The Day Job is Calling

The Day Job is Calling

As most people know, I am a high school photography teacher.  It was never my intent.   I enjoyed teaching after graduate school but never wanted to “deal” with teenagers and definitely did not intend ever to have a steady job.  Then, there was no other way but one way to support myself and that way fell into my lap.   I became a high school photography teacher and it became my day job.  Now, when I think of the term day job, I think of the many manual labor, demeaning low paying jobs I have had over the years and the high school teaching job does not fit into that description.  Still I go to it everyday during the school year for eleven hours each day door to door.  I ride my bike there and that gives me a way to re-enter my home and studio with the day job left behind.  I am able to live in two different worlds pretty successfully;  in fact I enjoy both immensely.  The teenagers I have taught have been rewarding, frustrating, sometimes sad, tons of fun. They keep me young in my 21st year of teaching high school.  I am good at it, though my students (some of them anyway) might say different.   But in the summer, as soon as school is out, I have almost ten consecutive weeks to work in my studio on anything I want. I get a rhythm and because I live and work in the same place, I get a lot done.   Summer is a blissful time, I go to bed late, take a catnap in the afternoon, work in the studio or go on a road trip and take pictures.  It’s a beautiful life.   And then, the day job calls out from it’s slumbering heap in the corner, and I can’t believe summer is  over.  True,  in some ways I am grateful for the discipline of the day job.  It keeps me honest, in a routine that is healthy out of necessity.  I become  responsible, eat well, do yoga and go to bed early.

I will be the first to admit I get a thrill out of my day job.  After all, teaching is fun and  I really  enjoy turning teenagers onto photography.  They are not afraid to make mistakes and they love to express themselves, to be heard.  So as I begin another year of teaching, I am looking for ways to merge both lives.  I intend this year to loosen my grip on myself;  enjoy every minute more and let both types of work, teaching and making photographs flow freely.  I am continuing to work with color negative film in the  4 x 5 inch pinhole camera.  I give you two here both made in the Catskills, New York State, this summer.  More to come as I finish processing.

Treestreadwell