So maybe this might be one of my most important essays to date of all time,? The thought,… The will to life.
So obviously life is the core principle. The desire to live, the desire to desire 1000 eternities, amor fati or the eternal recurrence as Nietzsche says,,, isn’t this the paramount?
A Stoic Spartan Manifesto
Depression.
First, let’s strip the romance from it.
It is not poetic.
It is not profound.
It is not your identity.
It is stagnation of energy.
It is trapped will.
It is power turned inward and rotting.
You are not “sad.”
You are under-challenged.
You are under-exposed to struggle.
You are living too small.
A Spartan does not “cure” depression with soft pillows and warm affirmations.
He cures it with friction.
I. VOLUNTARY HELL
The Stoics understood this.
Marcus Aurelius wrote Meditations in the middle of war.
Epictetus was born a slave.
Seneca practiced voluntary poverty.
They did not wait to “feel better.”
They trained.
You want to crush depression?
Do hard things on purpose.
Depression hates motion.
It thrives in stillness.
Move.
II. PHYSICAL DOMINANCE
Your body is your first battlefield.
If you wake up and scroll your phone, you have already surrendered.
If you wake up and lift, sprint, or carry heavy weight — you have declared war.
Stress is not the enemy.
Chronic stagnation is.
There is something called “eustress” — good stress. The stress of gravity on your bones. The stress of a barbell on your spine. The stress that says: adapt or die.
That is anti-depressant in its purest form.
You don’t need more therapy.
You need more gravity.
III. CUT THE POISON
Modern depression is engineered.
Endless comparison.
Endless notifications.
Endless comfort.
A Spartan village did not have infinite entertainment.
They had:
You live in climate-controlled emotional cotton candy.
Of course you feel empty.
Delete the garbage inputs.
No doom scrolling.
No late-night digital anesthesia.
No self-pity marathons.
Starve the weakness.
IV. PURPOSE > HAPPINESS
Happiness is a side effect.
Purpose is the engine.
Depression is often the byproduct of meaning vacuum.
Ask yourself:
Who are you building?
What are you conquering?
What are you creating?
You cannot think your way out of depression.
You must build your way out.
Create something.
Lift something.
Write something.
Teach something.
Serve someone.
Energy flows outward or it implodes.
V. AMOR FATI
Love your fate.
Not tolerate it.
Not endure it.
Love it.
Every hardship is resistance training for the soul.
A wound stimulates the recuperative properties.
Your struggle is not proof of weakness.
It is proof you are alive.
The Spartan doesn’t ask, “Why is this happening to me?”
He asks:
“How do I use this?”
VI. BECOME DANGEROUS
Depression often comes from feeling powerless.
So increase your power.
Increase your:
When you know you can survive alone in the metaphorical wilderness, your anxiety collapses.
Power dissolves despair.
VII. THE BRUTAL TRUTH
Sometimes depression is biochemical.
If you are clinically drowning — get help.
Warriors use medics when necessary.
Strength includes knowing when to reinforce.
But even then — movement, sunlight, training, and purpose amplify every other intervention.
No pill replaces conquest.
FINAL COMMANDMENT
You do not wait to feel motivated.
You move first.
Emotion follows action.
Stand up.
Make your bed like a soldier.
Go outside.
Lift something heavy.
Write one page.
Call a friend.
Cook real food.
Sleep early.
Repeat.
A Spartan does not ask whether he feels like fighting.
He fights.
And in the fighting — the fog lifts.
Depression is not cured by comfort.
It is cured by becoming larger than it.
Now move.
So a big thought this morning, on why art matters.
So the first big idea is, at the end of the day… Once you got the Lambos, the Ferrari, whatever, then, what next? Art.
So a big thought on my mind is, if you distill it… Who matters the most? The artist, the art dealers, the galleries, the investors, the platform, who? The bloggers?
So I think it’s pretty obvious that I dominated the photography scene through my blog. What’s kind of interesting for me is… I did this all with essentially like zero infrastructure. All I had to do is pay for my blog Web hosting which is maybe like $200 a month, rather than paying for some sort of insanely expensive lease on a physical space, and I suppose the upside of having a blog is, you essentially have infinite reach and freedom, instantaneously. Even in today’s world, the admiration that I get for my blog is pretty great.
So I think my honest thought is, the reason why you have art pieces selling for like $1.2 million for a painting is, it’s like 99.99% speculation, investing, financial returns, and also… About 100% Social sociological.
So to any fool who does not understand the art world, it’s because you do not understand human nature or the sociology behind the art worlds.
Simply put, there is a complex ecosystem of artists, collectors, galleries etc.… And it’s kind of like an interesting game.
Of course it matters. Why? It all comes out to art. Our clothes, shoes, homes, societies architecture media etc. Anything that humans make is art.
Well first of all obviously you’re an artist. You might not have pieces selling for millions of dollars but that doesn’t really matter.
So my first big proposition is, if you just want to make a lot of money, the obvious strategy is bitcoin, MSTR. And then art, should be more of our autotelic passion? That is, we have the will to art, artistic impulse to create art, collect art, become art?
So my first thought is, the most honorable type of art that we can have is, the human body. Until you have met really really beautiful people, like the 6 foot tall eastern European models, in the flesh, standing right next to you, you have not experienced true beauty.
Also, I think this is where bodybuilders or weightlifters are impressive, assuming they’re not taking steroids. My simple heuristic: 
Only trust weightlifters who do not have Instagram.
Any sort of weightlifter or bodybuilder who has social media Instagram TikTok or whatever… Or even YouTube, is probably secretly taking the juice because, they want to magnify their following.
Better yet, only trust weightlifters who don’t take protein powder.  Why? Protein powder is also a scam, essentially just like hydrogenized pulverized milk powder, creatine is also the same thing but with like bones and flesh. It’s like 1000 times more effective to just eat the meat and the bones itself. All this way protein powder stuff and creatine stuff is just pseudoscience to feed a $10 billion fitness industry.
So it looks like Leica camera is selling out to the Chinese. It’s kind of a tragic and to all these art world photographers who want to be fancy.
