Will Steacy

Shot in 48 hours, these photographs examine the evisceration of the middle class through a portrait of the economic challenges confronting two cities. Three years after the Wall Street bailout, nearly 14 million Americans are unemployed and the vast economic inequality in our country only grows deeper as politicians lay off police and firemen, slash school budgets, and point the finger at unions. The holy promise of our country’s great future appears to have been traded in for campaign financing dollars as corporate tax loopholes allow big businesses to tighten the noose on the American worker.

Aghast and deeply moved by the front-page headlines describing our country’s perils, I set out with my camera to tell my version of this historic story. I spent 24 hours in Madison, Wisconsin, photographing the events unfolding in and around the capitol building before Governor Scott Walker signed his anti-union, anti-collective bargaining bill. I spent the following 24 hours in Gary, Indiana, home of the first US Steel plant, whose rise and fall has become the face of the deindustrialization of America. I photographed city institutions and local businesses that line Broadway, Gary’s main artery, looking at the grim realities that face this once vibrant city and what results when we abandon our workers and let the middle class fall.