{"id":40762,"date":"2017-02-25T02:09:51","date_gmt":"2017-02-25T10:09:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=40762"},"modified":"2017-02-28T19:22:51","modified_gmt":"2017-03-01T03:22:51","slug":"eric-kim-facts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2017\/02\/25\/eric-kim-facts\/","title":{"rendered":"Eric Kim Facts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"eric<\/p>\n

I believe I am what I do, what I own, and how I live my life.<\/p>\n

This is a personal breakdown of me, Eric Kim:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Personal history<\/h2>\n
\"cindy
Cindy and Eric, Paris, 2015<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I was born Jan 31, 1988 in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

I grew up with two parents and an amazing loving sister (Anna Kim). My mom<\/a> (Sukhee\/Lea Chung) worked many part-time menial labor jobs to pay the bills (cleaning dishes, cleaning houses, waitressing, and other odd jobs). My mom worked 12 hour days, for pretty much 6-7 days a week until I went to college. My family filed for bankruptcy once.<\/p>\n

\"My
My mom at her childhood home \/ Busan, 2014<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I grew up not knowing whether we could pay the rent at the end of each month. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t grow up in dire poverty (I still had stuff), but I grew up knowing that nothing in life could be handed to me. I had to work hard to get what I wanted.<\/p>\n

I bought my first car at 16, for $1200 (1991 Nissan Sentra, 4-door XE, 5-speed) through money I saved up working as a busboy, and through tutoring\/teaching. I used to be into fixing up my car. I have fond memories of stripping my interior, upgrading my audio system, upgrading my headers, intake, and exhaust, and painting my car in the garage by myself with spray paint.<\/p>\n

In high school, I played football and tennis. I like to breakdance with my friends, and my friend Justin Lee got me into underground hip hop music (Aesop Rock, Hieurspecs, Hieroglyphics, Nujabes, Atmosphere, etc). Many of my old middle-school friends were gang-affiliated. I almost joined one, but fortunately my family moved away from my old middle-school home (Alameda).<\/p>\n

I worked hard in high school, took all AP courses, and tried to get into UCLA (I eventually did). I had a lot of help from my local boy scouts troop (Mike O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Connor, Pat Ransil, David Dial, my scoutmasters) \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and I eventually became an Eagle scout (my project was to beautify a local community organization that supported abused children).<\/p>\n

My main father figure was Coach Lowe (Greg Lowe, a retired ex-police chief), who taught me tennis, but really taught me a philosophy of life. I still remember when I lost my first big game, Coach Lowe told me: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Eric, you didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t lose \u00e2\u20ac\u201d you just didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t win. There is a difference.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d That has stuck with me until now.<\/p>\n

I also grew up in the church. I grew up at the St. Andrew Kim Catholic Church in Oakland, where all my best friends were. I ended up teaching Sunday school at St. Agnes (in LA), and eventually became the principal. I still self-identify as Catholic, but as I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m getting older, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m becoming less religious, and more spiritual. I am grateful to all of my mentors in the church, who guided me to become the person I am today.<\/p>\n

\"My
My mom, me, and Cindy (photo by Neil Ta)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

I got married to the love of my life<\/a> in June 11, 2016 in Orange County, California.<\/p>\n

Inspirations<\/h2>\n
\"eric
My mom \/ Busan, 2014<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The biggest inspiration in my life was my mom (umma<\/a> in Korean), who worked all these menial labor jobs to get me and my sister through school. My mom nurtured my creative spirit, and always believed in me.<\/p>\n

\"eric
Hanoi, 2017 #cindyproject<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the moment, the most important individual in my life is Cindy A. Nguyen<\/a>, who is my muse, my wife, and my life. She helped stir me to teach the seminar: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Sociology of Facebook and Online Social Networks<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d while I was at UCLA. She stirred me into starting the Photography Club at UCLA with my friends John Son and Daniel Jeong. I met her at Kyrie (Catholic group at UCLA), and she taught me how to backpack and travel through Europe (we ended up going together, and fell in love). I followed her to East Lansing, Michigan \u00e2\u20ac\u201d where she studied for 2 years for her Ph.D. in History (she eventually transferred, getting her masters).<\/p>\n

