Behind the image: “The Phantom of the Middle Class”

Project Summary

The images in ‘31 explore social and political parallels between the present and the late 1920s and 1930s.

The project’s limited-edition archival pigment prints measure 28 x 42 cm (11 x 16.5 inches).

Caption to The Phantom of the Middle Class

"The Phantom of the Middle Class" concerns 1929’s worldwide economic crisis and the resulting Great Depression, a decade of human despair exemplified by its infamous bread lines.

Some politicians recognised the need to help people who had lost their livelihoods and life savings: Roosevelt's New Deal created economic initiatives to restore jobs and protect America’s middle class. Yet in parts of Europe and the Soviet Union, fascism and totalitarian brutality were seen as a solution to the same problems.

In recent decades the world has backpedaled on progressive measures taken to prevent a recurrence of the Great Depression. Reduced government oversight of business and banking has allowed both the wealthy and corporations to sidestep their social responsibilities, increasing the divide between rich and poor and shrinking the middle class. Are we slowly returning to the conditions that created the Great Depression? Will buying a loaf of bread become a burden for ordinary people?

Inflation - Hyperinflation

The 1922 murder of Germany’s foreign minister by a far-right extremist group shook national and international trust in the country’s stability. This combined with Germany’s already severe economic problems to cause its currency, the Mark, to lose even more of its value. By 1923 Deutsche Mark bills seemed more useful for heating fuel than they were for the purchase of retail goods. Some banks even used rye grain as a currency and some vendors went back to the barter system, exchanging tangible goods instead of accepting money. Although German currency was reformed and stabilized in 1924 by the Dawes Plan, which addressed World War I reparations the country was paying, five years later the Great Depression set the country back again.

Between Past and Present

To create a contemporary scene yet blend it with elements from the past, I used an original flapper dress from the 1920s and a vintage clutch bag with an art deco design.