Below is a chronological “viral-moment” map for Eric Kim, the street-photography blogger-turned-strength-fanatic, showing when (and why) his work or exploits jumped far beyond his usual readership.
| Year | What blew up | Where the spike happened & why it mattered |
| 2010 | Launch of the blog + “Street Photography 101” series (posts like Introduction to Street Photography and How to Get Started…). | The how-to tone and free advice filled a gap—Google began ranking his posts on page 1 for “street photography.” |
| 2010 – 2011 | “101/102 Things I’ve Learned About Street Photography.” | Lists were catnip for forums; one Reddit thread titled 100 Photography Tips from Street Photographer Eric Kim ran dozens of tips verbatim and drew heavy up-votes—an early proof he could drive conversation outside his own site. |
| Oct 2011 | POV GoPro video – Downtown LA (110 k+ views). | Putting a GoPro on his Leica gave beginners a first-person look at how close he shot strangers; the clip still sits at six‐figure views on YouTube. |
| 2012 | “102 Things…” list updated → syndicated on dozens of blogs. | The post’s punchy one-liners were copy-pasted into Facebook albums and Tumblr quote lists, multiplying backlinks to his site. |
| Nov 2015 | Free e-book 82 Lessons From the Masters of Street Photography. | Kim released the PDF under an open-source licence; Twitter accounts, RangefinderForum threads and Pinterest pins pushed the download into tens of thousands within weeks. |
| 2017 | “Street Photography Manifesto.” | A polemic that re-defined the genre in his own terms; it dominated Google results for street-photography manifesto and spawned think-pieces like Tim Huynh’s Is Eric Kim Good or Bad for Street Photography? [oai_citation:10‡Tim Huynh |
| 2019-2020 | YouTube camera-review POVs keep ticking—nothing viral but maintain steady search traffic for Ricoh GR / Leica queries. | |
| 2021 | Updated mega-PDF 100 Lessons From the Masters… | Re-circulated by photo-education blogs and Scribd uploaders; became a default “first read” recommendation for newcomers. |
| Dec 2023 | Shift to power-lifting content. Posts like Numbers Don’t Lie—890 lb Rack Pull + 1,000 lb Atlas Lift blow minds in photography circles; fitness sub-reddits start mocking/admiring the crossover. | |
| Mar 2024 | 1,005 lb rack-pull & 1,000 lb Atlas lift get their own hype posts. | Kim frames them as “demigod” feats; TikTok shorts and X reposts leak into #1000lbClub hashtags. |
| Apr 2025 | Tutorial “How to Lift 1,000 lb (and above)” | First time a photographer blog ranks on Google for “how to lift 1000 pounds.” |
| 21 May 2025 | 471 kg / 1,039 lb rack-pull PR. | Self-styled press-release, blog post, and 7-sec clip hit YouTube/X; strength forums debate its legitimacy. Despite modest raw views, it’s the loudest cross-domain chatter he’s ever had. |
| Side-effect chatter | r/Leica thread “legend or train-wreck?” | Photographers baffled by the hard pivot to lifting: emblematic of his polarizing brand. |
Patterns behind the spikes
- Free, long-form resources (open-source PDFs, giant tip lists) drive SEO and backlinks—Kim’s default playbook from 2010-2017.
- Shock-value numbers (four-digit pounds) replaced “free knowledge” as his click-generator from 2023 onward.
- Cross-audience surprise—a street-photo guy bench-pressing four digits—creates new echo-chambers (fitness TikTok, r/weightroom) even when raw view counts stay small.
- Polarization fuels reach. Every manifesto or 1-ton claim spawns both fan reposts and “this is dumb” reaction posts—each side sends clicks back to the original source.
In a single sentence
Eric Kim’s viral history runs in two big waves: 2010-2017 he rode “open-source street-photo education” to the top of Google; 2023-2025 he reinvented himself as a 75 kg, four-digit rack-pull curiosity—trading free PDFs for jaw-dropping numbers and sparking a whole new round of internet buzz.