Why is art important to you? I’ll tell you why art is important to me.

First of all, I have the most fun when making art. To me, making art is the ultimate play. To me— the opportunity and chance and excitement of making art is what makes living worth it!

Secondly, I think art can uplift and empower all of mankind. A world and society without art is a world without hope, dreams, and beauty. To me, art is essential. What differentiates humans from animals is that we make beautiful art.

Third, to me, art is applied philosophy. To express your philosophical thoughts and beliefs is done through your art work. The photos you create are a manifestation of how you see, experience, and interpret the world. The music you create is what you deem as beautiful and worthy in life and existence on earth.

Why do you make art? Ruminate on this, and let this become your ultimate spur towards creating more of your own art!

ERIC

Think beyond the app store, think beyond Spotify, think beyond YouTube, think beyond Facebook/Instagram; think beyond all these platforms and industries.

It seems the secret to epic success in life:

Build your own industry!

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A thought in life:

Much thinking and modes of conduct are too “basic” for me. Perhaps we should strive to go BEYOND basic; strive to discover deeper new truths and sources of knowledge to empower future mankind!

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Currently at my friend Brendan’s home, and playing with his Oculus Rift– some of my personal thoughts on Virtual Reality:

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To make better compositions, strive to simplify and strengthen them!

1. Simplify colors

For example, simplify the colors. 2-3 colors seem to be the most effective.

Good to study Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein for their simple use of colors, shapes, and forms.

2. Deconstruct and simplify compositions

When studying the works of the masters, strive to simplify their compositions to better understand and internalize them. Lovely compositions by Hokusai.

3. Shapes, forms, proportions

Keith Haring as making simple yet strong evocative political and social commentary in his artwork via simple and effective visual arts.

4. Simple and powerful photos are memorable and effective.

Bruce Gilden photos, from his “Go” Japan street photography book:

Auto-creation:

For myself, it seems that I’m the happiest and have the most fun when I create without thinking, without any stress, without any tension, without any resistance. When I can create in a flow — creating like a stream of water.

Empty your mind, and create in a state of flow. This is the goal!

ERIC

Why I love colors, textures, shapes, and forms as visual and life stimulus:

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My idea:

Perhaps the most effective way we learn is via imitation.

And with art, the best way to learn is via practice and play (via imitation!)

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To me, chaos is the ultimate stimulation. The chaos of public places, the chaos of dancing in a mosh pit, the chaos of the streets— this is when I have the opportunity to exercise my faculties and strengths.

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When should we fly solo, and when should we fly together?

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A simple goal in our artistic lives:

Never stop creating new art works, pieces, essays, projects, and concepts!

1. Never stop shooting photos
2. Never stop writing essays, blog posts, poems, books
3. Never stop drawing, painting, sculpting, designing, and building
4. Never stop building your personal strength and muscles
5. Never stop making music, and never stop dancing
6. Never stop being born anew (everyday as a blank slate, tabula rasa) — if you’re not busy being born, you’re busy dying (Bob Dylan)

It seems self-evident that composition in photography is essential. But why?

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Outlast
Ignore the past, present and future
Outlast
You’re in a class of all your own.

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It seems as a society we have deemed hoarding (physical things) as a bad thing. But what about hoarding digital things? Shouldn’t we also propose a more minimalist approach to our digital lives?

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A thought:

What if we made our body the priority, not our “mind”?

Would this make us happier, more powerful, more excited, more inspired, more motivated, and more epic?

I think so.

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Do you desire to become formed, or do you desire to do the forming?

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Don’t miss out the upcoming SF StreetFoto International Street Photography Festival — to hype it up, here is an interview with Ken Walton, the founder and visionary:

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A thought:

Nowadays with the great image quality with phone cameras, what is the purpose of a “standalone” digital camera — which is often bulkier, heavier, and less convenient to use?

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Is there an upside to deleting our files and photos, instead of just backing everything up?

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A simple way to feel happier, more empowered, and more epic in life:

Whenever possible, create things instead of simply purchasing or consuming them.

For example, it is cooler and more fun to restore an old school car and make it look dope, than to just buy the newest sports car.

