I have been a photographer at heart for almost 20 years, since I first picked up an SLR camera in high school. My last semester in college at SUNY New Paltz, I got a job doing school pictures. On our first day of training our manager told us he guaranteed we will lose 15 pounds before the season was over in December. I thought he was just being silly. A few weeks of getting up at 3am, packing up my entire Plymouth Sundance hatchback full of very heavy equipment, and driving 1-2 hours to the school I was assigned that day, I started to understand. I was getting no sleep, constantly lugging over 50 pounds of photography equipment, standing all day, and never having any time to eat. I got home by about 3pm, squeezed in a short nap, and either went to a night class, or to my bartending job.
We were given 30 seconds to photograph each child. I had spent four years photographing documentary projects, capturing life moments and telling stories. I was in shock that I was expected to take a portrait in 30 seconds. There was no time for hello or to get them to relax. It was sit, look this way, snap 3 frames, and next. Come November, about half the photographers were laid off. The other half of us got to do retakes, which meant an even more hectic schedule of two to three schools each day.
When January came around and I had my photography degree in my hand, I wanted nothing to do with this type of job. I called up a temp agency and was brought in as an accounting assistant by a local lighting manufacturer, Zumtobel Staff Lighting. I crunched numbers all day, and was excellent at it, so they hired me full time. I dreamed of getting an MFA in photography, and leaving the corporate world.
To be continued…
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