The first signs that something was awry emerged early summer, 2007, but it wasn’t until autumn 2008 that the full catastrophe unfolded.
Meanwhile Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the United States Federal Reserve at the time, was cool in the face of growing alarm and panic. The difficulties in subprime mortgage lending, he was busy telling people, were ‘limited’, the impact would be insignificant.
On September 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers, the fourth largest investment bank in the United States filed for bankruptcy citing an enormous $619 billion banking debt, and photographer Stephen McLaren was there to capture the subsequent chaotic and tragic fall-out.
His book, ‘The Crash’, is published by Hoxton Mini Press on Thursday, September 13, 2018.
As Lehman Brothers hit the wall, 25,000 redundant employees of the former Wall Street giant spilled out onto the streets of major cities across the world. The whole banking sector went into meltdown, McLaren capturing the whole debacle through his lens
‘The Crash’ is Stephen McLaren’s historical, visual record of what is one of the major events of the first quarter of the 21st century. Photographs, taken between 2008 and 2013, are collected in a seven chapter photographic journal of the financial catastrophe and its aftermath. McLaren’s work taking us on a drama-laden and quite fascinating exploration of banking failure, financial collapse and its casualties.
In neatly titled sections the Scottish-born photographer, co-writer of the bestselling ‘Street Photography Now’, leads us through the collapse and all its repercussions. Privilege, greed, excess, the global dimension and street protests, before the return to greed and excess.
The photographs are stark and full of emotion, recalling the Quixotic delusions of high-flying bankers and their flawed processes. The result is the subsequent tragic fall-out, portrayed in sharp images full of narrative that speak to us and remind us, the higher the pedestal the greater the fall.
Copyright ⓒ Stephen McLaren
An elderly, sage-like woman – with a lifetime of experience written into her face, looks angry and, perhaps, a little bewildered – as she holds a newspaper with the the legendary headline ‘Black Friday Shares Crash’. A clever image, the older lady representing frugal stability, experience and time-earned knowledge, appalled by the out-of-control behaviour of the, so-called, Masters of the Universe.
Copyright ⓒ Stephen McLaren
Then there is the ‘city-type’ with a card in her mouth and her smartphone in her hand frantically texting ‘banking’ colleagues to find out why her world is spinning irreversibly out of control. Glaring at McLaren’s audacity as he records the moment and her real time torment.
Copyright ⓒ Stephen McLaren
McLaren’s visual narrative tracks the slide into financial disaster, through the suggestion of privilege to tragic suicides – a woman in a slimline, black dress, laid out exhausted on a street bench – and on to street protests, the return of bonus culture, and the prophetic warning of the inevitable next, brutal fall-out from banking excess.
Photojournalism, documentary, street photography, or a mix of all three? It doesn’t really matter, this is photography at the top of its game. A skilful and artistic representation of the the whole sorry episode.
McLaren tells the visual story with great insight. A historical, sociological, psychological news story of unhindered avarice, unhinged insanity and lunacy, temporary or otherwise.
This is a wonderful work which grabs us from the first exacting and symbolic photograph : ‘Thieves Operate In This Area’.
Copyright ⓒ Stephen McLaren
From the first dramatic photograph, the aforementioned and very pointed : ‘Thieves Operate Here’ to the final image of the suited and booted banker-type leaping forward and arrogantly, from the plinth of a City of London statue, this is an amazing journey through those dark and hideous days.
Was it fair to burden those not responsible with the sins of the inhabitants of the metaphoric Castle Greyskull? Is there a suggestion that some of those responsible for the collapse which cost so many their jobs – and, by extension – their lifestyles, relationships, sanity – got away relatively unscathed?
McLaren’s photography poses these questions and the book provides a piercing photographic study of the turmoil, injustice, pain and the stupidity of the tragic debacle.
‘Your company is now bankrupt, our economy is in crisis, but you get to keep $480 million (£276 million)?’ Henry Waxman, Republican, 30th district of California, had asked former head of Lehman Brothers Dick Fuld, at a House of Representatives’ Committee On Oversight and Government Reform, October 6, 2008.
Waxman’s perplexed reaction to Fuld’s pay off salary and bonuses resonates with McLaren’s book. Waxman’s confusion and utter astonishment echoes throughout Stephen McLaren’s photographs.
McLaren offers that perplexing, confusing history of late capitalism
‘The Crash’ is the photographic equivalent of Cormac McCarthy’s ‘Road’. A street papered in dollar bills beneath a gloomy financial sky. Tribes of beleaguered bankers accused of eating the innocent, costing many their jobs and wrecking the economy.
McLaren’s book has impact and gravitas, it is, for me, a visual masterpiece. This book is one every photography lover and aficionado should have on their bookshelf. That is not my opinion, that is simply good sense.
The Crash by Stephen McLaren is published by Hoxton Mini Press on 13 September 2018
Order your copy of The Crash Here
To see more of Stephen McLaren Here
Our Thanks to Both Stephen McLaren & Hoxton Mini Press
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