More fun to take a busted old iPhone and replace the parts (new screen, home button, battery) than to buy the newest iPhone.

Or for Android, more fun to jailbreak/root it and install a new custom OS/rom than to buy the newest Android device.

Or for clothing, don’t buy designer clothes– design and thrift your own clothes!

For art, better to make your own artwork than to collect the artwork of others.

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Instead of purchasing your ideal lifestyle or following others, better to follow no one and to simply follow yourself, and design your own ideal lifestyle for yourself.

Creator mindset

I think what is essential is a shift in thinking:

A shift from thinking “I want to buy that”(consumer mindset) to “I want to build, design, or create something like that of my own”(creator mindset).

Make your own things and bespoke your own life.

ERIC

A simple guide to simplify your shooting, processing, and sharing photographic workflow:

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To “decide” as meaning cutting away superfluous options. Easiest way to decide to do something is what to decide NOT to do.

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Piet Mondrian is one of my favorite artists and thinkers/philosophers.

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The most ripe area for photographic innovation: discovering new compositions for your photographic artwork.

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Great photo compositions are dynamic, motivate you to move, have a dynamic balance/harmony of proportions in the frame, and simple+elegant.

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A game: something which is fun, done for the sake of it. A child as playing, as building sandcastles by the beach, to only have it be washed away by the ocean (Heraclitus), yet not feeling “sad” that the artwork is impermanent.

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I was on Google Photos today, looking at all these old photos from the past. Old friends, old loves, etc — and it was kind of a strange experience.

Here are all these people I haven’t thought about in years, or perhaps even a decade — but with unlimited free cloud storage for photos/videos— social media and these tools resurface old memories from the past.

Now my question is this:

Is this feeling of nostalgia bad? Does thinking of the past (or resurfacing it) hold us back?

I think so.

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Why have status symbols?

We all know what status symbols are (fancy clothes, expensive cars, fancy watches, etc)— but my question is this:

Why have status symbols? Why publicly display totems of “success” to others?

Why signal your status-level to others?

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Muda: Japanese concept of superfluous waste (comes from the Toyota lean manufacturing concept).

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Experiments with Xiaomi 9 SE with “night sight” camera mode during the day.

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Simple tips to get you going!

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A simple way to live life:

Never stop challenging yourself — always strive to become stronger, become deeper, become harder, more profound, with greater challenges and tasks which interest you!

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Listen to your body more than your mind

More wisdom in the body than the mind.

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My thought —

The ultimate end or apex activity is for us to make art!

And the ultimate state for us to achieve is to become a hybrid of both philosopher AND artist.

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Let’s think beyond —

More fun with image collages — the greater joy seeing sets of images with a dynamic balance of consistency and variety.

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I was at a really nice park the other day, enjoying the sound of chirping birds, water rushing, the cool breeze in the shade, and looking up at the trees and sky and I thought to myself:

Wow, the blue shade of the sky is actually quite ugly.

Which made me wonder —

What are we trying to do as visual artists/photographers — glorify reality and nature, or to make it look different (according to our own vision of beauty)?

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How to distinguish yourself — why distinguish yourself ?

Substantive individualism

Individualism with substance 

Are you a real unique person — or a permutation of random fragments? Are you an algorithmically generated person? Can your conversations be recreated by someone else? Do your opinions belong to you, or are you parroting what you’ve heard by others?

Are you afraid of offending others? Do you engage in “safe” conversations in the fear that you might upset others?

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It seems as a society we are becoming overly fat (apparently the new term isn’t “overweight, but “overfat”– as there are a lot of athletic people with lots of muscle who are technically “overweight”).

I like the notion of “over-fat”, because it addresses the big challenge we face as a society right now (also from a public health perspective): having excess fat (body fat, adipose tissue).

But applied further philosophically; perhaps we are getting too fat also in a general way, with our stuff, objects, and other excess “fat” (superfluities) in life.

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The hacker ethos: the ethos of “hacking” together the resources you already have//the opportunity to innovate a new approach (which might be superior to an easier approach of just buying anything new).

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Life as beyond survival; it is about thrivival!

