In reading Parable the importance of the Black characters being Black feels paradoxical. Throughout the book I felt like their Blackness was both instrumental and inconsequential to the story. It took me until just now to realize where that duality comes from.

Before AI, and before algortithms, the audience had one responsiblility in regard to the creative process. Discovery. It was the job of the audience to find the movies, books, music, art that deserved attention and purchase it. It was also the audiences job to share their discoveries with others. Everyone was a tastemaker. Everyone had a hand in the culture of their particular interest. There is still no better feeling than hearing your friend play the album you put them onto last month.

But we don’t do that anymore. Not really.

One of the unspoken tasks within a classroom is the process of documenting progress. I have kids who can’t sit still for more than a few seconds at a time. Having them engaged in an activity for a minute or two is a huge win for my students as well as the adults in my classroom. These moments are typically caught on tablets and cellphones. As a photographer there is rarely, if ever, a time you won’t find a camera on me. One day I decided to pull it out and take photos of the children. Nearly five months into the school year and I have created a body of what I believe is my best work to date. The only down side is that I can’t show it for reasons of privacy.

My brother Chris Cunningham and I are typical siblings in that we don't see each other nearly enough. We rarely talk at all. It's not that we don't love and care for each other it's more a matter of how life be life-ing. Chris has an active life and multiple jobs and I'm a borderline shut-in with a kid, two dogs, and three projects I'm trying to get out of my head everyday.

But there is always a tie thant binds.

I’m a firm believer that we don’t “own” our ideas. Think of the number of times you had an idea for a piece of art, or an invention, or some other thing that didn’t exist before you thought of it. That thing you forgot to write down, or draw, or shoot, only to have that very thing cross your path, created by someone else days, months, years later. That thought you let languish found a home somewhere else. That seed found soil and bloomed into the thing you should have made.

I walk my dog every morning. Most mornings we walk pretty much the same route. So I decided to give myself a challenge. Find something unique along the path I tread daily and take a photo. Somedays there will be something genuinely new. Others I will have to find a way to shoot the mundane with a new perspective.

In 2023 there is virtually no reason to shoot film. It’s expensive. It’s inconvenient. The process is slowwwww (especially if you don’t develop yourself). People who shoot film love the word artisanal and beanies.

So why do I want to master it?

I walk my dog every morning. Most mornings we walk pretty much the same route. So I decided to give myself a challenge. Find something unique along the path I tread daily and take a photo. Somedays there will be something genuinely new. Others I will have to find a way to shoot the mundane with a new perspective.

The first time I deleted my drafts, it felt like a gut punch. I loved those drafts. I loved the words within those drafts. They were lyrical. They touched my soul. They were my darlings. But, in writing, your darlings are really just dead weight. We drag them from project to project. We sift through them as a means of self-congratulation and self-flagellation. “I love what I wrote” collides with “I hate that I didn’t write anything.”