JPG Magazine: Stories: Feature Story: Servant

Feature Story

Servant

By i.n. galbraith

6 March 2008

In the United States, the restaurant industry is big business. There are approximately 935,000 restaurants in this country, with roughly 12.8 million employees in the lower 48. With an estimated revenue of $537 billion in 2007, restaurants, and the service industry in general, is one of the largest and most profitable job markets in the country. Reports expect the industry as a whole to continue growing, with a projected 2 million new jobs over the next ten years.

While the rich fill their pockets, it's the day in and day out struggle of their hard working employees that make it possible. A lot of Americans take for granted the humans that prepare their food, fill their glasses, and manage their service. They often see them as their servants, more so than humans with lives of their own. I believe that there is a fundamental disconnect between the way the general populous views service industry employees and the reality of the situation.

This is a series of faces. Those that wait tables, tend bar, wash pots, and balance budgets. My hope is that by photographing these humans, people will start to look past the aprons, past the name tags, and past the social stigma that is sometimes attached to those that work in the service industry. These people are brothers, sisters, sons, daughters. Mothers and fathers. Uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews, and friends. Some are students, some are college graduates, and others are retirees. Others are immigrants, both illegal and legitimate, both trying to make it in the United States.

Some use restaurants as a stepping stone, while others have found that it's ended up being their career. Many work two jobs to get ahead, others work part time for pocket money. Either way they are often overlooked, and taken for granted. These images won't change anything. These are the people that feed you.

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