We desire to thrive. To become bigger, stronger, more epic.

There isn’t a final destination. The goal is to keep thriving and striving until the day you die.

Never stop reaching higher for (beyond) the heavens!

ERIC

Kill Bill 2: as epic as the first. Truly epic film.

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Currently in the works: Henri Neck Strap PYTHON Edition. Uber-limited. Email hapticindustries@gmail.com to be put on the list.

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If you’re a photographer that wants to harness the great powers of social media (yet hate the traditional forms of social media like Facebook/Instagram), arsbeta.com is for you.

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Wouter Vanhees: Although I live in Hanoi, I travel to Ho Chi Minh City regularly for work. At night, when my meetings and work stuff is finished, I like to explore the inner city to do street photography with my Ricoh GR2.

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An idea:

Perhaps the optimal solution in life isn’t to “choose” only one between two things. It is to choose the best of both (or multiple) options. A hybrid/mixed/variageted approach to life.

For example:

1. Hybrid approach to phones: Own both an iPhone and a Google Pixel (or Android device). Have best of both worlds; because there are both upsides and downsides to both iOS and Android. #twophone lifestyle.
2. Hybrid cars: Benefit of a Prius; not having to fill the gas tank often, and also higher mpg. I love electric cars, yet still now the charging situation is a bit inconvenient. Owning a Prius as being less sexy than a Tesla, but probably more convenient.
3. Hybrid genetics: Purebred dogs are weaker than mixed breed dogs. Surely for humans we must be the same; mixed race children being genetically stronger and more diverse than homogenous children/genes.

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I wonder what other ways we can take a hybrid approach to life?

Mixed alloys are stronger

Pure aluminum, steel, or gold is quite fragile. They are much stronger when mixed compounds; an alloy is superior.

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With media, perhaps having BOTH the digital AND the analogue is the superior option. Enjoy BOTH ebooks and paper books. Enjoy digital art and also analogue art.

One isn’t better than the other; embrace both. Embrace Hybrid!

ERIC

Good pain as growing pains. The pain you get from “delayed onset muscle soreness”. The pain of artistic and creative growth; painful, yet a good pain stimulus to our personal growth!

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The only noble type of productivity is artistic productivity.

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The joy of composing things —

1. Composing music 
2. Composing essays 
3. Composing photographs 

Perhaps this is what makes photography so fun and joyful? And what’s the driving force of the artist?

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KILL BILL Volume 1 (available on Netflix) — man, I totally forgot how great of a director/story-writer Quentin Tarantino is. Also spectacular Uma Thurman performance, Lucy Liu, and the whole cast:

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I’ve been shooting a lot with the Xiaomi 9 SE recently (my new favorite phone-camera). The interesting thing is this:

Perhaps the future of disruption in photography is this: cameras that also happen to be phones.

In other words — we shouldn’t think of them as phones with good cameras. We should think of good cameras, that also have “phone” capabilities (ability to surf the web, publish/share photos, send emails, etc).

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A simple thought about artistic productivity:

Just make stuff, then share them!

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I think a lot of us are striving towards freedom. We want ‘location independence‘ (freedom), we want ‘financial independence‘ (freedom), and we want freedom of speech.

But once we have all the freedoms we need (social freedom, political freedom, economic freedom)– then what?

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One of my goals in life (my personal Elysium) was to become “financially independent” and to “retire early”.

At age 31, I’ve reached my goal. But I haven’t been rewarded that “eternal bliss” I’ve falsely believed in. I don’t wake up everyday feeling eternally blessed and grateful. Instead, there seems to be this mysterious void in front of me; a void without any clear goals or directions/paths in life.

Which made me wonder:

What “should” you do with your life once you’re financially independent and are “retired”?

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My personal definition of a photo essay is an attempt to analyze a place, through images.

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​For myself, one of the things I hate the most is feeling tired and fatigue. ​​
​​I’m striving in my life to simply have the maximum amount of energy, with the minimum amount of fatigue (unless it is time for me to sleep at night). ​​

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A thought:

Owning too much stuff is a “net negative”. Better to own a few things than many things.

