Depression Era

The Depression Era project is a collective of photographers, artists, researchers, writers, architects, journalists and curators formed in 2012, recording the Greek crisis through images and texts. It was originally inspired by the photographic program of the Farm Security Administration, which was designed to capture the impact of the Great Depression on the American people. The Depression Era project aspires to portray a historical turning point; to reflect characteristic events and situations pertaining not only to the economic but also to the political, social, ideological, moral and aesthetic crisis: to depict the emerging landscape of the recession and its consequent, rapid, unraveling transformations of Greek society. It is an artistic archive in-progress, a collective work experiment and redefines the terms and conditions of the artistic production and free expression of public discourse. In this complex and charged political and social context, we are compelled to take a stance. The Depression Era is not a news project, nor a photographic documentary of poverty – as the FSA was to a great extent - but gives to each photographer the freedom to create according to her own personal style and determine his own perspective of things so that the collective work may comprise a multifaceted image of the situation. The Depression Era team hosts photographers and writers with different approaches. Each is bound to undertake the examination and photographic depiction of a specific subject so as to contribute a meaningful piece to the puzzle of a collective narrative. The end result reveals and records, sheds light on and signifies a situation that concerns all of us; expresses an opinion; and discovers a new reality that trascends the self-fulfilling prophecy of the constant crisis.