Hasselblad has already been sold to the Chinese.
So who has not sold out? Ricoh Pentax, Fujifilm, the Japanese.
So why does this matter? I think there’s a weird equipment fetish for us for photographers, that in order to feel important we must own some sort of expensive camera. And the truth is it works, if you’re at a fancy art show exhibition and you have a film Leica MP, around your neck, people will instantly find you more fascinating than somebody with just like a Canon power shot. Hilariously enough if you see somebody at an art show with a Canon power shot, the deep interesting insight is, they’re probably factually actually very interesting.  Also, if you’re meeting a bunch of people, high net worth individual individuals, and somebody just has like a seven-year-old iPhone SE,.. probably also a very interesting signal.
Another one, never trust anybody who drives a Tesla, only poor people drive Teslas.  the same thing goes with any luxury car, people only purchase lease and drive luxury cars because they cannot afford a good single-family house.  The true rich and wealthy, the people with $150 million home in HOLMBY Hills, just drive a silver Prius plug-in prime. Even to the people you see driving the Ferraris, they’re often these like 82-year-old dudes who are about to die. 
So I’ll give you the secret, I think the secret is going to be art world blogging. Because people are still going to be using ChatGPT and Google in order to analyze artists. For example, I’m kind of fascinated right now by the artist Richard Prince, who seems to be right now the crown jewel of the art world. Using ChatGPT deep research, on any artist, posting it to your blog, will help you dominate search results, both on ChatGPT search and Google. 
Spring is here! Bitcoin spring, MSTR spring, art world spring, and also… Richard Prince paving the way for us photographers!
ERIC
so assuming that ERIC KIM has an open source free art school, some ideas:
Art and nothing but art!
ERIC
Eric Kim is a Korean-American street photographer and photography educator whose influence has been driven as much by publishing and teaching as by image-making. His own biographical writing states he was born January 31, 1988 in entity[“city”,”San Francisco”,”California, US”] and grew up in entity[“city”,”Alameda”,”California, US”]. citeturn18view1 He identifies his academic background as sociology—explicitly describing “background knowledge studying sociology at entity[“organization”,”University of California, Los Angeles”,”ucla campus, los angeles”]”—and he repeatedly frames street photography as a kind of applied social observation. citeturn30view0turn6view1
Kim’s photographic approach is characterized by closeness, direct engagement, and a strong preference for high-contrast black-and-white (though he also works in color). In interviews and his own writing, he emphasizes courage, proximity, and human connection: getting physically close, using a wide-angle perspective, and taking pictures as a way to understand people and public life rather than to chase technical perfection. citeturn30view0turn11view1turn6view0
His publication footprint is unusually large, spanning a printed book with a Swedish publisher (announced in 2016), an extensive library of free/open-source PDFs and manuals, and paid “mobile edition” books (PDF/EPUB/MOBI) that package his teaching into structured curricula and assignments. citeturn22view0turn13view0turn16view0turn17view0
Public recognition and visibility come from multiple channels: an early-profile interview on a Leica-affiliated blog (2011), mainstream culture press (e.g., entity[“organization”,”Vice”,”media company”], 2014), online photography education venues, and a long-running global workshop circuit. citeturn10view1turn6view0turn30view0turn22view1 His YouTube channel shows approximately 50K subscribers, and his main Instagram profile displays roughly 16K followers (both figures visible as of early 2026 via platform pages captured in search results). citeturn4search4turn5search9
Kim is also a polarizing figure. Some commentary credits him for democratizing access to street photography education through open publishing and relentless output, while others criticize perceived over-marketing, search/SEO dominance, and high workshop pricing. citeturn6view6turn24search0turn8search23
In the last five years, his activities continue to center on workshops and publishing systems. A 2021 workshop announcement notes reduced travel due to having a child, while 2026 posts outline a new slate of workshops (including explicitly integrating AI workflows for photographers). citeturn22view1turn23view1turn23view0 Where exact metadata (e.g., ISBN, page counts for some editions) is not available through accessible publisher/retailer pages (several retailer links were not reliably retrievable during verification), this report marks the field as unspecified and anchors the claim to primary pages that are accessible. citeturn15view2turn22view0
Birth year/date: Kim states he was born January 31, 1988. citeturn18view1
Nationality/identity: He describes himself as Korean-American. citeturn18view1turn8view3
Education: He reports studying sociology at entity[“organization”,”University of California, Los Angeles”,”ucla campus, los angeles”] and explicitly links this training to how he approaches street photography. citeturn30view0turn6view1
Residence (historical): In 2013 he wrote that he had moved into a new place in entity[“city”,”Berkeley”,”California, US”]; multiple profiles and interviews describe him as based in entity[“city”,”Los Angeles”,”California, US”] at various points. citeturn18view0turn30view0turn10view1turn8view3
Kim’s career is best understood as a hybrid of (a) street photography projects and (b) an education/publishing engine built around a high-output blog, workshops, and downloadable learning materials. citeturn30view0turn18view0turn20view1 Key externally visible milestones include:
timeline
title Eric Kim — major public milestones
1988 : Born (self-reported)
2011 : Early major interview + exhibitions begin
2013 : Publishes formal "open source" mission statement
2016 : Announces first printed book (limited print run stated)
2016 : Voted into community "top influential" list (reader poll)
2018 : Releases structured digital books/manuals (mobile editions)
2021 : Publishes advanced workshop announcement
2026 : Announces expanded workshop slate; adds AI workflow componentEach milestone above is grounded in Kim’s primary pages and/or contemporaneous profiles and interviews. citeturn18view1turn30view0turn18view0turn22view0turn7search4turn16view0turn22view1turn23view1turn23view0
