ERIC KIM ₿

For myself, it seems the primary benefit of traveling, living nomadically, or being abroad is this:

Fewer distractions from back home. More focus on myself, my thoughts, and my creative work and ideas.

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Active nihilism: the notion that despite the fact that life has no ultimate meaning, you still are active! You still do things, you still think, you still make art, and you still create. Why? Because you have the power to self-direct your own life, and postulate your own personal aims in life — having no higher authority or judge than yourself.

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To extract more joy, wonder, and adventure and excitement in life, see every opportunity of your life and day as a photo opportunity!

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After a week in Cuba my thoughts on capitalism vs socialism:

Capitalism is superior to socialism/communism.

My thoughts:

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Ever since we were children, we were taught that “reading is good”. Also, that there were “good books” and “bad books”.

But very rarely do we ask: “What’s the purpose of reading?”

My thoughts on the purpose of reading:

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The principle problem of Americans: our inability to deal with “free time”. Our fear of free time, an open schedule, and a calendar without appointments.

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My real experiences:

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A realization:

I think much better when I spend long periods of time offline.

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My first trip in Cuba. Free PDF download here:

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Currently here in Havana, Cuba. Some thoughts after being offline for about a week:

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As photographer-artists, it all comes down to aesthetics (the philosophy of beauty):

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The goal of our consumerism: to become more beautiful.

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Living philosophy:

Life is more fun when you set arbitrary challenges and goals for yourself and you exert much strength and effort to achieve them!

What do you do once you hit the goals? Easy: set new and more difficult and fun-challenging ones!

Ideas:

1. Physical strength goals (one rep max in power lifting)
2. Your physique aesthetic looks
3. Economic and entrepreneurial goals

A thought: perhaps for optimal health, motivation and inspiration, happiness and joy in life we need both hot AND cold. And perhaps the play between both is what gives birth to creative activity and inspiration-motivation?

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“The good is in the absence of the bad.” – St. Augustine

A thought in photography:

Perhaps it is more effective to ditch/delete/remove our “bad” photos, than worry too much about figuring out what our “good” photos are to keep.

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Photos from Kyoto— the most aesthetically beautiful and sublime place on the planet:

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Once upon a time in Hollywood by Quentin Tarantino— a classic.

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We are so insanely futuristic; why are we still producing, purchasing, and driving gasoline cars?

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My thought:

Much of how we live our lives SHOULD be directed by our own personal ego, aesthetics, vanity, and pride.

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What I’ve been making photos of:

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Do you have the great satisfaction or dissatisfaction from life/existence?

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Practical photo thoughts:

1. Start an ‘everyday’ photo project using your “standalone digital camera”. Keep your iPhone or smartphone in your backpack or bag, and keep your camera always with you. Anything you might shoot with your iPhone, just shoot it on your standalone digital camera. Stop photographing your food with your iPhone, instead, use your RICOH GR III to photograph your food. Shoot “high quality” photos of your everyday life.
2. When you got nothing to photograph, shoot a selfie, photograph your feet, your hand, or photograph the sky.
3. If you need photo inspiration, just visit the local coffee shop (with your camera around your neck or wrist), have a strong cup of coffee, and just photograph people inside the coffee shop! Also, make photos ON THE WAY to the coffee shop (more ideas in STREET HUNT MOBILE edition in STREET HUNT PRINT edition).
4. Photograph interesting textures, reflections, or shadows you see.
5. Strive to make the most extremely minimalist photos. Pure and clean white or black background with only one subject.
6. Whenever you see the color red, photograph it! Make a “RED” photo project of only red objects and scenes (RED as the color of blood, lust, and desire).
7. For photography composition study ideas, study Henri Cartier-Bresson, Josef Koudelka, and Helmut Newton.

And the ultimate tip:

When in doubt, just shoot it!

ERIC

A big thought:

Use the New Year as an opportunity to truly reflect, meditate, and understand WHY you make photos.

There isn’t any “right” or “wrong” answers. And also realize, this is dynamic— your reasons on why you make photos will continue to change, evolve, and change over time.

