A SMALL BRUSH

What is credit? It’s easy to think of borrowing and lending, and financial agencies that decide whether you are worthy. I started taking pictures professionally in 2010. Back then, credit card companies wouldn’t give me credit. The reason: insufficient credit history. The cellphone bill I had been paying since 2004 wasn’t enough proof that I was good for it. Maybe because one bill went to collections through no fault of mine. Perhaps my fault was in being too trusting. Some people will take your credit and do whatever they want with it. 

Only about 1.71% of U.S. consumers with a credit file hold a perfect 850 FICO® score. By 2024, I was part of that small percentage. I went from no credit to 850. I took screenshots. The same way I took screenshots whenever I got photocredit on Instagram. When you support people by lending your time and labor, and they acknowledge that, it reverberates. I carry what I’ve learned financially into other aspects of life. You can have credit one day and none the next. You can give freely because of a relationship, and as soon as the relationship deteriorates, someone will withhold acknowledgment that costs them nothing. 

When AMEX didn’t want to give me credit, I said fine and went on with my life. However, authorship is nonnegotiable. Before Malik was born, I could devote nearly every waking hour to creating. Now I’m sometimes working with two or three hours a day, and that’s been a reality that I am proud of. Everything I created before him represents an enormous investment of a life I cannot simply return to. Photography has meant a lot to me. It takes time to build your credit, but you can lose it all through no fault of your own. Because some people will take your credit and do whatever they want with it.