Women's Work

I have always been fascinated with the roll women play in professions that have historically been male domindated positions.  Even more than the fact thaty are taking on a roll that has been defined by gender in this culture, I want to know why they decided on this line of work and what their life is like outside of their profession.

As you know, I am on the road with my dog Max, a tent and my camera.  A personal project of mine is meeting these amazing women.  As I spend months on the road, I would love the opportunity to spend time with them side by side to capture not only them in photographs on the job, but living their everyday life to get a glimpse of who they are and to ultimately publish a book about their lives.

I started this journey over a month ago and have been photographing women I meet on the road who have career positions that have historically belonged to men.  I would also like to meet women who do inspiring work and spend their lives living out their passion.  That would include artists, visionaries, musicians, and the like.

I think these women are a great example for girls to see and learn first hand that there is nothing they can't do.  That just because they are a girl doesn't mean they have to follow a path that society or the history books say that it's meant for a girl to take simply because of their gender.  I am thankful to the trailblazers that wrote and those who approved title 9. Once approved, I was able to participate on a Women's basketball team in college.

It also starts at home.  I was lucky enough to have parents that kept me busy in activities and sports and who didn't blink an eye when I wanted to try out for the football team in junior high even though I would have been the only girl.

All of the women I have met so far didn't pay attention to any rules to say they couldn't do what they do because of their gender.  Thank you to all of these amazing women who took the time to talk to me about what they do and for setting an example to younger generations looking to do the same.

Visiting Tillamook, Driving Up The Oregon Coastline, And Witnessing A Hit And Run

There is always adventure in each day.  Max and I left Horse Camp and headed up the coast on beautiful highway 101, stopping along the way to admire some scenic overlooks.  It was a day to take a leisure drive up the coast without a plan to see where we would end up.

We drove through some charming towns along the way and decided to stop at the Tillamook cheese factory for an ice cream treat.  Well, Max stayed in the car but I enjoyed a delicious one scoop (if you can believe it) of chocolate peanut butter.

I decided to do a little people watching so I sat outside and ate it on a bench during a very windy afternoon.  As I headed back to the parking lot, I decided to sit in the car to catch up on some emails.  As I was on the computer in the car, I witnessed a person back up into another car and hit the bumper.  From where I sat, it looked like a tap and the owner of the vehicle got out to inspect the damage.  I went away on the computer figuring that everything was ok.  About twenty minutes later, I saw a few people gathered around the car looking at the damage.  After a while, a gentleman came up to me to see if I saw anything. I told him my story and what I didn't know (or see) was that she left a big dent on the side of the car.  I told him that I would help out in any way I could since I would be there for a while.

Shortly after, a police officer came to write up a report of the incident.  She came to my car to ask me a few questions and after I answered, I asked her if I could ask her a few questions and take her photograph.  To my surprise, she agreed to it!  So there I was, out in the middle of the Tillamook parking lot taking photographs of the town's female sheriff to perhaps be included in my "Women's Work" project.

It goes to show you that you never know what will happen in your day or who you will come across.  Not only was I able to get caught up on some mail in the parking lot, I was able profile the sheriff of Tillamook and let's not forget that huge scoop of ice cream!  That was enough excitement for the day so we decided to leave and continued our journey north.