Richard Kalvar - 18 Lessons (Eric Kim)

Pushing a picture of a visually impaired person as a 'good' street pic says it all. From day 1, Kim was focused on monetizing his internet presence. Cheers, OtL
 
Pushing a picture of a visually impaired person as a 'good' street pic says it all: disgusting. I am not a fan. From day 1 they were focused on monetizing their internet presence. Cheers, OtL

That was not my impression of the photo, but if it is indeed true, I can remove the link ([link to article lead photo removed]). Didn't mean to offend. My thought was that it was a captured expression.
 
I get a little seasick whenever I see EK's name brought up. I love to hate [edit: please note this is completely hyperbolic, not intended to be even remotely serious. AKA, hate is bad] that guy, he gets more absurd as the days go by. This was a somewhat interesting article, but I mean, he is cherry-picking from someone else's writing, so that's no feat. Kim has a specific attitude on the streets, though, that doesn't really fit with what Kalvar is saying. Like he takes #3, which is about being open and attentive, to mean being chatty and getting involved with people (which is something he does a lot, a lot of "street portraits" which he kind of forces on people who don't always want it, you can see that in his videos). Or #6, he has the typical millennial must-travel attitude, like you'll regret not spending money on big travel on your deathbed... well, only if you have and continue to have that particular millennial value mindset. I think the quotes are a lot better than his takeaways.
 
I get a little seasick whenever I see EK's name brought up. I love to hate that guy, he gets more absurd as the days go by. This was a somewhat interesting article, but I mean, he is cherry-picking from someone else's writing, so that's no feat. Kim has a specific attitude on the streets, though, that doesn't really fit with what Kalvar is saying. Like he takes #3, which is about being open and attentive, to mean being chatty and getting involved with people (which is something he does a lot, a lot of "street portraits" which he kind of forces on people who don't always want it, you can see that in his videos). Or #6, he has the typical millennial must-travel attitude, like you'll regret not spending money on big travel on your deathbed... well, only if you have and continue to have that particular millennial value mindset. I think the quotes are a lot better than his takeaways.

Walk and travel is great advice. I have done it by myself. Then on travel for work, I walked for hours after work and took street photos.

Both photogs are not shy on the street.
I’m kind of shy and sneaky and aggressive at the same time. Sometimes I have the nerve, sometimes I don’t.

The whole shy, sneaky, aggressive is nothing but how street photog feels.
To have decent photo street photog needs to be close. Not by focal length, but by the distance. No matter how you act and what you do it comes to only two patterns.
People are too busy to pay attention to you.
They know what you are after just because you have camera in hands.

Kim's approach is most honest, he shows what he is up to. People are aware in advance. He acts not very different from Winograd. Who would run across the street for the shot and nodding to people, goofing with cameras and telling what he is surviving.
 
Eric Kim lost the plot months ago. Have you seen his YouTube channel? He posts almost every day, with bizarre and unedited videos of his workouts, how much meat he eats, rambling soliloquies about life, awful Garageband 'beats' compositions, and on and on. He's become a caricature of himself and honestly looks like he needs help.
 
Eric Kim lost the plot months ago. Have you seen his YouTube channel? He posts almost every day, with bizarre and unedited videos of his workouts, how much meat he eats, rambling soliloquies about life, awful Garageband 'beats' compositions, and on and on. He's become a caricature of himself and honestly looks like he needs help.

My thoughts exactly. He always seemed imbalanced, his attitude on the street was very lacking in empathy, cajoling people even when they clearly didn't want anything to do with him. He needs to get out of his self-sought internet version of the public eye and live life like the rest of us do, without attempting to market his every thought and struggle.
 
About Kalvar's photo: photographing blind/visually impaired people is an old street photographic trope. I think it goes back as early as Paul Strand's photo of the blind woman. It's well trodden metaphor about seeing/not-seeing and may seem insensitive from our current standpoint but it's not always been like that.

Eric Kim lost the plot months ago. Have you seen his YouTube channel? He posts almost every day, with bizarre and unedited videos of his workouts, how much meat he eats, rambling soliloquies about life, awful Garageband 'beats' compositions, and on and on. He's become a caricature of himself and honestly looks like he needs help.

That's sad to read. I've never been a fan either, his blog posts were somewhat reductive and (for me) were breaking the spell of some photographs/photographers with his bullet-point take-aways. That said, in the past I've randomly come across some truly abusive criticisms. I think the only other person garnering so much venom must be Ken Rockwell. And while Rockwell seems well-protected in his family life, Kim was quite young when he was brought to the centre of all this mad attention. I don't think he was similarly sheltered and I just hope he keeps well.
 
Yes, I think Kim set his sights on becoming a photographic sage waaay too early in life. I understand that impulse, I've been guilty myself many times of trying to attain a respected perspective too early, without having true life experience to back up either my perspective or my style of communication. With Kim, I think he poured so much of himself into this effort that he is being pulled every which way by the stresses of trying to maintain that. Becoming a being of the internet and its many senseless demands. That's my completely uninformed and biased take on his "internet personality."
 
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