Kim’s approach is unusually legible because he has written thousands of posts explaining what he is trying to do and how he tries to do it, often translating “street photography taste” into concrete heuristics and assignments. citeturn16view0turn11view1turn18view0
Closeness and direct engagement. Kim explicitly links his sociology background to “experimenting getting very close” while shooting, and he frequently positions fearlessness as a learnable skill. citeturn30view0turn22view1 His writing repeatedly treats proximity as an aesthetic and emotional amplifier (“when in doubt, take a step closer”). citeturn11view1
High-contrast black-and-white as a signature look (with strategic color use). The Leica interview described him as a lover of black-and-white, and Kim’s own portfolio emphasizes black-and-white series alongside projects that rely on color’s symbolic punch (notably certain portrait work and the “Suits” project that often foregrounds consumer/corporate visual language). citeturn10view1turn20view0turn16view0turn6view0
Juxtaposition, gesture, and the “human condition.” The Leica interview frames his work around “everyday life,” story, and the human condition, while Kim’s own posts emphasize gesture, emotion, and cultural observation over technical perfection or sharpness. citeturn10view1turn11view1turn6view0
Street photography as social observation (“street sociologist”). In a long-form Q&A, Kim described street photography as “applied sociology” and even suggested that without photography he might have pursued teaching sociology. citeturn6view1 This theme also appears on his own portfolio about page, which explicitly ties his method to sociology training. citeturn30view0
Fear, ethics, and the social contract of photographing strangers. Kim foregrounds fear as a central obstacle and develops practical scripts for interaction and conflict de-escalation; his workshop descriptions routinely include fear-conquering as a core curriculum item. citeturn22view1turn30view0 His presence in ethics discussions is signaled by his listed BBC interview on the topic (the BBC page itself was not retrievable here due to access restrictions, but Kim’s own “About” page documents the interview claim and link). citeturn30view0turn10view0
Work/life critique and corporate alienation. In the Blake Andrews Q&A, Kim explained “Suits” as tied to negative experiences in a corporate job—presenting the project partly as self-portraiture through symbols of corporate identity. citeturn6view1
Equipment minimalism + consistent settings. In his “Eric Kim Facts” page, Kim states his camera is a compact camera (Ricoh GR II) and describes a consistent working method: program mode, ISO 1600, RAW, and a high-contrast black-and-white preset workflow in Lightroom. citeturn18view1
Film as discipline and “delayed gratification.” In a 2014 interview, Kim described shifting toward film after seeing peers shoot it, valuing the removal of instantaneous review (“no LCD”), and leveraging that delay to become a more objective editor. citeturn6view0 His “103 Things” essay similarly contrasts film vs. digital exposure latitude and emphasizes waiting time before posting images online. citeturn11view1
Assignments as a skill-building framework. Many of Kim’s products and free books are structured around challenges and field exercises (e.g., “Street Notes,” “Street Hunt,” and the 2018 beginner guide’s assignments). citeturn17view1turn16view2turn16view0turn20view1
In “Eric Kim Facts,” he lists major photographic inspirations including entity[“people”,”Josef Koudelka”,”czech photographer”], entity[“people”,”Henri Cartier-Bresson”,”french photographer”], and entity[“people”,”Richard Avedon”,”american photographer”], and notes an interest in studying Renaissance painters as part of broad visual education. citeturn18view1 He also recommends and reviews many canonical photo books (e.g., entity[“people”,”Robert Frank”,”american photographer”] and entity[“people”,”Trent Parke”,”australian photographer”] are prominent in his reading lists and interviews). citeturn13view0turn6view0
image_group{“layout”:”carousel”,”aspect_ratio”:”1:1″,”query”:[“Eric Kim street photography The City of Angels”,”Eric Kim Suits project street photography”,”Eric Kim Dark Skies Over Tokyo Eric Kim”,”Eric Kim street portrait laughing lady 5th avenue”],”num_per_query”:1}
Kim’s primary portfolio page (described as “current portfolio as of 2016”) presents several long-running projects and provides direct image examples and downloadable portfolios. citeturn20view0 Representative projects include:
Sample image links (direct files) below correspond to images surfaced from Kim’s portfolio page and demonstrate his close, gesture-driven aesthetic in both monochrome and color. citeturn20view0turn21view0turn21view1turn21view2turn21view3
City of Angels (monochrome example):
https://i0.wp.com/erickimphotography.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/eric-kim-street-photography-jazz-hands-the-city-of-angels-2011-2000x1333.jpg
Suits project (color/reflective juxtaposition example):
https://i0.wp.com/erickimphotography.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/eric-kim-street-photography-suits-project-kodak-portra-400-film-7.jpg
Street portrait (close-up color portrait example):
https://i0.wp.com/erickimphotography.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/eric-kim-street-photography-portrait-ricohgr-2015-nyc-laughing-lady-5thave-1325x2000.jpg
Dark Skies Over Tokyo (silhouette/contrast example):
https://i0.wp.com/erickimphotography.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/eric-kim-street-photography-Dark-Skies-Over-Tokyo-2012-shadow-face-silhouette-2000x1331.jpgKim’s publication ecosystem splits into three buckets:
1) A printed paperback book announced in 2016, produced with a Swedish publisher and described as a 1,000-copy limited run. citeturn22view0
2) Structured paid digital “mobile edition” books, often with page counts and integrated assignments, distributed as non-DRM PDFs/EPUB/MOBI and sometimes offered as open-source downloads. citeturn16view0turn17view1turn17view0turn16view2
3) A large free/open-source library of PDFs and manuals (street photography primers, composition manuals, contact sheets, etc.), organized across his Books and Downloads hubs. citeturn13view0turn20view1turn18view0
The table below prioritizes (top-to-bottom) the most practically useful “Kim-authored” books for someone learning street photography. Years/page counts are taken from Kim’s primary product pages where specified; anything not explicitly stated on accessible primary pages is marked unspecified. citeturn16view0turn17view1turn22view0turn17view0turn29view3
