Reflected recession

A homeless resident of a tent city in Sacramento, California, USA - Image by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The current economic situation is hardly ever out of the news. Each day seems to bring more and more bad news. It's in times like these that the role of the photographer becomes critical. Statistics tell us nothing about the individuals who make up those numbers given out by the media and government agencies.

The Big Picture blog has a number of images that reflect the social changes the economic downturn has delivered upon us all. Most of the images are of mass groups - people looking for work, unused freight containers, 57,000 unsold Dodge SUV's and rows of reclaimed houses. A simple photograph of a huge storage area of unused newspaper racks in San Francisco tells the sad story of the near terminal state of the newspaper market in America.

The recession is taking hold elsewhere in the world but it must be remembered that it won't last forever. It will take time, lots of hard work and stupid amounts of money but this 'great recession' will pass.