A Picture of Structural Pain: Visualizations of the Housing Crisis

Abstract

This article analyzes photographs of the housing crisis made by award-winning photojournalist Anthony Suau in 2008. I argue that they function as what Zelizer has called “second-order-images,” photographs that lack a human subject but still mark the crisis. While second-order images can allow trauma to be blunted or mask suffering, I contend they also invite exploration of the suffering of a new subject. In the case of the U.S. housing crisis, that new subject often was a house depicted as victim. The photographs and their accompanying text position the houses as the victim in the story of the housing crisis. Suau’s photographs help us understand the housing crisis, even while the solutions remain ambiguous, by communicating the problem differently.

Notes

Notes

1 Extreme Caution, the World Press Photo of the Year, 2009, can be seen at this link: https://www.worldpressphoto.org/collection/photo/2009/30622/1/2009-Anthony-Suau-WY

2 To view the entire collection of images online there are two sites: First, via TIME at this link: http://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1738458,00.html; Second via Anthony Suau’s personal website at this link: https://anthonysuau.photoshelter.com/gallery/US-Mortgage-Crisis-Cleveland-2008/G0000IwP475yRSng/

3 View Security: via TIME: http://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1738458_1585599,00.html; via Suau: https://anthonysuau.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/US-Mortgage-Crisis-Cleveland-2008/G0000IwP475yRSng/I0000.ysh6BVDWKY

4 View Dangerous via TIME: http://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1738458_1585598,00.html;via Suau:: https://anthonysuau.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/US-Mortgage-Crisis-Cleveland-2008/G0000IwP475yRSng/I0000V05araiW0ps

5 View Bad Block via TIME: http://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1738458_1585590,00.html; via Suau: https://anthonysuau.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/US-Mortgage-Crisis-Cleveland-2008/G0000IwP475yRSng/I0000zxLZBHvzTnY

6 View Extreme Caution via TIME: http://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1738458_1585589,00.html; via Suau: https://anthonysuau.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/US-Mortgage-Crisis-Cleveland-2008/G0000IwP475yRSng/I0000.eoebLe8N4s

7 View Boarded Up via TIME: http://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1738458_1585584,00.html; via Suau: https://anthonysuau.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/US-Mortgage-Crisis-Cleveland-2008/G0000IwP475yRSng/I00000LHkbN1xUCk

8 View Stolen via TIME http://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1738458_1585600,00.html; via Suau: https://anthonysuau.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/US-Mortgage-Crisis-Cleveland-2008/G0000IwP475yRSng/I0000AAVTz4Vw2CI

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Pam Axtman-Barker

Pam Axtman-Barker is a doctoral student in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois. This article is a further development of ideas first explored in her master’s thesis. The author wishes to thank Cara Finnegan and Rachel Hall for their support and guidance on this project. E-mail: [email protected]