Natalie Mourton - substitute teacher

Since September she's been living in a cramped studio apartment inside a horse barn in Lolo, Mont. "I never thought I would still be here," says Natalie Mourton, 28.

After graduating from the University of Montana with her journalism/photojournalism degree, she thought the barn would suffice for a few weeks until she found a job.

It's now March, and she's at a bit of a loss. "I'm at the point of trying to figure out if I change directions and go back to school again," Mourton says. It might be a pragmatic decision, but it would be a bitter pill, especially since she originally thought about photojournalism as a way to expand upon her undergraduate degree in environmental studies. She reasoned that a journalism background would open doors that had remained closed for her with just her bachelor's. But in the ten months since she got her master's, those doors have remained shut.

To make ends meet she substitute teaches whenever she gets the call, cleans the horse pens at the equestrian center where she lives, and scouts for freelance work. She doesn't mind the teaching, and the stablehand work means reduced rent.

It's a bit different from the work she was doing to get her degree, and to anyone with a taste for adventure, a lot less exciting than her master's project. For that, she traveled to Chile to document the plight of a small community facing the loss of the cyprus trees that were its lifeblood. For nearly a month she recorded interviews and shot photos that illustrated the community's connection to a resource that was nearly exhausted. Mourton edited and packaged it as a multimedia project, but is unsure about marketing it because she gave a copy to an organization that subsidized her travel expenses. It was also a joint project with an environmental studies grad student who is still working on her portion.

And so another effort that was supposed to open doors is somewhat in limbo. "I don't know that anything came of it," Mourton says of the product she gave to the sponsoring organization.
Though she thinks she could've done more to market herself and her project, she wishes that her UM education would have focused more on those skills. "We should have had more information and preparation for other areas than newspapers," she says.

She also feels disconnected from the university now that she has her diploma. "Once I was done with [the project], that was it." says Mourton. "I basically felt I had no help with that part of it."
Until she makes a decision to move or go back to school, Mourton sees herself in limbo. Going back to school for a health care career "sounds crazy, but if I can't get a job, what else can I do?"

Natalie Mourton's photo portfolio can be viewed here.