{"id":21223,"date":"2014-10-21T02:00:29","date_gmt":"2014-10-21T09:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=21223"},"modified":"2014-10-26T15:12:17","modified_gmt":"2014-10-26T22:12:17","slug":"letters-street-photographer-4-fuck-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2014\/10\/21\/letters-street-photographer-4-fuck-fame\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Letters from a Street Photographer\u00e2\u20ac\u009d #4: Fuck Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Provincetown,
Provincetown, 2014<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll admit it. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m incredibly jealous. Whenever I see my close friends, other photographers, family, or anyone else doing \u00e2\u20ac\u0153successful\u00e2\u20ac\u009d things\u00e2\u20ac\u201c I feel a tinge of jealousy. In the back of my head\u00e2\u20ac\u201c I might think negative thoughts like, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That person didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t deserve that recognition or success\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c self-doubt myself \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Why am I not as successful as that person?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and I start to sink into a hole of despair.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I know I sound a bit dramatic\u00e2\u20ac\u201c but I am easily jealous of the success of others, and being an American\u00e2\u20ac\u201c one of my goals in life was to be rich, powerful, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153successful\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (whatever that means), as well as becoming famous.<\/p>\n

I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know where it comes from. Perhaps coming from a lower socio-economic background, I always wanted to overcome my obstacles and achieve \u00e2\u20ac\u0153greatness.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I saw all the famous people on the television screen\u00e2\u20ac\u201c and wanted to aspire to be like them. I wanted to escape my reality where I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t sure if my mom could pay the rent at the end of every month\u00e2\u20ac\u201c worries that I might become homeless, worries that I would never achieve anything meaningful in life, worries that I would waste my life being stuck in some cubicle somewhere.<\/p>\n

Over the years, I always wanted to become \u00e2\u20ac\u0153successful.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I saw how hard my mom suffered working as a single-mom, working 3-part time jobs (cleaning houses, waitressing, and other menial labor) and wanted to help lift her out of this life of poverty, stress, and non-gratitude. Even though I was surrounded by friends who joined gangs, did drugs, drank, all that stuff\u00e2\u20ac\u201c I think it was always my mom who was my impetus to becoming \u00e2\u20ac\u0153successful\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in life.<\/p>\n

Therefore while my friends were skipping classes and going down the wrong path\u00e2\u20ac\u201c I (mostly) stayed on the right path, ended up getting good grades in school, getting into UCLA, getting a stable office-job\u00e2\u20ac\u201c and I had my eyes on bigger and greater things. I wanted to be \u00e2\u20ac\u0153successful\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201c make a ton of money, help my mom, sister, and family out, to buy myself a lot of nice material things, and to give myself freedom.<\/p>\n

I read so many books on how to be \u00e2\u20ac\u0153successful\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, how to be rich, how to start my own business, how to gain more followers on social media, how to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153build my brand\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, how to achieve fame, wealth, power, and prestige.<\/p>\n

I got sucked into all this bullshit of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153American dream.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

To take a step back\u00e2\u20ac\u201c I am very grateful to be an American. Proud even. I am an Eagle Scout, got 90%+ of my education paid by the US government, and I admire the sense of individuality, freedom, and entrepreneurship this country has given me. I value all the structures, networks, teachers, mentors, and educational values which helped me to get where I am today (doing what I love, writing this blog, and meeting passionate street photographers from all around the world).<\/p>\n

However one of the biggest things I faced in my life (still today) is chasing fame.<\/p>\n

Why fame?<\/h2>\n

I think I often conflate fame and being \u00e2\u20ac\u0153successful\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c meaning that I think that if I am \u00e2\u20ac\u0153famous\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c then I am also \u00e2\u20ac\u0153successful.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

However as time has gone on\u00e2\u20ac\u201c I have begun to realize of how little importance being \u00e2\u20ac\u0153famous\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is\u00e2\u20ac\u201c and how striving after modes of external recognition has only brought more grief, sadness, dissatisfaction, loneliness, and despair.<\/p>\n

External vs. Internal Recognition<\/h2>\n

I think the problem with chasing \u00e2\u20ac\u0153fame\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is that it is all external. No matter how hard you try, you cannot get others to 100% like you. No matter how hard you try, you are not guaranteed 1 million followers. No matter how hard you try, you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get the guy who hates Asian people to like you (if you are Asian). No matter how hard you try, you cannot convince them to like your street photography (especially if they are into selective-color macro flower photography).<\/p>\n

Also the problem with social media is that we are all indirectly chasing fame via the number of followers, likes, favorites, etc. that we get. Our entire self-worth as a photographer has been reduced to a single number. How sad and depressing.<\/p>\n

No matter how hard we try in social media when it comes to marketing\u00e2\u20ac\u201c we will never have the most followers in the world. There will always be someone out there with more followers than you, someone out there who will be more famous than you, someone out there making more money than you, someone out there who is more \u00e2\u20ac\u0153successful\u00e2\u20ac\u009d than you. Even if hypothetically you are that #1 photographer in the world, there will be millions (if not billions) of people trying to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153dethrone\u00e2\u20ac\u009d you and take your crown from you. That is probably the most stressful thing (imagine a King worrying about if his food is being poisoned, if his family is trying to assassinate him for his power and wealth, and the fear of losing all of his influence).<\/p>\n

Internal recognition<\/h2>\n

I titled this chapter: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Fuck fame\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for a few reasons.<\/p>\n

First of all, it was just a phrase that came to my mind (randomly) a few weeks ago\u00e2\u20ac\u201c and it has stuck. Whenever I personally find myself falling into the rabbit-hole of wanting more power, wealth, influence, and fame\u00e2\u20ac\u201c I repeat to myself, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Fuck fame\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. It also helps that both of those words start with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153F\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c so it is a pithy phrase that has stuck well for me (might stick well with you too).<\/p>\n

Also I like the idea of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153fuck fame\u00e2\u20ac\u009d because it helps me focus my energies inwards.<\/p>\n

Once again, fame is an external game (others confer it onto yourself). But you cannot control it.<\/p>\n

Rather what we can control is our own inner-self of worth.<\/p>\n

So sure you might have 100+ favorites on one photograph\u00e2\u20ac\u201c but do you really feel it is a great photograph? Do you think you can do better? By your inner barometer or ruler- do you think that image is strong?<\/p>\n

Using a different ruler<\/h2>\n

I think in our photography\u00e2\u20ac\u201c we should always judge our images by our own internal ruler. We should dictate what we think is a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153strong\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and what is a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153weak\u00e2\u20ac\u009d image. Nobody else should be able to dictate that.<\/p>\n

I also like the idea of being completive in photography \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but not against others\u00e2\u20ac\u201c only against yourself. You are your best competitor.<\/p>\n

I also randomly heard a quote from Tony Robbins in which he said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Progress is happiness.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The moment we stop growing and advancing forward\u00e2\u20ac\u201c we fall into despair.<\/p>\n

The great thing about competing against yourself in photography is that you will always have a worthy competitor (who you know better than anyone else in the world). I once read something like, if you aim to change your behavior by 1% day-over-day \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it will compound into huge changes over years, and your lifetime.<\/p>\n

So a practical suggestion is to compete against yourself by doing the following: Improve your photography by 1% everyday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

1% Improvement Everyday<\/h2>\n

So how can you improve your photography by 1% everyday?<\/p>\n

Some simple suggestions:<\/p>\n