{"id":110021,"date":"2018-08-15T15:55:45","date_gmt":"2018-08-15T22:55:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=110021"},"modified":"2018-08-15T15:58:52","modified_gmt":"2018-08-15T22:58:52","slug":"why-i-photograph-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2018\/08\/15\/why-i-photograph-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I Photograph"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear friend,<\/p>\n

I want to share why I personally photograph.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

1. I photograph to make a social critique<\/h2>\n

\"suits<\/p>\n

To start, I photograph because I want to make a (positive) social impact. I have worked on projects like my SUITS<\/a> book, to make a social critique on the sucker mistake many of us (myself included) make, which is:<\/p>\n

\n Having more money will make us happier.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"eric<\/p>\n

To tell you a bit about my personal history — I grew up pretty poor (my mom filed for bankruptcy, and my dad was addicted to gambling, and my dad also didn’t work). Every month, I knew that it was a real possibility that we might go homeless. Why? My mom was barely making ends meet while working full-time as a waitress, and my dad demanded that we live in an expensive house. And it didn’t help that my dad would force my mom to give him the rent money (so apparently, “he could pay it”), whereas he would go to Reno for the weekend and would gamble it away (his rationale was he was trying to “earn money” for the family).<\/p>\n

\"eric<\/p>\n

Regardless, growing up– I always had a complicated relationship with money. I wanted money, because I wanted money to buy cool clothes, money to fix up my car (Fast and the Furious style), and I thought that having more money would make me “happier”. Ever since I was 16 I knew that money wasn’t the key<\/em> to being happy– but I always thought to myself:<\/p>\n

\n “Would my life be a lot better if I had more money?”\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"eric<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n

\"suits<\/p>\n

Fast-forward; when I became around 28 years old, I broke the $200,000 a year income bracket<\/a> (combined income with Cindy), and this is the lesson I learned:<\/p>\n

\n Having more money didn’t make me “happier”, but NOT<\/em> having to always stress about paying the bills and monthly expenses is a pre-requisite<\/em> to happiness.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Which meant, as long as I kept my expenses low, and wouldn’t stress about money, I would have the ability to be happy. And I would be “happy” through creation. I’m only happy when I’m making stuff; whether I’m writing, making photos, films, videos, beats<\/a>, etc.<\/p>\n

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2. I photograph to make art<\/h2>\n

\"suits<\/p>\n

I also photograph to create art.<\/p>\n

Photography means:<\/p>\n