Eric Kim is an international street photographer, currently based in Berkeley, California. His interest in it came by chance when he was waiting at a bus stop and saw a man with unique glasses, he took a image just as the man looked directly at him and that was his first street photograph. He used his background knowledge of sociology and would get uncomfortably close to his subjects - luckily he has never had a confrontation for doing so.
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| Downtown LA in Colour © Eric Kim |
Kim now travels the world and teaches others how to overcome their fear of shooting strangers. He does this through his blog and through workshops. Deep down teaching is his passion, so to be able to do both is great. So far he has hosted workshops in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Berlin, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, Melbourne, San Francisco, Chicago, London, Sydney, Toranto and Singapore.
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| Suits © Eric Kim |
Kim doesn't think there is a particularly 'right' way to take a street photograph, the same as there is no right way to paint or write a book. However he does find there are some guidelines to keep in mind. One thing he thinks is important is to use the viewfinder when shooting, rather than shooting from the hip so accurate framing can be achieved. I believe some of Kim's images contradict what he deems important however, for example the image above from the series Suits doesn't give the impression he was looking at the framing of the image.
He does believe some photographers have different ideals of what defines street photography, which I can agree on. There can be a lot of different approaches and sub genres within it. He sees street photography that is candid and more focused on geometry, lines, shapes and composition like Henri Cartier-Bresson. Then there is street photography that is more documentary in style, which are also mostly candid shots of people, and also street photography solely focused on portraits which is what Kim gravitates towards most.
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| Dark Skies over Tokyo © Eric Kim |
He is currently working on a project named Suits. It is based on his experiences and feelings in the corporate world. He is bringing personal experiences to the project from his background when studying sociology. Upon graduating he opted to work a corporate job instead of teaching (which would of required more studying). Kim says the job made him materialistic and always left him wanting more so he started working later and on weekends. After the company he worked for went public however, the value decreased and he lost his job. That is when he started his blog and doing street photography full time. He now sees former friends in such jobs, miserable, just working long hours to afford the new gadgets and cars. Therefore the project is like a self portrait of himself.
