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Photographing Employment Hardship + Lessons Learned
Weeks before I was married, a friend’s mother warned me that my marriage would never work. Little did she know that comment wouldn’t deter me. It challenged me. I think she meant well, really I do, because I was 19 and my husband, Joel was 20 when we were married. When I look back now, we were so young, just babes really, with little to go on.
I attended college full time and Joel worked hard, but his paychecks were small. Those beginning years of our marriage where we lived on little financially, but on an abundance of love and determination, taught us to live simply, work hard, and complain little. Those lessons early on have served us well. Our decisions over the years have reflected what we learned early on. We don’t need abundance. Hard work, hearts united, and a willingness to give and take have carried us through.
At the birth of our first son, it was decided that I would stay home and we would make due on one income. I have not known a day when Joel didn’t work hard to provide for our family. He has had job changes and hardships, but never has he thrown in the towel and quit. He continues to work and give his all to support our family.
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Most recently we went through several hard months as a family and I watched as he again picked himself up from a difficult situation. He didn’t bury his head in defeat, but instead took on the challenge that was set before him, he became self-employed.
I knew I needed to capture the commitment that this man has to working without complaint. When our neighbor asked Joel to put metal siding on her barn, I knew I had the opportunity I had been looking for. I knew I had found a way to tell his story, our story:
a story about a boy + girl who fell madly in love twenty-eight years ago and who have worked steadily side by side, to make a home, a life, a beautiful story.
Writing + photography contributed by Jenny Bowers.
Jenny Bowers is a camera totin’, storytelling, country girl living a simple life with her husband and four children. When she’s not preserving memories and telling stories through her lens, she is homeschooling her children or spending time helping on her family’s land.
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