reward in itself), rather than doing it for ‘rewards’.

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Rather than wanting to become Elon Musk … isn’t it better to become yourself, or to become your own ‘Elon Musk’?

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MATRIX thought:

Unplug yourself.

Unplug yourself from social media (Deleting Instagram as a form of taking the ‘red pill’). Stop using Facebook. Slightly de-dose yourself from using Google in order to think deeper thoughts.

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If you share your photos online, you’re a photography entrepreneur.

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My personal desire and hunger to become insanely different— insanely different in how I look, how I act, what I own (or don’t own), insanely different aesthetics and ethics, and an insanely different (and bright) vision for the future.

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A personal thing:

No matter how good something is, it is never good enough for me.

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What is it that we are searching for or seeking for? I believe it is searching for the upside without the downside. Or maximizing the upside while limiting the downside.

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Let us realize and recognize that everything is always a work in progress. In fact, when are creative projects are done, it is quite anti-climactic. In fact, the ultimate completion to life is death.

For example, what is the best iPhone and the most perfect iPhone? The one that will come out a year or two from now. And at least for our lifetimes, Apple will certainly be continuing to make new iPhones ad infinitum.

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Let us say street photography is your passion. Then the question is how can you harness the Internet to make your passion your living?

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My ideals:

No matter your background, no matter how poor or disadvantaged you were or are, you can become great.

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Towards undefining street photography:

It is all street photography.

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A simple way to make more creative photo compositions:

Experiment with your focus.

For example focus on what’s closest to you via macro mode, or focus what’s really far away, while getting close to your subject (deep depth, layers in photography).

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New photos is the goal:

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The great passion — a burning inner drive to do something. That nothing gets in your way. The refusal to let things get in your way.

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The only cardinal sin of the Internet: being boring. I consider myself a very interesting person, and also very interested in many different things. Also I’m one of the most hated people online, especially in the photography community.

Whether people love Eric Kim or hate him, you cannot deny that he’s not boring.Whether people love Eric Kim or hate him, you cannot deny that he’s not boring.

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Seneca project:

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We all want to become more artistic and creative. My thought: perhaps the secret to artistic creativity is creative constraints. That is, to choose one variable unlock it, and don’t change it, and see how you could innovate within that constraint.

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ERIC KIM NEWS

Dear friends,

Some thoughts:

First of all, right now is the best time to be alive as a photographer. Pre-COVID, it seems the world was quite boring and static. Now, everything we photograph is interesting. Simply to leave your house and go somewhere or do something is an act of heroism.

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Why photograph your life? Your life is the ultimate photographic project.

Photograph your loved ones (#cindyproject), your kids (#senecaproject), your partner, your friends, family, etc.

Photograph it all.

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A computer — either a laptop, phone, tablet, and now I suppose cars (self driving Tesla) and digital cameras. I consider all these “computers”. But the question:

Why?

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ERIC KIM NEWS

Dear friends,

We are visual artists, who happen to use photography as our primary art creation form. Yet, we should not trap ourselves in a narrow Procrustean bed of just “photography”. We are artists.

Thus, the goal then seems to be to augment our creativity and artistry. To become more artistic, and to make more visual art.

What does that mean? Some ideas:

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Dear friends when in doubt —

Just make more photos.

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What is ERIC KIM? Simple– a photography entrepreneur. His passion is at the intersection of photography, philosophy and entrepreneurship. His blog as a source of his ‘stream of consciousness’ thinking or his ‘turbo thoughts‘ (as he gets from his best friend Kanye West).

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Better to ‘undefine’ yourself than to define yourself.

Thinking that we are currently in a stream of ‘becoming‘ (rather than just to ‘be’), then perhaps the best way to become more entrepreneurial is to *BECOME* outside the box.

Refrain from being constrained by definitions, bios, or categories.

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The motto of the entrepreneur.

Move people (motivate people, workshops) and move products (ideas, physical or intangible products).

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For those of us stuck in boring places — you can still shoot street photography; making interesting photos out of a very boring place!

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A thought: what is the best way to spark your passion and motivation for photography is a visual detox. That is, to spend a period of time not looking at any other images but your own.

For example, maybe spend a month not looking at the photos or anyone else, and you only look at your own photos and your past photos. Don’t watch any movies, only read books and literature, and listen to music. No social media, YouTube, or any other visual distractions.

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What are good reasons for going to college, what are bad reasons for going to college?

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Why experiment with new forms of Composition? Simple: it is a very fun and interesting way to experiment with your photography. And no matter how boring your environment may be, you could supersede that boringness by experimenting with more bold and unique compositions.

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Perhaps the best way to stand out is to look or seem more common.

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Whenever I meet new people and try to tell people what I do, it is difficult. I’m not quite sure how to introduce myself. but upon thinking about it for a little bit longer, The best way I would describe myself as an Internet photography entrepreneur. That is, my passion is using the power of the Internet, and to promote photography and interesting ways.

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What is the goal of blogging? Simple: to never stop posting.

It seems that in today’s world, the trend is towards film photography. That is, dissatisfied photographers who want to become more artistic seek film as a means of becoming more unique, “artsy”.

But in fact, I think ultimately film photography is more of a crutch. I see digital photography at superior to film photography, having shot film photography for a great period of time. why? My thoughts:

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The reason why I am so enthusiastic about the photography of Henri Cartier Bresson, that is, my passion for Composition.

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Dense as an ethos and philosophy. (more…)

What is the great passion? That which impels you out of bed in the morning — not out of a sense of “duty”, but genuine passion and enthusiasm. AUTOTELIC things — things you do for the sake of it, the reward is doing it. For example for me, photography, blogging, thinking, weight lifting, walking, socializing, sharing.