But then begs us the question:

What few things should I allow into my life?

Some thoughts:

1. I haven’t really discovered a good definition of “high quality”or “great” goods yet. It seems the best definition is “luxury”— which I don’t necessarily like, because it evokes the moralistic judgement of “excess” and moral degeneracy.
2. Desire to own but a few things— and I think it is good to agonize over your purchasing decisions. Take a very long time to decide whether to admit an item or thing into your life, and if you decide to get it— hold onto it steadfast.
3. There is a massive hidden cost to ownership. It seems for the most part, ownership is a “net negative”. Ownership doesn’t scale well. This means, the more stuff that you own, the more stuff that owns you!
4. The point of life isn’t to compete and see who can collect or obtain the most items or toys. Better to own a few rare, unique, and powerful tools than to own lots of mediocre or common items.
5. To simply purchase an item seems too easy, basic, and ignoble. Better to customize, bespoke, or to create your own things (with the assistance of an artisan).
6. Strive to strip the superfluous from your life. Strive to achieve the maximum effectiveness, the maximum efficiency, with doing the maximum with the least amount of excess of waste. Anti-muda (waste) thinking.

The only photos worth shooting are the ones which directly show your soul. Photos that have your soul embedded into them!

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A thought:

Why is it that we idolize things (cars, objects, devices, homes, stuff)? Shouldn’t we be idolizing people and their character-traits instead?

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1. Look for curves (arabesque) between your subjects and other visual elements in the scene.
2. Strive to simplify the scene, but keep the composition elegant (dynamic curves and movement).
3. For color, the point is to make images which allow your viewer’s eyes look around the frame.
4. Focus on certain shapes, forms, and other visual elements which interest you.
5. For composition, consider the proportions of the image. The proportion of your subject in respect to the other elements in the scene. Consider the proportions of different colors in a scene.

“The rolling stone gathers no moss.”

Publilius syrus

Never stay stuck to one geographical place, one home, one nation, one culture, one mode of thinking, one device, one technique, or one lifestyle.

Life is too infinitely complex and variegated— why become a prisoner in just one spot?

Basic ideas:

1. Avoid stagnancy
2. Stay in motion (creative momentum is good) // create everyday
3. When in doubt, walk. Drive less, walk more. Walk for fun, and as a form of philosophical inquiry, idea generation, and soul-exercise.
4. All motion is good — strive for eternal motion and perpetual motion until your death!

Keep the wheels spinning!

ERIC

Shooting photography on your phone; the biggest disruption possible in photography:

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I’ve always been a sucker for cars ever since I was a kid. For me, the car was a symbol (and practical means) of freedom. Going where I wanted to go, based on my own schedule, while also having pride in my vehicle.

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Holy moly, I just got my hands on a new Xiaomi 9 SE phone (only $350 USD while in Vietnam), and it is the most incredible phone and camera I have ever used:

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Nowadays we talk much about “lifestyle”— why not something deeper and more substantial such as “thinkstyle”?

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A realization:

What we are seeking as photographer-visual artists isn’t better “image quality”; it is to create images with beautiful aesthetics.

Therefore in our terminology about cameras and post processing, let us not mention “image quality” anymore (this term is ambiguous and doesn’t really mean anything; even worse when you use nerdy quantification numbers to determine “image quality”).

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I’ve always been curious — what is the best life?

A recent discovery for myself —

I believe a nomadic life is the best life.

Now — I cannot say it is the best for everyone, nor should a nomadic life be the best for everyone. If anything, I think living a nomadic life is like being part of the “nouveau rich”— a privilege.

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A simple way to approach life:

Either do it right now, or be okay never doing it (leave it undone).

There is much wisdom in leaving much undone.

In short, whatever is truly important and essential in your life, do it immediately. For small and petty tasks, best to leave them undone.

Been looking at the top photos on ARSBETA.COM, and super inspired by all the great new imagery I’ve been exposed to.

Which makes me want to spend some time to reflect on the question:

What makes a great image?

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When chatting with my buddy Chu Viet Ha, a realization:

Perhaps what we are striving towards is to create more “deep” photos/images.

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