Capture The Recession: New Pics From HuffPost Readers

What does the recession look like to you?

When the recession hit, you didn't have to read the the unemployment numbers to know that the economy was taking a beating. You could see it in the shuttered houses down the street and the local stores going out of business.

But more than a year after the housing crisis began, the changes the recession brought about are beginning to blend in, to feel normal. So we've asked photojournalists around the world to capture the recession, to document the communities that have come together to support one another, and the hardship and desolation caused by the economic meltdown.

You see the everyday changes brought on by the global economic slump. How has life changed in your community? What are the indicators that things aren't the same? Feel free to get creative!

What does the change look like for you and your community? Submit your photos to our Capture the Recession Flickr group. Once you have a Flickr account (you can register here for free), join the HuffPost's Capture the Recession Flickr group, then add your uploaded photos to the group pool. Please include a caption and location for each photo that you submit and feel free to get creative with pictures of the secondary effects of the recession.

"Longshot"

Shuttered movie theater in Chicago with "Longshot" slotted for a screening in theater #1.

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Comments

[obamaelection]

11:01 AM on 08/25/2009

obama reappoints Bernanke 'beagle boy' Ben

yay another example of no change. voters were deceived.

good articles 4 slow news day: http://www.iamned.com

guess who will be sitting home on November 21st 2012?

[BlueIndependent]

06:46 PM on 08/24/2009

While I have no problem with visually documenting the results of bad, largely republican economic policies over the course of years and the increasing gap between rich and poor, some of these images are bound to be misleading. A woman living in a rented storage unit? I can believ that and it's pretty ingenious. But the closed "Hilltop Restaurant" Looks like many old buildings in my home town that have been closed for two or more decades and have simply not been plowed yet. Some of these scenes aren't truthfully conveying what and where the real damage has happened because places like those theatres and boarded watering holes, if they're anything like the rust belt city I grew up in, closed ages ago and are much less likely the result of more recent economic changes than other factors. Also, if people are traveling through some of these towns and smaller cities and see what appears to be recent economic desolation, they have no idea when what went out of business.

People taking these images should focus on things like the absolute corporatization of everything; the shuttered main street malls with a Wal-Mart next door. New developments with beautifully paved parking lots right next to old neighborhoods with classic buildings that have been allowed to rot. That's where the story is. Like all media I think these images need to be reviewed for the truth behind the appearance.

[CHARLESTHETENTH]

06:23 PM on 08/24/2009

Expect the recession to be with us for sometime..We had cash for clunkers that did well for new car sales but will have a reverse effect for used car sales.. as there will not be that many cars available and that means higher prices for used cars...so what was gained? Also not all sales went for fuel efficient cars...but a high percentage in vans, trucks and suv's....We have Social Security for 2010 projected with no standard of living increase at all...but Medicare premiums will go up and for most people on Social Security that will mean a net loss. The gain realized from the few previous years could be all wiped out. What does that mean to the economy...less money in the system, poor sales and more people out of work. The net effect of the Obama stimulus plan will be drawing down on many social programs in order to pay for the the stimulus and whatever else ....untimately adding to our deficit at taxpayers expense. There is no "free lunch"...this country is in a state of decline but it's "damm the torpedos..full speed ahead" mentality of this administration that will take us to the brink !!

[STUPIDgit]

05:06 PM on 08/24/2009

It's not a photo, but I've got a film about a recently returned Marine who loses his job and is living on the streets. It'll be premiering at the Sonoma Wine Country Film Festival in September:

http://www.sporkproductions.com/films/pour.html

With over a half-million veterans homeless in America and many more living in extreme poverty we all have a moral obligation to offer more tot he ones who have served our country.

[SammyD]

08:20 PM on 08/24/2009

you have alot of catching up to do. Begin with all the Vietnam war veterans amd work your way forward from the past 40 years.

[STUPIDgit]

09:11 AM on 08/25/2009

Actually, I've been doing a documentary on the same topic and have interviewed homeless vets going all the way back to Korea. Most are from Vietnam though. THe documentary is taking a while though which is why I did the narrative film to get the message out. Hopefully it will open some doors for the documentary when it's ready.

