“The pressure that came with my darkroom work was just like the movie ”The Devil Wears Prada,’” John Jacono recalled one sunny September morning, describing the years he spent working as a photography printer in New York City from 1999 to 2014.
Jacono printed photographs for some of the fashion world’s most celebrated photographers, including Annie Leibovitz, Steven Klein and Steven Meisel. But as digital printing began to replace the painstaking work of traditional photo printing, Jacono realized his career was changing.
“By 2014, digital printing was making my job obsolete,” he said. “So I turned away from the darkness and into the light of gardening.”
That decision would lead the Yonkers native to a second career — and, he says, a much happier life.
Jacono lives in Yonkers with his wife, Penny, and their two teenage children. He credits Penny with encouraging him to explore his growing passion for gardening and supporting him as he pursued a new career.
In 2016, he was accepted into the New York Botanical Garden’s School of Professional Horticulture, a rigorous two-year program that accepted just 10 applicants. Before they could even be considered, applicants were required to complete 500 hours of volunteer work. Jacono completed the requirement and earned his place in the program.
Two years later, in 2018, Timothy Tilghman, Untermyer’s head gardener, hired Jacono to help develop the ornamental vegetable garden. Working alongside fellow gardener Liz Dreeben, Jacono has helped nurture the garden ever since.
But his work at Untermyer extends well beyond growing vegetables and caring for plants. Jacono is equally passionate about mentoring the Yonkers high school students who work as paid interns at the garden. Since 2016, more than 100 students have worked with Jacono and Dreeben.
“I hear so many people speak critically of kids today,” Jacono said, “but I’ve found our interns to be hard-working, respectful and ready to learn about both gardening and life.”
Many of the students, he says, are “COVID kids”— young people whose social development was disrupted by the pandemic.
“They lost time building their social skills,” he said. “But they come here, put away their phones and get to work.”
For Jacono, the internship is about much more than gardening.
“We don’t just discuss gardening,” he said. “Some kids say they are afraid to get their driver’s license. They are afraid of getting pulled over or getting into an accident. We explain the freedom a license brings — and the importance of having a license in case of an emergency.”
He takes particular pride in watching the students reach milestones that many adults might take for granted: getting their first job reference, receiving their first paycheck and opening their first bank account.
Jacono has also found a way to bring his former career as a photographer into his work at Untermyer. He photographs the gardens and shares his images and gardening tips on Untermyer’s Facebook and Instagram pages. His efforts have helped increase the reach of the garden’s social media posts from about 14,000 views to more than 67,000.
On October 17, Jacono will combine his two passions — photography and nature — when he teaches a class at Untermyer on how to take exceptional nature photographs using the camera on a smartphone. The class is limited to 10 participants.
“I never expected that my work as a gardener would make me so happy,” Jacono said.
Perhaps that is the best measure of Jacono’s unlikely career change. He once spent his days in the darkness of a New York City photo lab. Today, he spends his days under the sun at Untermyer, growing a garden, mentoring young people and helping others see the beauty around them.
And those of us who love Untermyer are fortunate that he found his way into the light.
