The First 10,000 Photos.

Weekly Contact August 15th-22nd

I’ve been digging back through old negatives lately — scanning, cataloging, and sitting with work I made years ago. It’s wild how much of it lands in three buckets: a handful of good photos, a few great ones, and a lot of images that missed.

But honestly, that’s the process.

There’s this idea I keep circling back to — the “10,000-hour rule,” except I think about it in terms of the first 10,000 photos. You put in the reps, burn through rolls, fail publicly, fail quietly, learn from each frame. Over time, something sharpens: your instincts, your timing, your ability to see before you even press the shutter.

All those hours walking Manhattan blocks, weaving through the noise, chasing light… only to come back to Queens and understand the slower rhythm of home. It’s all part of the same education. Every missed frame makes you better at recognizing the one that matters.

Like my buddy Kazu always says: there’s no luck in this world, only hard work and preparation.

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The Warrior in the Garden

I think about that saying often — “Better to be a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war.”

Photography teaches you to stay ready. Not in the aggressive sense, but in the way you prepare yourself to meet the moment when it shows up. You’re training your eye, refining your patience, teaching yourself to breathe differently when the scene unfolds.

That preparation builds confidence. It’s what lets you shoot without hesitation when the rare, unrepeatable thing finally crosses your frame.

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Permission to Want More

Lately, I’ve also been sitting with something else: the idea of giving yourself permission. Permission to want more, to chase deeper meaning, to lean into the uncertainty of your creative path — even when every sign seems to point somewhere unfamiliar.

It’s not about arriving at certainty; it’s about staying open enough to keep moving. To keep making. To keep learning from every frame, even the ones that never leave the contact sheet.

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Into the Developer Tray

Artist Spotlight: Deborah Willis

Deborah Willis has spent her career proving that photography isn’t just about making images — it’s about remembering. As both a photographer and historian, Willis explores how archives hold power, how memory is constructed, and how photographs become a language for reclaiming identity.

Her work often blurs the line between personal and collective history, pulling from her own images alongside those of forgotten Black photographers who shaped visual culture but rarely got credit for it. In doing so, she reminds us that scanning an old negative isn’t just technical — it’s a form of excavation.

That resonates with me right now as I’ve been sitting with my own archives. The imperfect frames, the missed moments, the quiet standouts — they all form a record of where I’ve been and where I’m headed. Willis’s practice is a reminder that this process of looking backward sharpens how we move forward.

Selected Works By Deborah Willis

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One Last Thought

Keep working like today’s your last day behind the camera. Keep showing up. The good images stack quietly in the background, waiting for you to earn them.

Because eventually, they arrive.

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Thanks for reading,

- Mac