‘I have embraced my hustle’

In

‘I was a classical language teacher for eight years. I really enjoy being in front of the class, but I also noticed that the workload was too high. I was almost always busy with preparation, teaching, parent discussions, meetings, et cetera. When I took six months of leave last year, I found out that I really liked being able to determine my own rhythm.

“So from this year on, I decided to fully focus on my work as a freelance photographer – which I had been doing on the side for a number of years. I mainly shoot weddings and family reportages. Last month I had four weddings planned, I don’t want much more. That is bad for creativity, it should not feel like mass work.

“As a photographer I am cheerful, energetic and involved. An enthusiastic ADHD person. As a child I bounced in all directions uncontrollably. Later I was able to embrace that busyness. It helps me during my work. As soon as I have my camera in hand, I enter a kind of hyperfocus. I then go full for the best results.

“Actually, photography and teaching are quite similar: you work a lot of hours that no one has seen. For every hour I shoot, I spend about three hours at home with selection and post-processing. Customers used to say: ‘you don’t have to edit for me, you know’. But it’s part of the job. Cameras don’t even come close to the capacity of our eyes. By editing the images, I bring back what I have seen.”

Out

“There are a few things I spend money on: rent, electricity, food and good coffee. For the rest I try to get the best out of it with as little expenditure as possible. I like to buy through Marktplaats. Recently I spent a month collecting a home cinema sound set there. That took a while, but then I saved hundreds of euros.

“I have one account where everything comes in and goes out. I use what remains as a buffer for retirement, disability or whenever necessary. I know that my first year as a full-time photographer is going to be a bit of a financial loss. But if the buffer hasn’t decreased much by the end of the year, I’m relatively happy. As long as I can make ends meet. As a non-cohabitant in my twenties I cannot buy a house for the time being.

“By the way, money is only money. There is much more than that: mental health and time you have for hobbies, friends and relationships. There is a difference between living to work and working to live. In education it became more and more the first for me, as a photographer it is the second.”