Disappearing Act

Brian Ulrich had an interesting discussion going on over at his blog last month about the lack of photography of the economic crisis and how no one seemed to be capturing one of the largest meltdowns our country has seen. I just came across some more of the work that Brian has been making recently via Conscientious, and you can see them here. Also you can see some interesting examples by Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre @ Time's Website here (via Brian's blog)

Part of the problem maybe that the work is out there, but the places where the worst of the economic downturn are outwardly visible are not the center of photo activity. Living in NY or Chicago or L.A. we may not see things changing as fast and as drastically as smaller cities and towns have. Another reason maybe that these economic hardships are also hitting us as a photographic community. Making work wasn't easy or cheap when times were "good". Many photographers are busting their butts at full time jobs, while also trying to squeeze in making their work in their spare time. All the while paying off huge college loans(to some of the same banks that helped caused this).

Not an excuse. Its just the reality of it.

Lastly, I think that while the depression (for lack of a better word) isn't easy to photograph. This isn't the 1930's and its not as easy as driving through the midwest and finding out of work farmers on bread lines. How do you photograph the greed and lack of good judgement that got us here?

All that said, I'd love to see more work that represents what's going on and how we got here.