BUST
THE ART OF RECESSION Personal Work by Richard Baker
Around a recession-bled Britain, high-street businesses went bust in their thousands. From a continuing theme about windows and urban messages, I looked afresh at the façades of our local shops that are now falling victim to this credit crunched economy. Napoleon called the English ‘a nation of shopkeepers’ but we are seeing the hopes and dreams of our shop owners who have historically shouldered all that the Luftwaffe and IRA have thrown at them, now yielding to these more recent financial bombardments. After the shelves groan their last under the weight of over-ordered stock, so the liquidators move in and staff are given notice to clear out. Searching for these victims might seem a ghoulish occupation but this landscape of white-washed glass masks the financial tragedies within, a worthy documentary about once-proud retailers whose ambitions of ownership are over. The writings on these windows may be left by the last one to turn out the lights, the ghostly traces of an employee’s last day at work. Some messages suggest a desperation, others have an acute disappointment at the loss of their jobs. There is sadness but humour too. The shopping population moves on to inward-facing malls where huge chains and mega brands lurk. But although foreclosures and lost dreams seem so final - hope is the embodiment for our businessmen and women. The economy is recovering and new businesses are rising again.
Richard Baker is an English photographer whose reportage appears in magazines, books and corporate image collections. His image archive is represented by Corbis, Alamy and Photoshelter. Richard Baker Photography www.bakerpictures.com richard@bakerpictures.com Linkedin Photoshelter Skype bakerpictures Twitter @bakerpictures