Eric Kim and a disconnect?

[MikeAUS]

well at least he doesn't take pics over and over again of a fire hydrant, a bush in his back yard, his wife standing there and a buddy pounding a beer and claims it is a real world review of the best gear ever...

Go easy, he's too busy talking with the dead and "paranormal investigations" so doesn't have time to take proper shots

Yes Eric is preferable any day to the Huff and Puff ...
I met Eric by chance on the street whilst I was out taking shots one day here in Melbourne. Was a super friendly and down to earth guy ...

 

[Lss]

Why the hate?

I assume there are very few people who hate Eric Kim at all.

I can surely think of a Kim who has many more haters. And that guy's first 10 photos, the rumour has it, were infinitely better than anyone else's first 10 000 photos. Then he gave up photography.

 

[JChrome]

This is a ridiculous comment. Go and read Hazlitt's 'On Criticism' and have a think about it.

I took his comment to be sarcasm. But I guess he can clarify.

 

[JChrome]

I have never thought of EK as a photographer, I knew him as a yourtuber who posts some reviews (I found them a bit funny, but not necessarily interesting). But after reading this thread I did some reading of what EK writes and I have to say that I kind of start to like him. "Learn from Masters" section on his website is quite interesting, some of his photography business thoughts/approaches are also very good (e.g. Do it for free or be expensive). We can have opinions about him as a photographer - I found his photos quite good/interesting, but not in the same league as street photogtaphy masters. But he seems to be a good teacher and also a good businessman with the right ethics.

+1. Making Youtube videos about photography is not photography. Posting on your blog is not photography. It does speak to the evolving definition of what makes a "photographer". But I think the article about him making $200K per year as a photographer is incorrect. He's making 200K per year as an educator.

 

[JoeV]

...+1 for being a young, Film-only Photographer, too.

I think right now he's a smart phone/Ricoh GR photographer, not film. He hasn't shot film in a few years; the last time he did, according to his blog, he saved up dozens of rolls from overseas trips and only had them processed at Costco, in Garden Grove, CA, after he returned. Which, to me, isn't a smart way to shoot film, since there's no immediate feedback, no quick data turn-around on ways to improve one's technique with a particular camera.

Since he and his wife have been living in Vietnam the last year (while she's been working on her doctorate) he left his Leica back in the USA. So it's digital only with EK. Not that there's anything wrong with that!

Cheers,

Joe

 

[Ko.Fe.]

I'll bet there wouldn't such an uproar about this guy if his subjects of interest were flowers or cats rather than "street" photos? I think the street photo thing has a built in anger element, when it is discussed.

"I think" is the key. Street photography as any photography is taken with specific interest of taker and interpreted with "I think" of the viewer.

I see zero anger element in street photography by HCB, GW, Fred Herzog, George Zimbel and so on.

But where are some people who are always anger about street photography. I think, it is because they are cheaters in real life.

 

[Kent]

I miss Kai and Lok from digitalrev.

I couldn't care less about camera reviews, but I do like to be entertained.

+1


As for Eric Kim, I don't think he comes across as "dude" person in the videos. I would go for a drink with Kai Wang in an instant, actually, I have met him once and he is very nice, very friendly, witty and professional. But I don't know if I'd like to spend time with Eric Kim. That's what I mean.

Perhaps more people feel like that...

 

[noisycheese]

Perhaps, envy?

There are two kinds of photographers: (1.) Those who decide what they want, set their goals and work their asses off, refusing to quit till their goals are realized, and (2.) the self-entitled who think their goals should be handed to them.

Eric Kim is a type 1 photographer. The type 2 photographers resent him and his success.

Ernst Haas: "There is only you and your camera. The limitations in your photography are in yourself, for what we see is what we are."

 

[ptpdprinter]

There are two kinds of photographers: (1.) Those who decide what they want, set their goals and work their asses off, refusing to quit till their goals are realized, and (2.) the self-entitled who think their goals should be handed to them. Eric Kim is a type 1 photographer. The type 2 photographers resent him and his success.

You have described the two ends of the bell curve, not the bell curve itself. It is a logical fallacy know as black and white thinking. Either way, your statement is false. There are many different kinds of photographers with a wide variety of goals, motivations and work ethics. I also suspect there are a lot of your so-called type 2 photographers who don't care one way or the other about Eric Kim. You also have to ask whether Eric Kim's goal is photography or notoriety and money, or some combination of the two.