A Photo Collective Documents the Effects of the Crisis in the United States (Facingchange.org)

In its time, the Farm Security Administration hired photographers to document the effects of the Great American Depression of the 1930s. The biggest names in photography, such as Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans, created a portrait of the crisis and its victims that became iconic. This period has greatly influenced American photographers to the present day and has pushed them to look with acuity into their country’s social problems.

A collective of renowned photographers (Anthony Suau, Danny Wilcox Frazier, Stanley Greene, Brenda Ann Kenneally, David Burnett, etc.) has followed in the tracks of these glorious elders to create a portrait of an America where the effects of the financial crisis are still making themselves known. Two years after the fall of the big names on Wall Street, the “Main Street” anonymous (the middle class, small businesses, workers…) are still suffering, these photos say.

The name of the collective, Facing Changes, has prophetic tones. It seems to say that nothing in America will be as before, that even those who pick themselves up from this crisis will no longer be the same because, in the meantime, they will have sold their house or spent long periods unemployed.

Tough-looking, the subjects are in reality often treated very delicately, according to each artist’s style. Thus, Brenda Ann Kenneally creates strong but sensitive portraits of families marginalized by the crisis, like the Ruberts in Louisiana. In Detroit, Anthony Suau — in very classic black and white — looks into the work of a food bank, while Lucian Perkins suggests a very artistic approach — almost sculptural — to obesity.