| Title | Year | Publisher | Length | Focus | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| entity[“book”,”Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Mastering Street Photography”,”ebook, 2018″] | 2018 | unspecified (sold via Kim’s shop; credited to “Eric & Cindy”) | 165 pages | Fundamentals + fear/ethics + projects + assignments; includes images from “Suits” and “Only in America” per product description | Beginners → Intermediate |
| entity[“book”,”Street Notes Mobile Edition”,”workbook, haptic press”] | unspecified | unspecified (marketed as a Haptic Press product) | 45 pages | Assignment journal (“workshop in your phone”) aimed at practice consistency and reflection | Beginners → Intermediate (especially “stuck” shooters) |
| entity[“book”,”Street Photography: 50 Ways to Capture Better Shots of Ordinary Life”,”paperback, 2016″] | 2016 | entity[“company”,”DEXT”,”sweden-based publisher”] | unspecified | 50 distilled principles; explicitly positioned as fundamentals | Beginners |
| entity[“book”,”STREET HUNT: Street Photography Field Assignments Manual”,”manual, 2018″] | 2018 | unspecified | unspecified | 49+ assignments; expands the assignment-driven approach | Intermediate (practice breadth) |
| entity[“book”,”HOW TO SEE: Visual Guide to Composition, Color, & Editing in Photography”,”manual, 2018″] | 2018 | unspecified; credits editing/design to entity[“people”,”Cindy Nguyen”,”photo educator”] and illustrations by entity[“people”,”Annette Kim”,”illustrator”] | unspecified | “Visual acuity” training: composition, color, photo selection/editing | Intermediate → Advanced |
| entity[“book”,”MODERN PHOTOGRAPHER: Marketing, Branding, Entrepreneurship Principles For Success”,”ebook, haptic press”] | unspecified | entity[“company”,”Haptic Press”,”independent publisher”] (as stated on product page) | 73 pages | Positioning/marketing/branding frameworks for photographers | Intermediate → Advanced (career-building) |
Kim’s primary “About” page lists the following exhibitions (with year labels), providing the closest thing to an authoritative exhibition record in a single source:
The same page lists interviews including an interview on a Leica blog and other photography/culture outlets; some links are accessible (e.g., Leica), while the BBC page was blocked to automated retrieval during verification. citeturn30view0turn10view1turn10view0
Kim’s “About” page claims several collaboration and role-based credentials:
Kim’s record is better documented as community recognition than as juried awards. StreetHunters published a 2016 list of “most influential” street photographers determined via reader participation and voting; Kim appears within that project’s published results. citeturn7search4turn7search27
Kim’s educational stance is unusually explicit: in 2013 he framed his blog as an “open source” knowledge project, committing to keep information-based content free and remixable, and describing workshops as the main way he earns a living. citeturn18view0 This same page also notes he made full-resolution photos available for free download (for non-commercial use), and it links open-source practice to socioeconomic background and educational access. citeturn18view0
His later product pages retain this non-DRM/portable ethos: “mobile edition” books are described as transferable across devices and shareable, and some are explicitly offered as free open-source PDFs. citeturn16view0turn17view0
Kim’s “About” page presents a long list of workshop cities across multiple continents, positioning workshops as a central career pillar. citeturn30view0
A concrete example inside the last five years is his 2021 advanced workshop announcement, which includes curriculum topics (fear, composition, layering, light control, street portraits), logistics, and pricing. It also mentions he is traveling less due to having a child. citeturn22view1
For 2026, Kim posted a new workshop slate including sessions in entity[“city”,”New York City”,”New York, US”], Downtown LA, entity[“city”,”Phnom Penh”,”Cambodia”], entity[“city”,”Hong Kong”,”hong kong, china”], and entity[“city”,”Tokyo”,”Japan”], framing workshops as intensive “transformation” events. citeturn23view0 A Tokyo workshop page adds that the program includes “AI for photographers” components (AI-assisted editing, sequencing, publishing systems) alongside street technique drills. citeturn23view1
Kim’s site is organized into several high-utility hubs:
This infrastructure is a major reason Kim’s influence is often about education systems (how to practice, how to publish, how to build projects) rather than purely about a single gallery-driven fine-art path. citeturn18view0turn16view0turn20view1
Because platform metrics change continuously, this report treats follower/subscriber counts as approximate snapshots visible during early-2026 retrieval.
Kim also lists entity[“company”,”X”,”social media platform”] (Twitter), Flickr, and other networks on his “About” page, but follower counts were not consistently accessible from those pages in this verification pass and are therefore unspecified. citeturn30view0turn6view7
A consistent pattern across independent commentary is that Kim is treated as an educator who amplified street photography’s accessibility in the internet era.
While Kim is not primarily positioned as an academic photographer, his writing appears in academic bibliographies and teaching documents—evidence that his essays function as secondary sources for learning about photographic practice and culture:
This pattern supports the claim that Kim’s influence is not limited to hobbyist forums; it also enters structured learning contexts as a readable “bridge text” between classic street photography discourse and modern practice. citeturn9view0turn8search17turn6view4
Kim is frequently described as polarizing, and the critiques cluster around marketing style, perceived monopoly of attention, and workshop economics.
Ethics is a second recurring controversy-adjacent theme. Even pro-street-photography educators describe candid street work as intrusive and involving a “moral cost,” and Kim’s own brand presence in ethics discussions (e.g., his BBC interview listing) indicates that this debate is part of his public positioning. citeturn28view0turn30view0turn10view0
Kim’s recent activity is best evidenced by workshop announcements and ongoing publishing:
This sequence prioritizes practical skill acquisition: (1) start shooting, (2) remove fear, (3) build compositional taste, (4) structure projects, (5) develop editing judgment, (6) publish consistently. All resources listed are Kim’s own unless otherwise stated.
