For the past few months I’ve been covering Occupy Wall Street almost non-stop. It’s been an incredibly interesting story to follow, and in light of today’s events, I feel I really should be blogging about my time at OWS. I have 8 weeks worth of photos at this point. However, I’m just not there yet (sorry). I’ll get to it within a few weeks. I’m really excited about my OWS work, I’m proud of it, and want to present it with time, thought and effort. In the mean time, and on a similar thread, I want to share a few frames I made throughout July / August / September from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). After all, much of the OWS movement were inspired or fueled by those months of financial instability. Call it a prelude to my Occupy work.
It was, and continues to be, an incredibly volatile time for the financial markets: In July and August, the US congress twiddled their thumbs, picked their noses, fumed a bit and argued about the US debt limit. Meanwhile the US economy grew at slower than expected rates (‘double-dip’ recession, I recall the broadcasters saying), and the European economy disintegrated under the Greek and Italian financial crisis (not to mention Portugal, Ireland, Spain, etc – Go MF Global).
None of these stories are going away anytime soon – the US is still in a debt crisis (though it’s receiving less coverage at the moment due to Occupy), Greece and Italy have been front-page news for the past month, and the E.U. (thanks to Italy and Greece) are still neck deep in financial shit. A few days ago, I saw my generation referred to as the “lost” generation. Seems a bit much to me, considering that title was originally reserved for the folks who survived or missed WWI, but I wouldn’t be as opposed to being named ‘the severely unemployed generation.’ Anyway.
As a photographer, visualizing a financial crisis is incredibly difficult to do. Some of the best photos I’ve seen include John Moore’s images of people getting evicted, the story After The Bubble Burst – photos of a community and neighborhood in Florida by the ever-incredible Greg Kahn, and an AP photographer’s images of a couple from Virginia, at their living room table, trying to balance their checkbooks during tax season, and realizing they won’t be able to make ends meet (forgive me, I can’t find the photos for the life of me – they’re incredible and will try to dig them up).
Unfortunately, many of those projects take time to create – weeks to get access, time to plan, weeks to shoot and edit. It needs to be said, regardless of whether or not they are seen or get good play in the media: newspapers and wires work on those stories because they are important, historic, and necessary. But at the same time, and especially in the world of wire news, images are also needed instantly, usually in less than two hours. How do you visualize financial news, instantly? I think it’s one of the hardest challenges a photographer can face. The economy is a tough thing to show – it takes place through online trading, through the swipe of a credit card at checkout stands, through board-room meetings at Bank of America and the Federal Reserve. Not very visually-arresting topics.
When you’re in New York, the floor of the New York Stock Exchange tends to act as an excellent visual metaphor for financial news, even if it isn’t the exact location the crisis is taking place. And even if most trading is now done at personal computers, the floor still acts as the physical hub for much of the transactions, so that’s where New York photogs find themselves.
I can say without a doubt, shooting on the NYSE floor is one of the most difficult scenarios I’ve faced (or at least it is when you’re trying to make an authentic, unique frame). Here’s the scene:
1) You usually have about 5 minutes. That’s not an exaggeration.
2) There are between 5 and 10 other photographers crammed along side you. They’re taking the exact. same. photo. as you.
3) You’re followed by a Stock Exchange PR-representative. They’re very nice, and helpful, it’s just a bit awkward to have them there.
4) It is INCREDIBLY dark. Maybe not to the human eye, but for a camera, the place is a black hole. Off the top of my head, I think I shoot ASA 1600, F/2, 1/60th. Those settings are usually reserved for bonfires. (That might be a bit off, it’s been a few months since I was on the floor, or at a bonfire.) And then I usually pull the photos up another 1/2 stop in RAW editor.
5) The traders know you’re there. They don’t exactly want you there. They recognize their actions, when captured by a photographer, can literally move markets. If one guy places his hand on his face – even if he’s yawning – even if he’s just tired and needs a cup of coffee – chances are all the photographers will all pounce on the moment, and editors around the world will place it with a story about failing markets (This is a truth of the photo world. An ugly truth. It was, Richard Avedon, one of the greatest photographers of the 20th Century, after all, who said, “All photographs are accurate. None of them are the truth.“). The traders tend to be incredibly controlled in their actions. It’s a dance – a difficult dance – to capture unique moments.
6) The photographers who are on the floor frequently do this day-in and day-out. For weeks, months, years, on end. Sometimes twice a day (the opening bell, then the closing bell). Pultizer-Prize-winning AP photographer Richard Drew, who has the NYSE as his beat, is one of the best.
7) I want to repeat the toughest part of it all. You’re trying to find a frame the other shooters aren’t seeing.
Go.
Well, I can’t say it’s my most unique work, or the stuff I’m most proud of, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t an excellent exercise in what it means to be a wire photographer. I’ve enjoyed my time down there. It’s a good challenge. And after all, I like to dance.
Thanks for looking.
All images are © 2011, Getty Images, and need to be treated as such.
