Daily Meaning: Life Inside America's Service Industries
This exhibit is a collective effort of five photographers and five audio producers from the Chicago region, who have documented the lives and work of men and women in service professions. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that by the year 2012, more than 80% of Americans will work in service industries. This exhibit will include more than a dozen people whose work and lives are part of this transition. The hope is to look beyond the economics of this change, to quantify this shift in the measurements of everyday life, and ultimately to help us better understand each other.
The following are examples of three of the portraits:
Catherine Gallogly - Hospice Worker
Leah Missbach, Photographer Jenny Lawton, Audio Producer
Listen to the audio of this portrait
Nick Rice - Pet Groomer
Jason Reblando, Photographer Ben Calhoun, Audio ProducerListen to the audio of this portrait
Anonymous Hotel Housekeeper
Karen Hoyt, Photographer Catrin Einhorn, Audio Producer
This workers identity is being withheld because of her fears of possible retaliation by her employer.
Listen to the audio of this portrait (In Spanish. English translation)
It's disgusting when you go into a room, and you just want to run back out when you see how disgusting the room is. You expect to see a normal room, because you expect that the people who rent the rooms have manners, right? You don't expect to see a bath tub absolutely full of hairs. You don't expect to see so much rudeness, because to me, it's rude to leave the rooms like that. We're people too and we need respect. Just like we respect them, they should have respect for housekeeping.
They pay us by the hour, $11.22 an hour. It's a lot and a little, right?
I love my job because it's given me good things. Like supporting my family, that's a very good thing about the job. It's good for them. But for me, my body's getting weaker everyday. I had surgery in October. I don't know how much longer my body's going to last, because I feel my energy leaving.
I get depressed, sometimes I want to cry. And that's why I tell my kids, study, study, so you don't have to do what I do.