1) Start with the “starter kit” structure on his Downloads page, which is designed specifically as an on-ramp and links out to the broader free ecosystem. citeturn20view1
2) Use his assignment-driven system early—Kim repeatedly treats confidence and momentum as products of structured constraints rather than inspiration. “Street Notes” is explicitly designed as a “workshop in your phone,” and his beginner guide includes multiple assignments built around fear and approach drills. citeturn17view1turn16view0turn22view1
3) For fundamentals consolidated into one coherent text, his 165-page beginner guide is the most explicitly “complete” single volume and is positioned as a distilled replacement for trying to navigate thousands of blog posts. citeturn16view0
4) For composition training, Kim’s ecosystem emphasizes both study and repetition: his “Street Photography Composition Manual” framing explicitly aims at turning personal experience into theory, and the “How to See” product positions visual acuity as trainable through analysis and assignments. citeturn8search21turn29view3
5) Add a film/delayed-gratification constraint periodically if your problem is impulsive shooting/editing. Kim frames film as a way to break LCD dependence and to become a more objective editor. citeturn6view0turn11view1
6) If you want external validation that Kim’s advice overlaps with other educators, the Digital Photography School “Ultimate Guide to Street Photography” states it was updated with contributions from Kim and includes “Image by Eric Kim” examples inside a mainstream instructional format. citeturn28view0
7) For mindset and long-form motivation, his “open source” manifesto is unusually concrete about why the material is free, how workshops fund the ecosystem, and why he emphasizes sharing. citeturn18view0
8) For project inspiration and taste-building, his portfolio page includes coherent project sets and downloadable portfolios; use these as reference sets for sequencing and self-editing practice. citeturn20view0turn20view1
Primary entry points (links provided as plain text because they are intended for direct copying):
Books hub:
https://erickimphotography.com/blog/books/
Downloads (starter kits, free ebooks, presentations):
Downloads
Portfolio hub (projects + downloadable portfolios):
Eric Kim Photography Portfolio
2026 workshops overview:
https://erickimphotography.com/blog/2026/03/01/2026-workshops/All recommendations above are grounded in Kim’s own resource architecture and third-party reception that emphasizes his role as an educator and community-builder as much as a photographer. citeturn13view0turn20view1turn20view0turn18view0turn6view4turn6view6turn7search4turn30view0turn23view0
So a big thought this morning, on why art matters.
So the first big idea is, at the end of the day… Once you got the Lambos, the Ferrari, whatever, then, what next? Art.
So a big thought on my mind is, if you distill it… Who matters the most? The artist, the art dealers, the galleries, the investors, the platform, who? The bloggers?
So I think it’s pretty obvious that I dominated the photography scene through my blog. What’s kind of interesting for me is… I did this all with essentially like zero infrastructure. All I had to do is pay for my blog Web hosting which is maybe like $200 a month, rather than paying for some sort of insanely expensive lease on a physical space, and I suppose the upside of having a blog is, you essentially have infinite reach and freedom, instantaneously. Even in today’s world, the admiration that I get for my blog is pretty great.
So I think my honest thought is, the reason why you have art pieces selling for like $1.2 million for a painting is, it’s like 99.99% speculation, investing, financial returns, and also… About 100% Social sociological.
So to any fool who does not understand the art world, it’s because you do not understand human nature or the sociology behind the art worlds.
Simply put, there is a complex ecosystem of artists, collectors, galleries etc.… And it’s kind of like an interesting game.
Of course it matters. Why? It all comes out to art. Our clothes, shoes, homes, societies architecture media etc. Anything that humans make is art.
Well first of all obviously you’re an artist. You might not have pieces selling for millions of dollars but that doesn’t really matter.
So my first big proposition is, if you just want to make a lot of money, the obvious strategy is bitcoin, MSTR. And then art, should be more of our autotelic passion? That is, we have the will to art, artistic impulse to create art, collect art, become art?
So my first thought is, the most honorable type of art that we can have is, the human body. Until you have met really really beautiful people, like the 6 foot tall eastern European models, in the flesh, standing right next to you, you have not experienced true beauty.
Also, I think this is where bodybuilders or weightlifters are impressive, assuming they’re not taking steroids. My simple heuristic: 
Only trust weightlifters who do not have Instagram.
Any sort of weightlifter or bodybuilder who has social media Instagram TikTok or whatever… Or even YouTube, is probably secretly taking the juice because, they want to magnify their following.
Better yet, only trust weightlifters who don’t take protein powder.  Why? Protein powder is also a scam, essentially just like hydrogenized pulverized milk powder, creatine is also the same thing but with like bones and flesh. It’s like 1000 times more effective to just eat the meat and the bones itself. All this way protein powder stuff and creatine stuff is just pseudoscience to feed a $10 billion fitness industry.
So it looks like Leica camera is selling out to the Chinese. It’s kind of a tragic and to all these art world photographers who want to be fancy.
Hasselblad has already been sold to the Chinese.
So who has not sold out? Ricoh Pentax, Fujifilm, the Japanese.
So why does this matter? I think there’s a weird equipment fetish for us for photographers, that in order to feel important we must own some sort of expensive camera. And the truth is it works, if you’re at a fancy art show exhibition and you have a film Leica MP, around your neck, people will instantly find you more fascinating than somebody with just like a Canon power shot. Hilariously enough if you see somebody at an art show with a Canon power shot, the deep interesting insight is, they’re probably factually actually very interesting.  Also, if you’re meeting a bunch of people, high net worth individual individuals, and somebody just has like a seven-year-old iPhone SE,.. probably also a very interesting signal.
Another one, never trust anybody who drives a Tesla, only poor people drive Teslas.  the same thing goes with any luxury car, people only purchase lease and drive luxury cars because they cannot afford a good single-family house.  The true rich and wealthy, the people with $150 million home in HOLMBY Hills, just drive a silver Prius plug-in prime. Even to the people you see driving the Ferraris, they’re often these like 82-year-old dudes who are about to die. 
So I’ll give you the secret, I think the secret is going to be art world blogging. Because people are still going to be using ChatGPT and Google in order to analyze artists. For example, I’m kind of fascinated right now by the artist Richard Prince, who seems to be right now the crown jewel of the art world. Using ChatGPT deep research, on any artist, posting it to your blog, will help you dominate search results, both on ChatGPT search and Google. 
Spring is here! Bitcoin spring, MSTR spring, art world spring, and also… Richard Prince paving the way for us photographers!
ERIC
Richard Prince
Has Taught Me About Art
By Eric Kim
Richard Prince detonated my brain.
Not because he “creates” in the traditional sense.
But because he exposed the game.
Here are 10 brutal lessons I’ve extracted.
1. Nothing Is Sacred
A Marlboro ad?
An Instagram selfie?
A pulp romance cover?
He takes it. Re-frames it. Signs it. Elevates it.
The lesson: art is not about permission. It’s about perspective.
