r/MachineLearning - [P] What're some good datasets for image classification projects?

I think implementing papers is a good approach. Depending on the paper, this might involve just constructing a network of standard layers in the proposed architecture, or it could involve creating custom layers / operations / training loops. Most papers will claim results on standard / openly available datasets, so you can see if you can reproduce their claimed accuracy. Check out Papers with Code: Image Classification subtasks dataset ideas.