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A thought: what is it that way you really desire? My thought: the beautiful.

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It seems that as a healthy capitalistic society, consumerism will never go away. Rather than try to fight it, perhaps it is more clever to attack it from a different angle.

I have a notion of “reuserism”, that is consumerism but slightly different. Based on principles of reusing things.

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Customize towards what ends, that is when do you know to stop modifying it or do you keep modifying it indefinitely?

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What makes an enigmatic photo? A photo which is hard to decipher (even by you), in which you gotta squint closer to make sense of what you’re looking at. A photo that feels other-worldly. The only monochrome sublime aesthetic I’ve seen thus far is from Josef Koudelka.

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Apparently back in the days, to call oneself a philosopher (lover of wisdom) was the low-key way of saying:

I love wisdom, and seek wisdom, and I seek to become wise.

Back then (as now), you are not allowed to tell others that you are ‘wise’.

Similarly speaking, in elite circles … you’re not allowed to call yourself a ‘poet’. Also it is apparently presumptuous to introduce yourself as an ‘artist’ to others. If you tell others you are an artist, they will always ask you the money question or ‘do you make a living from it’ question.

But anyways, my thought:

Anyone and everyone can become a philosopher. And all children are born as philosophers.

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My turbo thought:

Curiosity in others is a vice, curiosity in yourself as a virtue.

Individuation. That is, the desire hunger and lust to become insanely different and unique.

Unique in our thoughts, unique in our appearance, unique in our mannerisms and talking, to be genuinely one-of-a-kind.

This is what drives consumerism, that is thinking that buying a certain product or combination of products will make you unique. But we all know that the exterior of it superficial, and the inside interior is what is profound and deep.

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When others show interest or desire in us.

A thought: perhaps we should only invest in things that get better over time, and to ignore or disdain that which gets worse over time.

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Why do we care so much about our phone? My theory: in today’s modern society we see the phone as our weapon, or tool of advantage. That is, if you want the best possible advantage in life, you must have the best possible phone. This will continue our never ending quest of always buying the newest iPhone and upgrading our newest iPhone, into perpetuity. Because no one ever likes to feel like they’re at a disadvantage.

Perhaps the key to interesting photos and better black and white photos is disdain for detail. Higher contrast and blacks. Crush the blacks. More extreme post processing. RICOH GR III in high contrast black and white JPEG, with maximum contrast. Lower exposure compensation — as dark as possible (ADAP).

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Something on my mind: what is the philosophy of anger? for example, modern society says that all anger is bad and should be extinguished. That anger is dangerous. That anger is a vice.

But this betrays common sense. Certainly anger is a very important biological function, as it denotes injustice. Perhaps the foundation of all law is based on injustice and anger.

But other cases were certain types of anger or more justified than others? This is the royal task of the philosopher and law legislator.

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A great thought: realize and recognize that you are not responsible for the happiness or the well-being of others. This is not our duty, nor our responsibility. And also maybe we shouldn’t think that to improve the happiness or the well-being of others is a virtue.

Maybe the best thing is for us to simply focus on augmenting our own happiness and well-being. And if others happen to feel our surplus happiness and well-being, so be it.

What do we want from our photography? Self-development. To continue our self-growth, self-development.

To what ends? To make more interesting photos (to ourselves), to increase and heighten your visual acuity of the world (to see more photo opportunities), and to share these insights with others.

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1. Freedom from distraction (ability to focus)
2. Great sleep (no devices or screens after dinner and shower. No more “work” after dinner).
3. Physical exertion: Weight lifting, or kettlebell lifting at home
4. Creative publishing on your personal blog or website
5. Financial freedom (no longer needing to work for a living)
6. Consumption or great artwork and music
7. Thinking, philosophizing, speculations in ideas and knowledge, and having the freedom to share them without persecution (in praise of American freedom of expression).

If anything that the Facebook outage has taught us is that social media is fragile. Do you want to be in a fragile position? I think not.

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Another entrepreneurial idea: if you want maximal Internet success, both become a blogger and vlogger.

The mistake that a lot of youtubers and vloggers make is that they don’t own their own self hosted domain and blog. And they refuse to write. But writing will always be king.

Also a lot of bloggers and writers are camera shy. This is not good, if you want online entrepreneurial success. People trust videos more than they do writing. And people also want to see your real life face.

Life is not binary. you don’t need to buy one while not buying the other. You could buy both.

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We all know the Tesla is the by far cooler car. but the question is which is the better car?

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The harder and more stoic and indifferent you become, the better.

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Perhaps instead of some sort of pseudo-virtue on trying to “save the planet” or “save others”, the most virtuous thing we can do is to focus on our own self-formation and self-development and becoming.

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It seems in today’s world we are all obsessed with innovation. But it seems that all types of innovation are directed towards technological innovation, instead of anything else.

But what if the most important type of innovation was self innovation, that is, innovating yourself?

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An integration of our photography in our life. The both as the yin and yang.

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What if pain is a necessary ingredient to greatness? Not something to be avoided but harnessed?

Pain as the father of all pleasure, growth and becoming?

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Why do I love street photography so much? Simple: I love to people watch. and street photography is great because you could both people watch and make photos!

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What is the best industry of the future? Anything that requires creativity.

Industrial design. Architecture. Interior design. Furniture design. Creative forms of web design and computer programming design. We need great UI/UX experts.

ERIC KIM NEWS

Dear friend,

If you’re hungry for some photographic motivation … here are some honest and practical thoughts for you:

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