Visualizing the Euro crisis

October 17, 2012 10:25 AM

The Absurd Quest for Euro Crisis Images: The Greeks aren't the only ones sick of the euro crisis. Photographers are reaching the end of their tether too, struggling to shoot images of euro coins in various states of distress to illustrate the story. Though some of the photos are absurd, they still get published -- because news outlets are equally desperate. Gallery. [via]
posted by daniel_charms (19 comments total)

I'm going to use the Lego shark as a metaphor for everything.
posted by Hollywood Upstairs Medical College at 10:39 AM on October 17, 2012 [2 favorites]

Those photographers are earning their keep!
posted by Jehan at 10:48 AM on October 17, 2012

That horrible gallery with one image per page was made mildly more worthwhile by the pithy sayings underneath.
Has anyone looked into the economic implications of these photographers hoarding all of this currency?!
posted by staccato signals of constant information at 11:12 AM on October 17, 2012

Opinions of the Euro beside the point, it's interesting that only 1 or 2 of the 32 photographers went for any kind of "garbage angle". The rest of them played up charming and photogenic perspectives, which kind of defeats the point.
posted by crapmatic at 11:14 AM on October 17, 2012

I was more distressed by the creepy owl eyes on the Greek Euro than I was by the purported crisis imagery.
posted by Leezie at 11:17 AM on October 17, 2012

It's a witch!
posted by sparklemotion at 11:24 AM on October 17, 2012

I'm crushing your head logo!
posted by TedW at 11:59 AM on October 17, 2012

Although I see the point of the article, it's a bit rich coming from "Der Spiegel". And those three covers are just for 2012: 2011, 2010...
As you'll notice (click on my third and last links), their cover artists are indeed starting to run out of ideas...
posted by Skeptic at 12:23 PM on October 17, 2012 [5 favorites]

I know that European press photographers are going through hard times, so I'm generously willing to help them out with some unexplored ideas:

- Angela Merkel wearing Joker makeup, standing in front of a huge stack of burning euro notes;
- origami cranes made from euro notes placed on a map, heading north (or mayby east, towards China);
- euros lying in the gutter, smeared with dirt;
- a baboon (seriously, I have no idea);
- for slightly less doom and gloom, a half-polished two-euro coin lying on a table along with a tube of polishing paste and a piece of steel wool;
- for "bailout": a milk bucket filled with euro coins;
- etc.
posted by daniel_charms at 12:26 PM on October 17, 2012 [3 favorites]

Those are pretty creative, but not nearly as absurd as the tedious array of stock images the BBC uses for technology stories, which are inevitably some variation on "dramatically lit hand on mouse" "dramatically lit hand on keyboard," "awkward photo of coworker", "what is this print screen key you speak of," "company logo made ominous by silhouette or weird angle" or "glowing wires that would have looked futuristic in the 80s."
posted by oulipian at 12:30 PM on October 17, 2012 [2 favorites]

Merkel as the Joker, check.
Origami euro notes floating away, check.
Euro in the gutter, check.
A baboon, check.
Polishing a euro coin, check.
Bucket spilling euros, check.

Oh wait, this wasn't a contest?
posted by chavenet at 12:36 PM on October 17, 2012 [8 favorites]

I thought it was spelled Gyro.
posted by hal9k at 12:52 PM on October 17, 2012 [2 favorites]

Call me an ignorant American, but I kept wondering why they'd Photoshop a big blue cheesily-CGI'd Euro sign into their photos. But, no, that's a real sculpture. It really looks like that. I'm also kind of amused by people leaving the European Central Bank reviews as if it were a restaurant or hotel.
posted by wanderingmind at 1:53 PM on October 17, 2012

What a lot of effort spent on generating images with no information content, which cost hundreds of times as much to distribute as all of the information contained in the articles they accompany.

It's tempting to attribute this to the decay of journalism from some imagined golden age when both reporter and photographer went out and interacted with the world in order to publish stories. (Or, for curmudgeons of a particular bent, to the insidious cancer that is design as profession.)

But, the pre-internet age was full of television news vans parked in front of empty buildings hours after the end of a newsworthy event so that reporters could stand in front of a slightly-related sign when talking. And, even my own favorite mechanism for media consumption - radio - includes an embarrassing amount of reporters going out of their way to sound like they're in the field. Not to mention all the totally superfluous textural sound beds designed to make stories sound interesting. Hiring freelance photographers to play with coins is no more silly.
posted by eotvos at 2:02 PM on October 17, 2012

Between the emphasis on how easy it is to remove the silver lining from a Greek euro (what about a German euro?) and the article consisting of quotes from two photographers, I suspect someone needed 750 words on any subject.
posted by ersatz at 2:25 PM on October 17, 2012

hal9k, alas I must now blame you for an earworm that goes something like...

I need a Euro
I’m holding out for a Euro ‘til the end of the night
It's gotta be strong
And it's gotta be fast
And it’s gotta be fresh from the fight

posted by straw at 3:59 PM on October 17, 2012

Previously on MetaFilter: Brokers with hands on their faces
posted by Hither at 8:43 PM on October 17, 2012

And here I thought it was illegal to destroy money.
posted by brokkr at 5:46 AM on October 18, 2012

brokkr: And here I thought it was illegal to destroy money.

Wikipedia:

According to the Commission's Recommendation dated 22 March 2010,^[33] "Member states must not prohibit or punish the complete destruction of small quantities of Euro coins or notes when this happens in private. However they must prohibit the unauthorised destruction of large amounts of Euro coins or notes." Also, "Member states must not encourage the mutilation of Euro notes or coins for artistic purposes, but they are required to tolerate it. Mutilated coins or notes should not be considered unfit for circulation."

posted by nfg at 6:33 AM on October 18, 2012 [1 favorite]