Comparing Images of Urban America

This first image is of a line for a food bank in California in 2009, a year after the Great Recession hit America. This image portrays the massive impact of the banks collapsing, meaning that the economy fell and many people lost their jobs, leading to families not being able to afford food. With unemployment up to 10% in 2009, it is a real indicator as to how severe the US was
economically hit by the crisis.


This second image is of a line for an employment agency in New York in 1937, a few years after the Wall Street Crash. The fight for any job in the city was a difficult one, being that 19% of America were unemployed and were so badly effected by the Crash.  It shows the desperation that people in the city felt and how important a job meant to them as it was a path to any sort of prosperity.

Comparatively, both these images, even being about 70 years apart, give an insight into the holes of the 'American Dream'. They show that there are limits to the opportunities that are available in America, and even in the US, it can be affected badly economically. These images make people critical of the 'land of opportunity' and questions whether moving or living there would give you any more of an opportunity of prosperity than if you lived anywhere in Europe. Both of these photos show how America has let the people down and that they have to revert to desperate measures just to survive. It must be pointed out however, that the photo taken in 2009 makes the situation of the American citizens look worse than in the photo from the 1930's. This is interesting as the Great Depression was far worse than the Great Recession as there was higher unemployment and there was hardly any welfare to help them at the time.