DAY 110

SOCIAL & POLITICAL COMMENTARY

Employment

THE VISUAL IMPACT OF UNEMPLOYMENT

Like a small hole found in the material of a well-loved jacket, a continually growing rate of unemployment can pull and tear and eventually rip apart the fabric of community. Conveying the social impact of unemployment begins with an understanding of the threads of community, the result of a few weak fibers, and how that might be interpreted visually. Weak fibers are linked to loose, curvy and frayed threads. Groups of weak threads suggest a progressing breakdown in the fabric.

The weaving, snaking lines of the unemployed waiting for food, jobs, and training, or parades of hungry, angry, jobless protesters are hallmarks of visually portraying unemployment. Simple, handcrafted signs of explanation, desperate attempts to obtain a job, the faces of skilled and highly educated individuals working at low paying, often menial jobs invoke empathy, recognition, and fear from the viewer. Think of each person within the photograph as a worn thread. Eventually, the fabric needs repairing, reinvention, or repurposing. Now, the snaking lines, the parade of protesters, becomes a positive force. —MLR