\"My
My mom and Cindy \/ My mom’s childhood home \/ Busan, 2017<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cindy\u00c2\u00a0is currently studying her Ph.D. at UC Berkeley, focusing on Vietnamese History. Her dissertation is going to be on the history of the Vietnamese\/French Colonial Library. She taught me about information science, constantly challenges me in my art, and is my soulmate. Everything I have accomplished in life (starting a blog, writing, photographing, teaching, traveling) I attribute to her encouragement, love, and support.<\/p>\n

Why I live<\/h2>\n
\"Eric-Kim-Street-Photographer-2014\"
Portrait by Josh White<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I live to create information, to improve upon information, and to share this information openly, freely, in order to help motivate, empower, and help others. I believe in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153open source<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d photography. I want to help others use photography as a tool to find more personal meaning, satisfaction, and purpose in life. I see photography less as making photos\u00e2\u20ac\u201d more about making you a more courageous, less afraid, and more happy person.<\/p>\n

I have written many articles<\/a>, books<\/a>, and videos<\/a>. I plan on keeping these all open and free. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want any poor kid who can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t afford my stuff to not<\/em> have the chance to learn. Because I was once that poor kid. And information, love from my community, and God has helped guide me where I am today.<\/p>\n

Lifestyle<\/h2>\n

\"eric<\/p>\n

If I broke down my diet, it consists of mostly meat, eggs, and coffee. I currently follow a mostly \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcpaleo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 diet, and only eat one big meal a day<\/a> (only dinner). I avoid breakfast and lunch, and have found I have more sustained energy throughout the day.<\/p>\n

I drink a lot of coffee. I usually prefer espresso (I can drink more of it, because it has less caffeine than traditional drip coffee). I also believe great things come in small packages. Coffee is what stimulates me to write, think, exercise, and pretty much do anything.<\/p>\n

I also love physical fitness. When I have a gym, I love deadlifts and squats. I do pushups at home. I do chin-ups whenever I see a pull-up bar. I am also passionate for the the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc1-rep maximum\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 style of powerlifting, as it is more fun than just counting repetitions.<\/p>\n

Media<\/h2>\n

\"eric<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve realized I have gotten (almost) no inspiration from any blogs, websites, or most online media. All my inspiration has come from books. I am a huge fan of the Internet Archive (archive.org), as I like to download text files, read the books in Evernote (as text files) or in IA Writer (what I use to write everything).<\/p>\n

I am currently inspired by a lot of philosophy (Seneca<\/a>, Marcus Aurelius<\/a>, Jesus<\/a>, Epictetus, Epicurus, the Tao Te Ching) and poets like Horace.<\/p>\n

In photography, I have learned from all the masters of photography. My biggest inspirations include Josef Koudelka<\/a>, Henri Cartier-Bresson<\/a>, and Richard Avedon<\/a>. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m currently branching off from photographers, and studying more Renaissance Painters, like Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and others.<\/p>\n

\"eric
Hanoi, 2017<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In music, I love hip hop\/rap music. I love Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, Lupe Fiasco, A$AP Ferg, Jay Electronica, Big Sean. I often listen to hip hop instrumentals (without the rapping) to focus when writing.<\/p>\n

In software, I use IA writer to write everything (like this). I use Evernote to sync all my files. I use Dropbox to store my files. I use Lightroom to process my photos. I try to pay for my software whenever possible, because I know that \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcfree\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 software usually has a hidden catch somewhere. I have a subscription to Evernote, Dropbox, and Lightroom.<\/p>\n

Clothing<\/h2>\n
\"eric
Portrait by Cindy \/ Hanoi, 2017<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For me, I used to own so many different clothes, outfits, and colors. I did this mostly to look cool, get girls (in high school\/college), and to boost my self-esteem (pretty low a long time ago).<\/p>\n

Now, I see clothing as armor. I need clothing to protect me from freezing to death. But besides that, clothing is a waste of time.<\/p>\n

This is the outfit I wear everyday:<\/p>\n