George Ilstrup has enjoyed photography since he was in high school, but the hobby didn’t become a passion until his sophomore year at UMD. Ilstrup’s work as a photographer started in Duluth, but now it spans across the North Shore, Minnesota, the United States, and includes images from around the world.
His images have a special impact on his fifth graders at Minnehaha Elementary School in Two
Harbors. “I like to use photography in the classroom,” he says. “If we’re learning about erosion, I'll pull up pictures of river canyons and other cool examples of how soil and rock break down.”
Reading weather maps is also a part of the fifth grade curriculum. “If there's severe weather happening, we'll look at maps.” He’s got dozens of photos that display specific examples of weather phenomena. He has images of storms on the North Shore, sea caves in Wisconsin, and sea smoke on Lake Superior.
“Storm chasing is my latest obsession,” he says. His class learns from the images he brings back. He and his cameras have logged over 30,000 miles in a single summer. He’s been to Southern Minnesota, Colorado, Kansas, and every state in between. “When you see a good storm, it's the coolest experience.”
In addition to science, Ilstrup uses his photography to inspire his students. “It’s useful for creative writing and descriptive writing. It's fun! I just throw a picture up and ask them questions like: what do you think you would feel if you were there? What would you hear?” He sees their development. “Their world perspective starts to open up.” Ilstrup connects students with their own environment and culture, as well as with other cultures.
Ilstrup looks back to his second year at UMD. It was a time of change. While he was taking a deep dive into photography, he was gravitating toward teaching as a profession.
He decided he wanted to be a teacher during his second semester of his freshman year. “I really started enjoying it once I got into the classroom,” Ilstrup says. He worked toward a certification to teach kindergarten through sixth grade and Special Education. One of the most memorable parts of his education was student teaching abroad. “Student teaching in Ljubljana, Slovenia was a part of my life I’ll always remember,” he says.
While in Europe he traveled to Italy, Croatia, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, and Austria. As Ilstrup traveled, he expanded his photography portfolio. Back in the states, he student taught in Esko, Minnesota. “That led me into my first job in Cloquet,” he says. From 2019 to 2022, he taught special education. “In 2022, I made the switch to general education in Two Harbors, which was my first year teaching fifth grade.”
George Ilstrup is known throughout the Northland for the pictures he takes, but that notoriety isn’t all that counts. He’s proud of his ability to bring the world into his classroom.