Why I make photos

I cannot say what is right for you, but here are my current thoughts:

1. I make photos as a form of artistic expression. When I do not have the opportunity to artistically express myself, I get artistic constipation (the worst pain). Releasing my artistic energy is essential for me.
2. Legacy: Ultimately I don’t live for myself– I live in order to empower and inspire/motivate (current) and future generations of humans. It is my great ambition to drive the culture of photography forward, and hopefully I can be remembered even 300 years from now.
3. The joy of inspiring and motivating others: I know how shitty I felt when I wasn’t inspired and motivated in photography. I remember how it felt being disempowered as a photographer, because I never had ‘good enough’ gear, or because I wanted more fame/influence/money/power in the photo world. I feel a trillion times happier and more enlightened in photography now, and I share my thoughts as if I were helping my old 18-year old self.

Dear friends,

The New Year is just around the corner, and I wanted to use this opportunity to share some practical New Year’s Photo Resolutions you can apply!

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1. For all of this year, only shoot with one camera and one lens for the entire year. Practical idea: just shoot only with RICOH GR III for the entire year.
2. Make a photographic e-book with your favorite 40 photos of all-time in Adobe InDesign or Apple iBooks Author (free). Export as PDF, and share on your blog, and email it to friends and family!
3. Embark on at least on photographic road-trip or photographic adventure. You can do a quick day-trip, fly somewhere domestic, or fly somewhere international. For international trips, try to stay in one city for an entire week and devote it only to photography!
4. Start a photographic selfie project. Try to shoot a selfie everyday for a year, and at the end, choose your 12 favorite selfies from the year, and share it on your website/blog.
5. Print a ‘zine’ (magazine) of your favorite photographs. Design it in Adobe InDesign, export as PDF, and send the PDF file to a local printer. Keep it simple– just print in black and white. Print 20 copies, and distribute them to friends and family. Or sell them to your followers for $20 USD a pop.
6. For the entire year, stick to either color or black and white. Treat this as a positive ‘creative constraint’ to help you focus on honing your artistic vision.
7. Stop calling yourself a photographer; call yourself a ‘visual artist’ instead.
8. Start your own photography blog (register on bluehost.com and install wordpress.org), and/or start your own YouTube channel. Blog about your personal thoughts (photo or non-photo related), and register your own domain name (firstnamelastnamephoto.com)
9. Buy yourself a nice photo book once a month (1 book a month, 12 books in the entire year). When you feel the urge to buy a new camera (you don’t need), buy a photo book instead.
10. Make photos you would enjoy privately. Test yourself: “If I didn’t share this photograph with anyone else, would it still bring me joy?”

What do we want from photography, technology, blogging, etc?

To augment our modes of creative expression.

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I got the gouda – no shoota

I don’t got a car still go hella far

I got the guac; I’m from Cali

I got the racks and I pay all my tax (early!)

I don’t got the Benz, but I get all the wins.

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My personal photography odyssey (thus far):

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Badder is better.

My thought:

Better to do something “bad” (poorly) than to not do it at all.

The way to achieve more, do more, and brave more in life.

Photography: chronicle your own (epic) life story.

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Don’t do anything “for the culture”; do it for yourself.

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We build our cars, we build our wealth, we build companies, and we build external things.

Why not focus on building ourselves?

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Helmut Newton: One of the photographic greats.

Downloads

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Helmut Newton — one of the kings of portrait and fashion/erotic photography:

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Perhaps our love for shapes, forms and proportions is rooted in the human body — the most beautiful human body, shape, and form.

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It seems the modern pursuit is to accumulate and acquire more. More possessions, more status, more money.

A new goal:

Striving to become more.

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Simple thoughts:

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Everyone wants to make a billion dollar company. But how come nobody wants to make themselves into a billion-dollar individual?

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I’m a sucker for wanting to buy the new new (anything). The new Apple whatever, the new Tesla, the (used) Lamborghini, etc.

But ultimately what do we want? We want the excitement and thrill of innovation.

But perhaps it is more effective for us to innovate ourselves (build new things) than to simply buy it.

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In almost every domain in life— bigger and heavier is generally worse. Let me share my thoughts:

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Photography lifestyle as a mode of living. A way of living.

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In life so much of us play the “waiting game”(or sit in the “waiting room”, as Dr. Seuss said in his ‘ Oh the places you’ll go!’ book).

A thought:

Don’t wait for reality or lady fortune to extend her hand to you. Be the one to do thr happening!