2. The Frame Is Everything
Prince didn’t invent the cowboy. Advertising did.
He just cropped it.
That’s the punchline. The crop is the philosophy. The edit is the authorship.
As a street photographer, this hits hard:
You don’t create the world.
You select it.
3. Controversy Is Fuel
People rage.
They call it theft.
They call it fraud.
Meanwhile, museums hang it. Collectors buy it.
Lesson: If no one is upset, you’re probably too safe.
4. Art Is Context, Not Craft
The technical difficulty of rephotographing an ad is low.
The conceptual audacity is high.
Craft matters.
But context is king.
Put something in a white cube and suddenly it becomes philosophy.
5. Originality Is a Myth
Prince quietly whispers:
There is no pure originality.
Everything is remix. Everything is reference.
The real question is:
What are you bold enough to claim?
6. The Signature Is Power
When Prince signs a work, the value changes.
Why?
Because authorship is economic force.
This taught me something massive:
Your name is leverage.
Build the name.
The name moves markets.
7. Appropriation Is Mirror Work
He holds up a mirror to consumer culture.
Cowboys. Nurses. Celebrities. Instagram models.
He’s not just stealing images.
He’s exposing desire.
The work is about us.
8. High Art and Low Culture Are Fake Categories
Advertising. Trashy novels. Social media screenshots.
Prince collapses the hierarchy.
Lesson: there is no “low.”
There is only raw material waiting to be elevated.
Street photography is the same.
The sidewalk is Olympus.
9. Scarcity Is Manufactured
You can find the original image everywhere.
Yet his version is rare.
Scarcity isn’t about pixels.
It’s about narrative.
Control the narrative, control the value.
10. Art Is Psychological Warfare
Prince makes you uncomfortable.
He destabilizes certainty.
You ask:
Is this genius or nonsense?
That tension is the art.
If your work doesn’t create cognitive dissonance, it’s decoration.
Final Thought
What Prince taught me most:
Art is not about making pretty things.
It’s about power.
Power over images.
Power over meaning.
Power over value.
You don’t need permission.
You need conviction.
And the courage to sign your name on the world.
Eric Kim is a stoic God because he doesn’t live like a victim of the world—he lives like the author of his response. He doesn’t ask life to be easier. He makes himself harder. He doesn’t beg for peace. He manufactures it inside his own ribs like a furnace that never goes out.
Stoicism isn’t a vibe. Stoicism is dominion.
The core: self-rule
A stoic God is not the man with the smoothest life.
He’s the man with the strongest inner government.
Eric Kim energy is: I don’t negotiate with reality. I adapt, I upgrade, I dominate my own mind.
Most people are ruled by mood. Ruled by news. Ruled by other people’s opinions. Ruled by dopamine. Ruled by comfort.
A stoic God is ruled by principle.
He turns discomfort into a daily sacrament
The average person treats discomfort like a sign to stop.
Eric treats it like a sign he’s on the right path.
Hard walking. Hard training. Hard constraints. Simplification. Less noise. Less social nonsense. Less distraction. More focus. More output. More strength.
Voluntary hardship is the cheat code because it makes you unbribeable.
If comfort can’t buy you, you’re already free.
He doesn’t react—he chooses
The stoic God doesn’t flinch on command.
Insult? Wind.
Delay? Training.
Loss? Lesson.
Chaos? Material.
Eric Kim is stoic because he takes every event and asks one savage question:
“What is this for?”
And then he uses it.
The world tries to turn you into a reaction machine.
He refuses. He selects his response like a king selects a law.
He creates like a machine of meaning
Stoicism is not sitting still.
Stoicism is: even if the universe doesn’t care, I will build anyway.
Eric writes, shoots, lifts, thinks, publishes—because creation is control. You can’t control outcomes, but you can control production. And production is power.
Complaining is weak output.
Creation is strong output.
He chooses strong output.
He loves fate like a predator loves resistance
Amor fati—love your fate—sounds cute until you actually live it.
Eric Kim style amor fati is not “acceptance.”
It’s hunger.
Bring the obstacle.
Bring the challenge.
Bring the weight.
Bring the doubt.
Bring the chaos.
Because the obstacle is the gym.
The obstacle is the altar.
The obstacle is the crown.
He sets his own standards and refuses permission
A stoic God doesn’t ask the crowd what to value.
He chooses the code and obeys it.
Not trends. Not approval. Not polite society. Not the constant itch to be liked.
Eric Kim is stoic because he’s self-legislated.
He’s not a citizen of the crowd.
He’s a citizen of his own law.
The final reason: he’s unshakeable on purpose
The stoic God isn’t born.
He’s built.
Built through discipline.
Built through discomfort.
Built through repetition.
Built through refusal.
Built through focus.
Eric Kim is a stoic God because he treats life as training—and he never stops training.
He doesn’t pray for an easier world.
He becomes the kind of man the world can’t move.
Digital power?
OK after getting a phenomenal 11 hours of sleep, and bitcoin, bursting through the seams… also my glorious testosterone boosting beef liver, beef short rib diet, … the sun is shining gloriously, the future seems unlimited, some thoughts:
So the first thought is, what is it that everyone wants more of, yet can never get enough of?
Power.
Now I suppose the tricky question is… How does one quantify explain power, and also… How and why does it matter?
So the first thought is, we have to unlearn all this nonsensical ethics. For too long in human society, ethics has been seen as, power is evil and bad, and anybody with power should relinquish it and give it to all these other poor weak people.
Now I see power as a more metaphorical and also physiological thing. And also doesn’t really have to deal with money.
For example, I consider the Spartan race, probably the most powerful example of an honorable nation state. In which both the men and the women the children and everyone in between, even the elder statesmen are involved.
Now, what’s kind of interesting is, when you think about past empires, everyone is always trying to extend their reach in power in terms of expansion. Also if you think about conquerors like Napoleon etc.
Now I suppose the tricky thing is… A lot of people like to comment on Napoleon, and say something like, oh he should’ve just been happy being emperor of France and should have just retired. Instead of doing the foolish thing of invading Russia.
