ERIC KIM ₿

It all comes down to force. Your mind, ability to force and change things and move things (and people!)

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Photos shot from the excellent book ‘How to think about war‘ by Johanna Hanink (Brown University, published by Princeton Press):

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How does one progress, evolve and find inspiration as a photographer-artist? My thought:

Perhaps we need stronger visual stimuli.

Stronger visual stimuli from the real world (embodied reality), maybe from virtual reality (two eyes), perhaps from cinema and movies and music videos, photos, illustrations, paintings, sculpture, dance, theater — it is all good!

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TURBO THOUGHTS FOR YALL:

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Anything you can do to drive the evolution of photography forward is entrepreneurship. To take personal risks *not* to just make money (or make more money), but to truly evolve and drive change and progression in the whole field of photography!

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Any single thing you can do to make you more active, social, and out on the streets… the better!

That means buy things that help encourage you to be out more, interacting with others more, etc!

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Heraclitus once said, ‘Every day is equal to every other day’ which means:

Put zero hope in the future; only focus on the present moment, today, and the now!

Or in other words:

Strive to maximize your creative productivity and joy right now, not later!

Things will never change, but you can do things which change your present moment and the future.

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AVENGERS made 2+ billion dollars (it is a movie/film). Can we imagine still photos, or text-based things doing the same? Probably not!

Lesson:

For us photography entrepreneurs, let us double-down on doing more video-related things, to augment our still photos!

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Everything you’ll need to know about photography:

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Maximal individualism is the goal which means:

You are the hero, and you strive to max out all your abilities, skills, and daily physiological power.

How does one do this? Some thoughts:

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Life ain’t a competition, but when it comes to entrepreneurial and other personal business matters … we all have a certain ‘archimedes lever‘ in life which means:

You have a certain gift.

This gift manifested in you via:

1. Your birth
2. Your upbringing
3. The society in which you were raised in

For example I ERIC KIM was fortunate enough to study Sociology, which is essentially a good thing for me and street photography, as I see street photography as simply applied ‘visual sociology‘.

Think and reflect deeply on yourself, your life and your skills. And don’t water yourself down; maximize yourself to the fullest!

ERIC

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Just moved into a new pad and got Verizon FIOS and holy shit; this is amazing!

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Just watched this Big Sean music video and really liked the notion of an extreme-low angle composition:

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The camera as a tool to empower you:

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Hype means ‘above’ or ‘over’.

Hype man:

An individual who jumps up and down behind you and tells others how great you are.

But why need a hype man, when you can be your own hype man?

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Figure out life as you go!

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How does one become a great blogger, and what does it mean to become a great blogger? My thoughts.

First of all, I believe it means to give yourself the freedom to blog about anything. Literally anything on your mind. And the best blogger is the most fearless blogger; the most courageous blogger. It ain’t about being ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ — it is about not censoring yourself. The more directly and honestly you can speak your mind, the better. 

Also, it means for longevity. To never run out of ideas to blog about; this is the goal!

Real photo:

How is photography actually done in the real world?

Perhaps this is why street photography is so fun and interesting — all randomness, chaos and chance. Street photography as insanely fun because you can control so little of it. And perhaps this is what creates a more fun game and challenge for us?

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All day, every day.

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Photography as a tool to augment joy and thanksgiving in your life.

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In other words, defense with financial matters as more robust than offense in additional money-acquisition matters.

A better life means a life of *more* freedom: freedom of movement, freedom over your schedule, freedom over your activities and freedom over your life!

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The striving towards satisfaction; a sucker’s game. Why? Once you’re satisfied… then what?

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Meat, glorious meat!

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Let us not be suckered and fooled:

Digital publishing (not print) is king.

Digital is far superior to print in sooo many different ways:

1. Speed
2. Flexibility
3. Ability to re-edit past publications
4. Cost (virtually free)
5. Scale (can manipulate and spread almost indefinitely!)

Digital publishing, media includes your photos, thoughts, words, videos, sound, art, movements, and far far more:

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It all comes down to moving others and the people!

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It seems the most ‘antifragile‘ mindset to have is this:

Remain the strong zen-stoic calm of what you cannot control, but when you do identify what you *can* control, strive to exploit that to the maximum!

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Shine brighter:

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Conserve your energy and power. Don’t complain; change:

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Leverage what’s in your power to change, and when you cannot change certain things, let it be. Or given the constraints of something you cannot change, seek your own personal maximum benefit!

I’m very grateful for my life, all my advantages and accomplishments yet I’m still dissatisfied — I want more. Perhaps this is a good hybrid? To harness dissatisfaction to continue to hustle forward, yet still expressing and feeling gratitude for your past accomplishments?

The goal in photography: to never run out of inspiration and motivation to keep making new photos, to never lose your enthusiasm to keep exploring, and creating the new!

