Art and Economic Crisis (Economic Photo of the Week for April 14th)

Over the weekend I was talking with several friends about the effects of economic crises on individuals' well-being (both material and psychological). As part of the discussion, we talked about what images are most salient to us when we think of depression and recession. During the oil crisis and recession of the 1970's, my friends and I agreed that the long lines at gas stations were the dominant image. However, this image (in and of itself) is predominantly one of effect of crisis on material well-being.

When we talked about the crisis of the 1930's (although none of us were around during that one), Dorthea Lange's photo was the image we thought captured the effects of economic crisis psychological well-being. Indeed, this is probably one of them most well-known and important images from the 20th century. It made us wonder what image will be in people's minds when they look back on the current economic crisis.