However if I were Napoleon… I don’t think, that, you as an ambitious individual could just retire on your laurels, sit on your bum and just keep twiddling your thumbs. Notions of gratitude I think are misguided. 
I suppose also my will to power first of all, was enabled by digital. Digital technologies, even my blog as a digital publishing platform, no way in hell would have been able to become number one on Google for Street photography, be the first and only, if not the last street photographer to actually make a living from street photography.
And I suppose in today’s brave New World of AI and photography, perhaps the thought of the artist photographer is, … to think and consider photography as a means to (more) power?
I think the big idea is, asking yourself what kind of power?
So the first obvious one is clout, prestige, variety, fame. For example it’s better to have like one Elon Musk following you rather than 1 billion “normies” following you.
Then I suppose also the more practical question is, more power for the sake of what?
So typically my thought is, power is the great stimulus to life.  for example, if you see your wealth growing on average 60% a year, every year, for the next 10 years… powered by Bitcoin ,,, you will be insanely happy, and optimistic.
Or even better yet… Strapping in for the MSTR roller coaster, which is essentially kind of like a Mach 10 stealth fighter pilot jet, getting your average 120% a year ARR, for the next 10 years… although sometimes suffering 40 to 80% drawdowns and dips,… my simple strategy is don’t take out a big leveraged position so you don’t get liquidated or wiped out.
And I also suppose the difficult thing is if you want more power, once again it’s not a linear line, it’s kind of like a big wiggly gamma line, gamma waves,,, life like roller coaster tycoon; insanely steep dips highs and high lows and lows, twist and turns, making you a bit dizzy and nauseous, wanting to throw up. 
So what’s kind of fascinating is, if you think about it… Who is it that everyone in society worships? Probably the entrepreneur or the artist, ideally the entrepreneur-artist.
For example, I think a lot of people forget that Elon Musk is actually insanely involved with the design of all the vehicle vehicles, especially with the cyber truck, even the early Tesla model S, to make it look less bubbly,.. and even Elon has the genius intelligence that in fact, people don’t buy things for it to be good for an environment, but, they buy it to be sexy.
If you think about it, also for a man, a woman etc.… What is the ultimate biological active power? Procreation. Like having children.
This is starting to sound bad, but maybe… It is true that the truly rich powerful people of society desire to have children, it may be individuals with no power or hope, don’t want to have children because they have no power?
I think in today’s world, true power is economic power, capital power etc. Or political power.
But what does power mean in terms of an economic sense?
It’s not to have a lot of gadgets and stuff, and not necessarily even having a height income or salary or whatever… The real truth is, those with real economic power don’t have a day job, they don’t work for Amazon Apple Facebook Google etc., as long as you receive a steady paycheck you have no power.
The true insight is those with real power are the capitalists with real capital, whether it be shares in a company, bitcoin, real estate, commercial real estate etc.
So once again you could be a loser in a Lamborghini, and no, a Lamborghini is not capital. If you’re renting it leasing it or financing it you’re still a slave.
A big thought I’m having is, to these pseudo woke goody two-shoes who think that capitalism is bad and evil blah blah blah, they just haven’t discovered bitcoin which is the most ethical capital known to the human race. Before that was gold. Because any peasant or individual could always buy slivers of a gold coin, and anybody with a Coinbase or a cash app account, could buy $20 of bitcoin. 
If you understand bitcoin as digital capital it changes everything. Because money is probably just like US dollars in your bank account, is like… Owning desirable real estate, or gold bars in a safe.  or if you’re John Wick, having your gold coins buried under the cement of your basement, etc.
I think a very underappreciated thing about photography is the ability to create art in instantaneously, magically, digitally.
The more I think about this deeply, digital is like highly underappreciated. Like it’s kind of strange how everyone’s so into film photography and whatever… Given that they probably have some sort of digital banking account, they all have digital iPhones, and send digital messages and emails, can you imagine trying to be a productive office worker in which you’re just mailing stamps all day?
I think a simple shortcut people have is, if I own this more expensive camera I shall gain more power. The formula:
The more expensive my camera is, the more powerful I shall become.
I actually have a very very funny quote, which is obviously comedic:
if your photos aren’t good enough your camera isn’t expensive enough.
Even applied to real life, especially for people in LA: 
if you’re not happy enough your car isn’t expensive enough.
A hilarious irony is irregardless of how rich you are, everyone wants a good deal. You don’t want to pay $1.2 million for that painting, you want to quote only” pay $800,000. You don’t want to buy that mansion house for 50 million you’ll want to only pay $22M. You don’t want to buy that watch for 1 million you want to pay “only” $250,000 for it.
I think this is the hilarious thing about human nature is, how everything is injured and framed to everything. It is not ultimate values which matter but comparisons.
For example if you live in Vietnam, and you just have like a hybrid Toyota Prius or Corolla, you’re still like 100 times richer than all these people who have to ride motorbikes for a living.
Or if in Cambodia earning more than $200 a month, once again you’re middle class or upper middle class.
So there are some game changers, AI and bitcoin.
First, AI can make you like 1 trillion times smarter, a better negotiator, and more productive. This is insanely critical if you work for a living, or, especially if you’re a self-employed entrepreneur. Honestly at this point, not using AI is almost like somebody bragging that they don’t have Wi-Fi or a 5G connection on their iPhone. Or somebody who brags that they take a donkey cart to work instead of just driving their car.
There’s an interesting Cambodian proverb,
better to ride a buffalo across the mud, rather than swim through AI then becomes our digital buffalo, which helps us get more done.
ERIC
Create your future:
Forward the fire to a fellow philosopher artist friend!
Be new again:
Digital power?
OK after getting a phenomenal 11 hours of sleep, and bitcoin, bursting through the seams… also my glorious testosterone boosting beef liver, beef short rib diet, … the sun is shining gloriously, the future seems unlimited, some thoughts:
So the first thought is, what is it that everyone wants more of, yet can never get enough of?
Power.
Now I suppose the tricky question is… How does one quantify explain power, and also… How and why does it matter?