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A life of perfect ease and satisfaction … how would we be any different than happy cows?

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A personal essay on how I appreciate cops so much (especially coach Greg Lowe, former Oakland PD head), and in defense of cops in general:

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What gets us moving and what motivates us to move, act, do, create and challenge things? My thought: perhaps dissatisfaction is good. If we were perfectly satisfied with everything, what motivation or motive would we have to do anything?

I am a very curious case. On one hand, I am very anti consumerist and capitalist. On the other hand, I am very pro-capitalism and pro-consumerism in other contexts and domains. This is the tricky thing:

There are times when buying stuff (merino wool clothing, happy lamps at home, workout equipment and weights for home) is legitimately a good use of money. And there are other times when money is a huuuuge waste like buying expensive sneakers, expensive watches, expensive cars, etc.

Then I suppose the pragmatic goal we have is this:

When is capitalism-consumerism bad, and when is it good?

So the ‘when‘ question needs to be addressed!

Hack your environment:

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Going from a 300 square foot “luxury” minimalist studio apartment to a 1,700 square foot 2 bedroom, 2 bath, enclosed garage, three floors— I will easily say:

The smaller more high quality (well designed space in a “luxury” apartment complex) space is superior.

Why? Some reasons:

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Insane goals are the best and only goals worth pursuing in life!

Like Big Sean said: “The city is metabolic and my metropolis”.

The city as more dynamic, alive, and metabolic. A greater form of society. More energy, force. The beauty of a concrete paradise.

Regret will help you make superior decisions in the future!

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No aesthetics, no beauty.

Why beauty? Beauty is the great physiological joy of humankind. And we as artists… aesthetics is all we care for. Beauty and only beauty — we hate the ugly!

Then the goal is this:

To surround ourselves with only the beautiful, and to strive to create beautiful things, and to become *MORE* beautiful ourselves.

To focus on our own self-beautification.

A life only focused on utility — a slave-like existence.

If we want a better camera, just use or get a RICOH GR III. For most people, the difference between 4G won’t really change your life in any meaningful way. In fact perhaps 5G will cause more people to waste time streaming these empty TV shows and Netflix movies.

Better investment to use money on body building, weight lifting, travel, or arts creation.

The only regrets I have in life are when I betray my gut, my emotional preferences and aesthetic preferences. Lesson:

It doesn’t matter how much “money you save”, or how “rational” something is.

Emotions, gut preferences are supreme. Lesson:

Moving forward in life, you don’t need to “explain” your emotional preferences. Just obey yourself, and your own gut!

Emotions will rule the future!

Also moving forward, become *MORE* staunch on your personal preferences in life, and never kowtow what you truly care for. Having the courage to upset others. Never make a decision just to please someone else or to make someone else “happy”— as you often will make yourself miserable!

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There are a trillion photographers out there. How do you make a name for yourself and differentiate yourself from the billion of other photographers out there?

Some ideas:

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The photography market is vast, wide, and deep. Given our image conscious society, and our visual sociology, the photography market is the biggest (ever expanding) pie to take advantage of!

I get bored very easily. Perhaps this is my great advantage in life. As a consequence to conquer my boredom, I go out, I do things, I strive to be more active, and to affect and effect the world.

Boredom is a useful tool to be harnessed to your advantage!

You’re not in school anymore. Now is your turn and time to direct your own self development, your own self learning. No homework, no due dates, no deadlines and no grading. You’re the teacher and professor of yourself. Don’t delay; lead yourself!

In this game of life, the point ain’t to become someone else or emulate someone else. The point is for you to become yourself, become more of yourself. To invent yourself.

Despite all the pain and drudgery of life, what’s our salvation? Photography!

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The ideal state: not freedom from pain and suffering, but the ideal is a state of maximal engagement; maximal engagement with my mind, body, soul, other humans, and the world?

Photograph the brave new covid world in which we live in!

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It seems the principle of life is growth. But for us photographers, what does ‘growth’ mean?

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The best form of stimulation is social stimulation.

Why am I such a great critic, judge and sociologist of America and American society? Simple: I was born and raised here!

Also as a Korean-American, I have one foot in American society and one foot out which means I can better analyze and critique it than a typical Caucasian American (what some basic people call “white”).

Hybrid-Americans as better critics and judges of American society, especially when they’re born here in the states.

Photography is and should be maximally democratic and open for all. Phone photography is great, but ultimately if you got a choice (and the money), RICOH GR III is a far superior choice (perhaps by 100x). Why? Superior ergonomics for Ricoh to turn it on and off, superior ergonomics to hit the shutter, 100x better image quality, sharpness, resolution and aesthetics, and it is only nominally larger than a phone. Also at $899 the Ricoh GR III is still $100 cheaper than a new iPhone Pro!

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