Sally Tonkin

I am a photographer whose first experiences were as a photojournalism with a small but spunky and creative newspaper near Seattle. It was a great time to work in that business but it became clear, because of family and the direction of journalism, that I needed to explore other avenues. I went back to school at the University of Washington and got an MFA. While there I taught several classes in darkroom photography. I continued teaching with The Photographic Center Northwest while still freelancing for the Seattle papers. Eventually, I got my teaching certificate and began working with high school students. Teaching high school students has been rich, chaotic, stimulating and interesting but it was also all-involving. This year, I decided it was time to return to my work as a photographer. I plan to develop a few projects, seek funding and exhibit or publish the work in some yet to be determined format.

I taught four levels of photography, and the junior and senior International Baccalaureate Visual Art classes. And, I occasionally taught photography English classes that included American Literature and Creative Writing. I served as department chair. I served on a committee to develop the IB webpage. I designed posters to integrate the IB learner profile with the values of all Davis students. My students won numerous contests locally, at the state level and nationally. In 2014, I wrote a Washington State Arts Commission grant for public art for A.C. Davis High School and we were given $80,000.

I taught everything from darkroom photography to advanced digital photography to Creative Writing. I advised the newspaper and the yearbook. I even ran the Debate team one year. I was active in all aspects of school operations from being on the committee that developed the senior project to working to select the architect for the new building. I was the Art Department head for many years. Together with an enthusiastic group of students, we raised close to $10,000 for the construction of a school in Kenya.

I raced after fire engines and photographed all of the diverse and interesting stories that fill a newspaper photographer's day. I also served as the interim Photo Editor for six months.