Project Description

The images in Profit and Loss feature street photography integrated with graphic elements added in post. The color palette is rather explicit, red and black being synonymous with profit and loss. On the other hand, the graphics are more ambiguous, with bar charts, graphs and Venn diagrams suggesting the ever-shifting valuations of unknown financial concerns – they are information graphics without specific information to offer.

Isolating the figures allows their body language and attire to be closely considered. Each person is carefully chosen to convey an emotional state and to suggest the broad demographic impact of these concerns. Everyone is affected by their financial situation – even the very wealthy can find themselves overextended and consequently stressed out, despite appearing to be ‘all together.’ Observing the manifestations of these stresses in everyday living is referred to in various ways, cultural economics and empirical economics being two. I use the term psychoeconomics. It implies that economics, while operating in the material world, affects people on a deeply personal level.