So the economy is in the crapper. The US health care system is a joke that is somehow turned into an oxymoron by the actions (and inactions) of heath insurance companies. The housing market looks like swiss cheese and smells like Vieux Boulogne in an dirty sock. But it doesn’t have to take a feeling that the sky is falling to feel desperation. Heck no. I’ve been desperate to find love, desperate to go peepees, and am frequently desperate for an ice cream sandwich.

How do you photograph desperation? Turn a state of mind into it’s physical manifestation. Put your subject in apparent peril (not real peril please), and show them unable to escape. Or try some subtlety, some acting. A disheveled woman staring empty eyed at a playground devoid of children playing as the rain pours down soaking her.

Converting inner thingies like thoughts, feelings, states of mind, and being able to illustrate them in still images or film is a very handy and powerful tool. If you become really good at it, people will find you and pay you mounds and mounds of money to pull that trick for them. Why? Because it sucks the audience out of their own heads and into yours. Once they’re in your head you can do almost anything you want to do to them you sick bastards!

So get out there and start practicing. It’s hard. You may find yourself desperately searching for a solution. That’s fine. In fact, that’s the point. Push past it, then recreate it and photograph it.

Nice!

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