Glamorous life of freelance photojournalists: Gross pay for 2011, less than $10,000

By Kathleen Kenna and Hadi Dadashian

Hadi Dadashian photo

To paraphrase Charles Dickens, this was the worst of years:  Our 2011 income was lower than at any other time in our lives.

This includes years when we returned to school in our 40s and 50s; years when we were new immigrants; years when we first started careers in our teens and 20s.

Yet we worked full-time, often long days, seven days a week, in 2011.  We applied for jobs; paid for background checks, transcripts, and other documents.  We even had a few — very few — interviews.

To paraphrase Dickens again, it was the best of years:  We explored our new state of Oregon, then the Pacific Coast, from Canada to California, as travel writers/photographers.  We had a lot bylines, a lot of published photos, and a lot of fun.

We explored new states, like Colorado.  We began a travel blog — tripsfor2 to share experiences that didn’t make it into newspaper, magazine and online stories commissioned in the U.S. and Canada.

We had big, color spreads; front-page bylines and photo credits; and Kathleen’s first fashion story in a 40-year career as a professional journalist.

As much as we like paid bylines, it was even more exciting to meet readers from around the world, from Singapore to India to Italy and Britain, and all across the U.S., through three WordPress blogs.

Our photos improved, inspiring Hadi to start a photoblog, On Forest Creek.

But we were getting frustrated  by our job search — a daily grind of cover letters and resumes and online applications that prompted few replies or interest.

That’s why we began Hire Your Neighbor:  We wanted to ignite a national conversation about record unemployment in the U.S.

We know there are 25 million unemployed Americans, so we’re trying not to take our own joblessness personally.  (Tough for Kathleen, whose disability bars her from getting health insurance.)

As Kathleen kept telling clients when she was still employed as a job counselor:  It’s not personal.  It’s a recession.

We talked the talk, and walked the walk that Kathleen outlined at job-search workshops (when she was still working as a job counselor):

✔ Job-hunting is a full-time job, so treat each day as a work day, tapping networks and applying for positions, online and in person;

✔ Pick up new skills; try new things; read and learn and grow;

✔ Stay healthy; keep a positive outlook, as much as possible;

✔ Volunteer.

Granted, earning a near-poverty income is tough after you’ve spent $5,000 on a Green Card (Kathleen), and more than $25,000 on tuition, books and other school expenses (both of us).

But we didn’t have any student loans.  We have no debts.  We live frugally — but well — and keep our expenses low.

It hurts to have earned so little this year, yet we’ve learned a lot, as online publishers and freelance photojournalists.

Given our experiences and everything we hear from other job-seekers, we believe the best solution in the downsizing of America is this:  Start your own business.

We hope you’ll follow our progress, at this blog, as we learn all we can about establishing a small business in the U.S. in the next year.

We have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

And really, we just don’t believe we’ll  make less money in 2012.

TOMORROW:  Volunteer work while job-searching — good or bad?

 

Support the arts, support co-founder of Hire Your Neighbor

Improv actor Hoover Wind

Laughter is one of the best anti-depressants, especially when 25 million Americans are unemployed.

So support the arts tonight by going to Whole World Improv Theatre in Atlanta to see some true talent.

(Gotta’ love their motto:  “Atlanta’s anti-depressant since 1994.”  Or: “Making our mothers cry since 1994.”)

See Hoover Wind, co-founder of this blog and “national conversation” project.

Here’s the message he sent thousands of Facebook friends:

“MC-Adam Booher CAST-Akash Gaur/Carlos Giron/Jessica Michelle Moore/Shelley Hildebrand/Les Mosley/Chris Harbour!  All shot through Lense of Madness(me)!  Doors at 7!  Shows at 8!  If amaretto sours were comedy, they’d be this.”

Hoover Wind will be on stage at 10.30 p.m., a perfect time to laugh out loud.

You can tape Steve Buscemi — one of Hoover’s favorite actors — later on SNL.  Or watch it online (Buscemi already has a promo clip on the SNL site.)

Hoover promises a WW video later.

We’re going to try to convince him to sell it, to raise funds for Hire Your Neighbor.

We’re all un/under-employed actors, writers, photographers — so support the arts, support the economy.

Support Whole World Improv Theatre!  Support new, hot talent!

Writing pays off, co-founder of this blog matches the money: $1551 total

By Kathleen Kenna

Tromping through the woods on a dry afternoon yesterday, we were discussing this venture and trying to decide how much of our limited funds we would invest in it.

“Sometimes, you just work for a good cause, and the money comes,” I said, with surprising confidence.

Sunshine in Portland has that effect.

Then we stopped at the mailbox, and voila! (this is a French term for, ‘will you look at that!’).

There was a direct deposit note from Canada for $741.99.

(The Canadian dollar, for once, is at par with the beleaguered American buck.)

This is important money, the kind a writer lives for — royalties!

Look at me, Mom! I get paid for writing!: Kathleen Kenna

I wrote a non-fiction book once.  Look it up, you can snag it new, hardcover, for $15 or less.

Used? Paperback?  Only a cent.  No kidding — check it on Amazon.com.

A People Apart has paid a modest sum in annual royalties, about $12 or so, for years.

Honestly, it made so much money at the start, when it was co-published in the U.S. and Canada, that I rewarded myself with a long-coveted possession — a big, blue kayak.