If you have any info you think would be helpful please let me know. There's a contact email at the website and I'm always open to input.

Thanks!

[nellpost]

04:36 PM on 08/24/2009

There are pictures like these from hundreds of years ago -- how do we know these are current foreclosures, closings, tragedies???

[RJII]

04:35 PM on 08/24/2009

Bush left this country in shambles.

[Ishmael1]

04:49 PM on 08/24/2009

It wasn't Just Bush. This started with Nixon and EVERY Republican President did their part to drive this nation to ruin so their friends could steal.

[SammyD]

08:21 PM on 08/24/2009

and the Dem Presidents. Wake up. Obama is selling you out daily. How do you like Soros' deal. He'll make billions from your tax dollars.

[Ishmael1]

04:32 PM on 08/24/2009

It AIN'T a Recession. It's a DEPRESSION. Because, as Roy Rogers and Norton Buffalo say,

There Ain't No Bread in the Breadbox:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2u9api6tQEA

[sherpaswami]

04:32 PM on 08/24/2009

These are more evidence of the inevitabilities of Capitalism which promotes inequality...the rich get richer, etc. In more Socialist-oriented countries these images are less ubiquitous, as community and equality are more prevalent.

[mrskorn]

05:50 PM on 08/24/2009

Yeah, I couldn't afford the $35,000 weekly rent that the Obamas are spending on their vacation. Inequality for sure.

[SammyD]

08:22 PM on 08/24/2009

where it went wrong is when the government stopped capitalism by socializing the car,financial and pther industries. This is not capitalism.

[BitterCling]

04:31 PM on 08/24/2009

So..... how's that whole hopey changey thing workin' out for ya?

[DavePotts]

04:23 PM on 08/24/2009

The abandoned movie theater, restaurant, "gentrify us," box store backlot, and homeless man in wheelchair could have just as easily been taken before the recession.

It's cheap and dishonest to display photos of an abandoned building or junk behind a shopping center as indicative of recession.

The people living in tents or storage units however, are a different story.

[RJII]

04:32 PM on 08/24/2009

stop taking the thoughts right out of my head. totally agree.

[madisonhack]

06:19 PM on 08/24/2009

Do you think there wasn't a homeless problem before now?

[samjung23]

03:51 PM on 08/24/2009

I loved the barn, what an idiot. Get an education.

[Heather Clarke]

03:39 PM on 08/24/2009

This video by Lorne Clarke illustrates the current economic situation pretty accurately.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U2sAfgk6A0

Do check it out. Definitely worth the watch and listen.

[golgibody]

03:26 PM on 08/24/2009

Recession? You wouldn't know it in my town in northeastern MA. Just left TJ Maxx in the middle of a weekday and it was bustling with customers purchasing very non-essential items.

[samjung23]

03:53 PM on 08/24/2009

When the credit cards go bust, all that nonsense will end. I swear that is the next tidal wave to come.

[RJII]

04:34 PM on 08/24/2009

glad someone is still spending. In DC, you'd never know it too. Most people seem oblivious, even though the city has one of the highest unemployment rates.

[Zillacabra]

02:59 PM on 08/24/2009

Hilltop Restaurant in Nyack closed in 2005 - it was really more a victim of old age. Lobster Della Fano still lives at Joe's Steak and Seafood, where the Hilltop chef continued after Hilltop closed.

[krocklin]

02:54 PM on 08/24/2009

The imbalance of wealth in this country has escalated so much since Reagan, it is just a matter of time before the healthcare swindle, joblessness, Republicans put us on even shakier grounds.
The country will not survive or rebound at the current rate. FDR like action will be necessary eventually.

Healthcare is the biggest immediate fix, but in the form we need it isn't palatable to the Special Interests.

Health is a matter of wealth and luck right now. No other industrialized nation faces such a threat as we do right now, largely because of these factors.