The Eric Kim of today is a different person than the Eric Kim of even just a few years back. He’s become one of YouTube’s most hated photographers and seems to be obsessed on becoming controversial and seems to almost revel in the criticism he receives.
Love or hate him, Eric Kim, he’s done well. I’m somewhere in between, some of his photos are ok as is some of his advice, but a lot of it is just drivel from a man who’s fame and small fortune seem to have gone to his head. One thing I do like about Eric Kim is he makes it clear that he’s just making suggestions based on his experience and doesn’t claim to know it all or be the best photographer, at least in the past that was his ethos. Whatever you think about Eric Kim, you’ve got to give him some respect for doing what he’s done and having the success he’s had. He now often comes across as a total spacebar, but some of his earlier stuff was much more humble.
He puts a shitload of information out there free and makes many e-books downloadable so credit for that. He used to charge average prices for his street photography workshops which (I could be wrong) seem to focus on getting people to shoot closer and interacting with strangers on the street. There’s nothing wrong with that if that’s your goal but I personally don’t need anybody to teach me how to interact with strangers and his advice about “getting closer” is not something I personally agree with. I know exactly what he’s saying but a lot of his photos are taken very close (like less than a couple of feet away) and to me the images just look a little creepy. How many of the world’s greatest images are taken within a few feet of somebody? I don’t think they make more powerful images, anybody can do it. That style of just barging up to someone and either asking or not asking permission to take their photo at close range is not for me. I’ve never been to his workshops but I can see how many people would like them and him, he appears to be mostly a very positive and motivating person, which is not really my cup of tea.
As mentioned, Eric Kim does have a lot of good material that I think most people could benefit from. He wrote an article about sharpness being overrated which I totally agree with, perhaps because I largely shoot with film and don’t particularly rate images based on their sharpness. He got blasted by the muppets who hang out at Dpreview.com – but if you’re going to put your name out there and write articles about anything, you’ve got to expect some criticism and take it with a grain of salt. He not only does that but seems to take great pleasure in pissing people off! Good on ya mate!
Eric Kim is a bit artsy fartsy and way to happy for me, but on the whole he seems to be, or at least used to be, quite informational and I quite like the fact he’s done well and seems to have gone off the rails a bit, mainly to stick it to all the naysayers and critics he has and the best thing about him is he doesn’t seem to give a flying fuck about what anybody has to say to him. This is in contrast to the Angry Photographer, who says he doesn’t give a fuck about what people say about him yet seems to spend an awful lot of time replying to criticism against him and reading links that people have sent him about negative things against him.
Eric’s good a lot of good ideas and is full of that youthful enthusiasm that most of us once had before we realised that life is, well, shit a lot of the time! Perhaps that’s just me! Regardless, if you want to learn about photography, specifically street photography, you could learn a thing or two from Eric Kim. As with anything in life, take what you think is useful and disregard the rest, not everything works for everybody so just take what you like about his advice and go with it.
Update: Lately Eric has taken to posting YouTube videos almost on a daily basis and is getting absolutely destroyed in the comments. He’s ranting and raving about how much money he makes, repeating the same thing over and over in videos and people have suggested he’s gone off the rails and/or is on something! Looks like he’s alienating his audience and his ego appears to have outgrown his Photography skills by a large amount.
And on a side note, yeah I often read the comments on YouTube, makes for absolutely hilarious entertainment reading what dickheads such as myself come up with behind the safety of their keyboards.
Also check out this video from Random Camera Junky who takes the piss out of Eric Kim.
Check our Eric Kim’s website here and his youtube Channel here.
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