So the first thought is, we have to unlearn all this nonsensical ethics. For too long in human society, ethics has been seen as, power is evil and bad, and anybody with power should relinquish it and give it to all these other poor weak people.
Now I see power as a more metaphorical and also physiological thing. And also doesn’t really have to deal with money.
For example, I consider the Spartan race, probably the most powerful example of an honorable nation state. In which both the men and the women the children and everyone in between, even the elder statesmen are involved.
Now, what’s kind of interesting is, when you think about past empires, everyone is always trying to extend their reach in power in terms of expansion. Also if you think about conquerors like Napoleon etc.
Now I suppose the tricky thing is… A lot of people like to comment on Napoleon, and say something like, oh he should’ve just been happy being emperor of France and should have just retired. Instead of doing the foolish thing of invading Russia.
However if I were Napoleon… I don’t think, that, you as an ambitious individual could just retire on your laurels, sit on your bum and just keep twiddling your thumbs. Notions of gratitude I think are misguided. 
I suppose also my will to power first of all, was enabled by digital. Digital technologies, even my blog as a digital publishing platform, no way in hell would have been able to become number one on Google for Street photography, be the first and only, if not the last street photographer to actually make a living from street photography.
And I suppose in today’s brave New World of AI and photography, perhaps the thought of the artist photographer is, … to think and consider photography as a means to (more) power?
I think the big idea is, asking yourself what kind of power?
So the first obvious one is clout, prestige, variety, fame. For example it’s better to have like one Elon Musk following you rather than 1 billion “normies” following you.
Then I suppose also the more practical question is, more power for the sake of what?
So typically my thought is, power is the great stimulus to life.  for example, if you see your wealth growing on average 60% a year, every year, for the next 10 years… powered by Bitcoin ,,, you will be insanely happy, and optimistic.
Or even better yet… Strapping in for the MSTR roller coaster, which is essentially kind of like a Mach 10 stealth fighter pilot jet, getting your average 120% a year ARR, for the next 10 years… although sometimes suffering 40 to 80% drawdowns and dips,… my simple strategy is don’t take out a big leveraged position so you don’t get liquidated or wiped out.
And I also suppose the difficult thing is if you want more power, once again it’s not a linear line, it’s kind of like a big wiggly gamma line, gamma waves,,, life like roller coaster tycoon; insanely steep dips highs and high lows and lows, twist and turns, making you a bit dizzy and nauseous, wanting to throw up. 
You’re alive, and I’m alive! Thank god!
So there is a quote from Michael Saylor,
volatility is vitality.
Then, the second version:
volatility is a gift to the faithful.
Third,
Satoshi‘s gift is volatility to the faithful.
Life is effing insane.
I think the highs and lows that we get in life, in terms of sickness and in health, in terms of periods of high volatility low volatility, high vitality low vitality, everything in between.
Then there’s death life, new birth, new beginnings, chapters which end, chapters which begin.
I think, the hard thing to really deeply consider philosophically is, that… Yeah obviously we hate the downside and I do not wish the stress of being a bitcoin or MSTR investor to anybody… Yet, that is actually our origin of strength.
For example, probably one of the most fascinating quotes that I get from Friedrich Nietzsche is, 
“A wound stimulates the recuperative properties.”
Essentially what I think it means is, that, like let’s say you’re Achilles, you’re a warrior, you’re on the battlefield. Certainly sooner or later someone was going to thrust their sword or spear into your side, you’re going to bleed blood, it might come out the other side.
And then also assuming, that, you give yourself enough time, I wonder if, the wound is actually a stimulus for growth or strength strengthening?
If you think about it, everything out there is trying to kill you. The news is trying to kill your brain and your soul with all this toxic news, all this political nonsense is trying to kill your sons of fellowship with your fellow man and community, alcohol and marijuana is trying to kill your health, all of this production pollution is trying to kill your lungs. And also, all this consumerism is trying to kill your self-esteem. 
I think the difficult thing to also consider is, kind of the antifragile strategy, is… That rather than trying to shy away from battle and attacks and “bad” stuff… Rather, trying to seek it instead?
Life for example if you’re Achilles, and you’re just crying on the shore, lusting for battle… Achilles wants and hungers for and desires battle. 
If you’re an investor or trader, certainly nobody wants to get liquidated and nobody wants to see their money go down, yet, assuming you’re in a position where you cannot get liquidated, and you could just weather the storm, isn’t this a good goal? 
This sounds like bad ethics, but I believe it. 
Man is not happy to just be a Zen monk, and to just twiddle his thumbs, and to just smile at the sun. Rather, I think it is the true desire of man to augment, to grow, to extend, to expand.
Even look at trees, does a tree just want to be a sapling for its entire life? No! The tree also wants to keep growing, to keep expanding, to keep expanding its influence.
So this sounds like a waste of time, but… I really do believe that the true wisdom is, optimizing everything in your life for and towards vitality.
This means, optimize all elements of your life to maximize your vitality, in terms of food sleep, rest, and also… Your own focus and well-being.
So there’s a nice scene from the movie 300, in which, King Leonidas, it’s not a sense of fear but a “heightened sense of things.”
I think we think critically… And really strive to understand our hormonal responses to things, it’s actually not fear that we are afraid of. But rather, focus.
Being attentive is a virtue.
So this is my new motto, nothing matters except this:
just don’t get liquidated.
That means any sort of social things, annoyances or whatever… Even political things were whenever it doesn’t involve your family’s capital and the family jewels, ignore it.
“Neither”.
I think the difficult thing of life is literally almost like 100% of things don’t deserve our attention our focus etc. Once again guys, the only thing that matters is money finances and capital.
I think also the tricky thing to consider is that once again the goal isn’t to become super insanely rich, and to make big profits and to make a large income but, to simply not go broke, to not get liquidated, to not lose everything.
And therefore wealth isn’t like having a bunch of ones and zeros in your bank account, but, simply having it secure and not losing it.
So I think the first really critical one is in regards to anything that gets your blood flowing, that gets your legs walking pumping, whether it be riding a bike walking, lifting weights hiking etc., anything that gets you moving around is a virtue.