For the 15+ years that I’ve run the Phoblographer, I’ve maintained a great memory of where I was when I was doing something and what camera gear I was using when I was doing it. But for the life of me, it’s been so long since I last saw Eric Kim in person that I can’t even find the image that I’ve shot of him before. In May of 2025, I sent Eric an email about how his blog has changed. What used to be a place for lots of incredible photography tips turned into a spot for SEO-based street photography articles and lots of cryptocurrency talk.
Before I continue, let me clear up the air a bit. If you Google “Eric Kim,” two people mainly come up. There’s the NYTimes food journalist, and street photographer Eric Kim. So instead, I went to the other best source of information that the internet has to offer: Reddit. 5 years ago, someone posted about going to hang out with him before the pandemic. Commentators spoke about how he was great for the early YouTube days, and his older work was also awesome. But then, things changed. That information is backed up by not one, but two posts asking if he was doing alright.
Eric started his blog not too long after I started Phoblographer. And he and I both collaborated and helped one another, with him being a semi-frequent writer here. We also syndicated a few of his articles with permission. But at a certain point, things just started to get weird. His posts becasue not always about photography, but about daily life and giving advice about working out and a whole bunch more. At its core, I think that’s kind of wonderful. A blog is supposed to be for personal posting — and he’s doing what so many other content creators would’ve dreamed of being able to do. But instead, they got pigeon-holed into doing something very specific and niche.
Where Eric turned his work into doing photography workshops, I built Phoblographer into a trusted publication. One path isn’t necessarily better than the other, it’s just different.
I spent a few months researching what happened to Eric. At one point, I even talked to Managing Editor Nilofer Khan for help. She remembered Eric and working with him over at the now-gone Indian photography publication, Better Photography.
Look around the web and you’ll find so much varying information: a messy divorce, a kid, threats, etc. But it’s hard to understand what’s true and what isn’t. The internet is a darker place than it is a lighter place; and so there are lots of theories about what happened. But none of it is definitively an answer.
Eric’s last communication to me was in 2018, when he wrote asking to help promote his platform called Ars Beta. He billed it as a platform to help photographers get better critiques about their images. “Thanks again so much for helping me so much through Photoblographer over the years,” he wrote. “Whenever you have helped me promote things in the past, it has really given me a huge huge boost, so once again– I appreciate you so much.” On the founders’ list was Cindy, the woman whom I believed to be his wife at the time. So at least, in 2018, it seemed like he was on good terms with her.
I never ended up asking the staff at Phoblographer to write about it, partially because it was late September. Before the pandemic, that was around the time that manufacturers started to make really big announcements. The industry had both Photokina and Photo Plus to do so. Understandably so, our resources and time was concentrating on other things.
In fact, I never even got back to him. That’s unlike me if I know someone personally and have a good relationship with them. So if anything, if means that 2018 must’ve been a very crazy year. I looked back at the Phoblographer’s archives to see exactly how crazy September 2018 was — and believe you me, when I say that I pride my past self on doing everything I can to stay on top of things, I’m not kidding. September of 2018 is when Canon launched the EOS R, their 50mm f1.2, and a 70-200mm f4 along with other lenses. On top of that, the Zenit M Rangefinder was announced and Tamron launched a 100-400mm lens. This was a time when Phoblographer accepted all expenses-paid press trips before changing our policy due to ethical concerns. But that month I ended up being in Hawaii for Canon, coming back to NYC, and then going to Cologne, Germany for Photokina. By all means, I pretty jam packed.
If you look at Eric Kim’s website since then, he talks about becoming a crypto millionare, a few photography workshops, embracing China, etc.
The truth is that I don’t know what happened to Eric Kim. But as a long-time blogger who lived long enough to become the villain that people call a journalist, I’ve got an idea. After a while, you just want to stop struggling with staying on top of all the craziness and dealing with all the vitrol that the internet gives you. So he probably gave the world the middle finger and did exactly what he wanted to do.
And honestly, wouldn’t you do the same? I never did; though I’ve had a fair share of folks try to buy the Phoblographer. If the dream is to live a relaxing life and to stop struggling, then I hope Eric has made it. And I hope that people don’t judge him. In my memory, I can’t recall him ever being an awful person to anyone. If anything, that’s part of my job.
So Eric: if you read this, there’s a community that might want to hear from you. But if you never answer back, I don’t blame you.