At some point I decided to publish 500,000 photos during my lifetime. A few months later I realized that 500,000 was not enough and chose to do 1,000,000 instead.
What this goal means most of all for me is that I will dedicate a very large portion of my life to creating art. It means that my life will be intertwined with photography in a significant and meaningful way until I die. It’s a discipline to ensure that I live my life in such a way that art will play a significant and prominent role in it.
That’s from an interview that Chris Guillebeau did with photographer Thomas Hawk.
Hawk thinks it will take 10 million clicks of the shutter to get the one million photographs he wants to publish.
What moves me about his story is the way Hawk has committed himself to the craft. During every spare moment he has, he is processing photos – on his train ride to work, at breaks during the day, at 11PM before he goes to sleep. He says the only two things in his life are his art and his family.
Most of us won’t make that commitment. I know many days I don’t think I have anything interesting enough to say to here, but I fight through that judgment to keep writing and sharing. Think how having a goal like Hawk’s doesn’t even allow for the time to filter and fear and wonder if this is what he should be doing.