Aside from particular big stories in the news - such as Eastman Kodak’s bankruptcy - the economy’s problems overall are a favorite story for me, as it’s a daily reality for the famous “99%.” I see something showing it, I shoot it - and I upload the package to a news-photo agency.
Shooting the economy’s continuing problems - most-recently reported in the Washington Post in an Oct. 2 story on how the middle class now is poorer than it was 24 years ago - has its difficulties now for photojournalists compared to shooting the iconic photos of the 1930s Depression. For one thing, today’s social programs hide today’s poverty; for instance, Food Stamps prevent shooting anything like the bread line under a sign boasting that the U.S. had the world’s highest living standard. Whether or not that concealing poverty is its real intent, it is a major effect of the social programs.
Nonetheless, plenty of images of today’s failed economy abound for today’s photojournalist. Topping the list is the death of the “middle division” car brands - which long sold to the middle class: Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Mercury, and (now overwhelmingly sold in China) Buick. As the long-established sole Lincoln-Mercury dealership here in Burlington, N.C. suddenly collapsed - and then the Mercury brand itself did - the dealership’s location became a story in itself. Despite being on a busy road near a busy interstate, it proved impossible to sell for the longest time - despite a realtor hanging a desperation-size banner on it.
So I shot a package of photos on the then-vacant dealership (below) and uploaded them to a news-photo agency. No Food Stamps could conceal that facet of the dead economy.

Long vacant, the former Burlington Lincoln-Mercury dealership location.