All day photo:

1. Always shooting photos
2. Always looking at your photos
3. Always sharing and publishing your photos
4. Always delighting in photos, art, and more!

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You ain’t just an artist or photographer; you’re also a visual scientist.

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A thought while walking:

I am so grateful that Ricoh made the GR 3. While there are lots of things I really loved about the GR 2 (embedded flash), the GR III is still superior.

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No rules. You can do it everyday, every other day, once a week, once a month, once a year, or maybe even once a decade!

My suggestion:

Follow your gut.

If you don’t feel physically strong enough to review your photos, procrastinate on it as long as possible.

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What is the best life? The life with maximal fun, experimentation, and seeing the limits of yourself.

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When I look at images, what do I look for? Strength. Role models. Idols and icons. Individuals I can imitate and look up to.

Above all, images which augment my feeling of strength, power, virility, and courage.

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The best life is the most dangerous one:

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I’ve been very happy lately — currently settled here in Providence, Rhode Island and been able to hit the gym (at least) once a day. I’m the strongest I’ve ever been physically, the most muscle mass, and the highest weight I’ve been.

This is something I’ve noticed physiologically:

The way I’ve been able to get stronger is to eat more meat, attempt more, and spend time to recover/augment my muscles.

Which makes me wonder:

In order for us to become a stronger artist, perhaps we must also eat and consume more meaty and invigorating art works, philosophy, knowledge, science, and ideas of all kinds.

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Why I’m confident I will become a greater photographer than Henri Cartier-Bresson:

My enthusiasm for photography will never die!

Then my thought:

Perhaps the secret to success in all domains of life is rooted in enthusiasm.

So how do we live a life where you never lose enthusiasm? Some ideas:

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AD ASTRA: the latest film with Brad Pitt which I really enjoyed. It ain’t as good as 2001 Space Odyssey, but still a solid film. My thoughts:

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Great cinema is a great stimulus to your photography!

For example a recent film I like: AD ASTRA —

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To the stars

How far do you dare to fly? What’s better — being earthbound, or do you die to try?
Naive is good. How far can you go— however far you should!

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The virtuous cycle of emptying our lives and filling it— what gives life and creative force?

Download all the course content for PHOTOLOSOPHY below:

1. Introduction (830mb)
2. Street Photography (2.6gb)
3. Personal Photography (1.8gb)
4. Entrepreneurship (1.5gb)
5. Audio (100mb)
6. Presets (40mb)
7. Transcripts (29kb)

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In photography we are simultaneously capturing life AND death.

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I really love the iPhone Pro for the ultra wide angle lens, and ability to share your perspective.

But the biggest problem:

Phone cameras don’t have a beautiful aesthetic.

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What makes photography so interesting? Your position. Where you’re standing, and your particular viewpoint or perspective.

For myself what photos do I love most? Photos which make you feel like you’re standing in the shoes of the other person!

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What is your ultimate aim in life? Don’t waste time with the middle — go get what you really want.

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The eternal creative return:

To work on things you will never tire of, never bore of– things that will always interest, entertain, excite, and thrill you.

For example:

1. Photography: I will shoot photos until I die at age 120–140
2. Writing: Writing and blogging as ‘meta-thinking’, or ‘augmented thinking‘. I don’t put any ego or pride into my writing. I simply write because it is the most effective way of getting my thoughts out there. And I derive great joy from sharing my thoughts.
3. Teaching: I derive great pleasure and deep existential joy from teaching. What is the point of learning if I couldn’t teach?
4. Reading: To me, this is the most effective form of getting new ideas, or resonating the ideas already inherent within myself.
5. Powerlifting / Weight lifting: Powerlifting as zen meditation to me, and infinitely fascinating. Testing to extent of the human body.
6. Music: Life without music would be a mistake (Nietzsche).

Then the other side:

Don’t waste any time or your life working or building things you cannot imagine doing for an eternity.

ERIC

Philosophy by Kim >

My gut says making great photos. But in order to make great photos, we must also live a great life.

How do we balance the two?

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The primary skill of a photographer:

To be visually astute, and to SEE photo opportunities.

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Play + Work = “plork”.

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A thought:

If your goal is to maximize your happiness and joy in life, you must embrace the extremes (in the dark ends).

Let me explain:

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