Full disclosure:  It’s not the money;  it’s never the money, for most professional writers (i.e. those fortunate to get paid for their words).

This is a good thing, because the direct deposit note shows my share of the royalties, shared with photographer Andrew Stawicki and our agent, Nick Harris, is down to $1.32.  For a year.

Writers are such humble, grateful wretches, this seems like a queenly sum.  (They’re still reading my little book!)

The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency knows this.  It has fought for years to get schools and libraries and other entities to pay writers and artists for the privilege of “lifting” their work.  It’s fighting the education system still, on our behalf.

Photocopy our stuff; use it in your classrooms; paper the walls with it; and we’re grateful, truly grateful.

But many writers live below the poverty line, so access, as it’s known, distributes the fees to its ever-thankful members.

I collect because I’ve written so much for decades for the Toronto Star, Canada’s largest circulation paper.

On occasion, some kind teacher wants her students to read my old stuff (you won’t be surprised to learn that U.S. sex laws were a big draw during Bill Clinton’s presidency.  Sex scandals:  the journalism gift that keeps on giving.)

It’s nice to know there’s payback — literally.

My access payback is $741.99 this year, covering a few magazines and other papers that have published my freelance work.

It makes me proud to be a writer.

It made Hadi Dadashian so proud, he matched the payback by donating $810.01 from his savings to Hire Your Neighbor.

That gives us $1,551 to spread our  job-creating message, and encourage Americans to have a national conversation about hiring their unemployed neighbors:  Get Occupied!

Watch this blog for a regular accounting of how that money is spent.

TOMORROW:  Why I blew $3 on a chance to have dinner with First Lady Michelle Obama and the President of the United States of America

Voice of a renaissance worker, after one year of unemployment

Hadi Dadashian is a true renaissance man, the kind who doesn’t fit neatly on resumes.

Hadi Dadashian

He’s multilingual, having learned new languages wherever his family went.  He taught himself Italian, for instance, after moving to Rome at age 13.

He enrolled in art college, like his older brother, but switched to electrical engineering because “all the other students were like Michelangelo.”

Job prospects were limited, so the family moved to the U.S. when Hadi was 24.

He worked as an electrical engineer, as a subcontractor with an older brother.  They worked on projects from the Pentagon (where he advises there were a lot of rats, real rats to deal with, from the kitchen to man-sized heating ducts), to mega-mansions in Virginia, and restaurants in Washington, D.C.

Then he worked with another brother as an offset printer in Virginia.

Hadi changed careers, becoming a freelance news photographer so he could accompany his wife, Kathleen Kenna, to India, after she was promoted to South Asia bureau chief for her Canadian paper.

What happened next doesn’t fit on any resume.

Hadi saved Kathleen’s life, after she was badly wounded in an alleged al Qaeda IED attack in Afghanistan.  (They were returning from a day of interviewing villagers when attacked.)

You will not hear about this from Hadi.  That’s not how he wants to be defined.

After supporting Kathleen’s return to school in San Francisco, Hadi went back to school there too.  He graduated in 2008 as an optical assistant.

When San Francisco became too pricey, Hadi landed “the best job of my life” in Las Vegas, in 2009.

He worked in optical sales and soon led the team, logging the highest sales numbers, month after month.

Hadi said it was the best job, because he was following a long-time career dream — optical — and was learning a lot, with a close-knit, supportive team.

The job ended in 2010 when the employer cut all workers’ salaries 50% to 70% without advance notice.  Hadi left the state before the store closed.

Q:  Did you collect unemployment insurance?

A:  No, never have — always have a “Plan B”.

We lived on our savings; figured other jobless people needed UI more than me — people with children.  We left the city, because it had the highest unemployment rate, and the highest foreclosure rate in the country.

Q:  What should prospective employers know about you?

A:  I’m resilient.  I’m not afraid of hard work.

I’m a good listener, a fast learner; I’ll work any hours; and I’m not afraid to ask if I don’t know how to do something.

Q:  Any observations about American unemployment after a year out of work?

A:  People are afraid of hiring.  It’s getting worse; it’s like they’re afraid to spend money. The system doesn’t want to give benefits; they want everyone to work full-time for part-time pay.

The most frustrating part is, you apply for jobs and never get a response — nothing.

It’s as if they don’t care.  It’s almost like a joke.

Employers are giving jobs to people who are employed already.  What about people without jobs, mothers who have kids to feed? They’re supporting aging parents, and other family members too.  What are they supposed to do?

Q:  What do you say to critics who blast people without jobs as being lazy?

A:  I’m not lazy — I’ve worked since I was a teenager (as a barista in Rome).  I’m working as a freelance photographer — you use any skill you have — because I have to be working.  I’m glad to have the opportunity, and glad to still have good contacts.  Being unemployed, you find it’s all about networking.

Hadi also has a photoblog, because he’s teaching himself online publishing.  Kathleen and Hadi share a travel blog, which showcases his photos too.

Q:  Any advice to employers?

A:  Don’t be afraid.  I think everyone’s so afraid, wages will drop to $5 an hour –they don’t want to pay real wages.

Why is there so much fear?

You come out of school all excited and you don’t get hired.  It’s not fair to younger graduates. We need them to be working for the economy to improve.

NEXT:  Another graduate, Hoover Wind