Soft Landing, Hard Lives
The Federal Reserve's 2024 achievement of reducing inflation from 6.8% to 5.9% without triggering a major recession was hailed as a rare "soft landing"—a masterpiece of monetary policy that demonstrated the sophisticated tools of modern economic management. Central bankers celebrated, financial markets soared, and policy analysts proclaimed victory over the inflationary pressures that had gripped the global economy.
Yet behind these statistical triumphs lay millions of American families still grappling with the accumulated weight of two years of price increases. While economists measured success in percentage points and quarterly data, working families measured it in grocery bills that remained stubbornly high, rent payments that consumed ever-larger portions of paychecks, and children's needs that went unmet despite parents working multiple jobs.
"Soft Landing, Hard Lives" documents this fundamental disconnect between macroeconomic achievement and microeconomic reality. Over twelve months in 2024, I followed both the architects of successful inflation policy and the families still struggling under its accumulated effects. The resulting images reveal a profound gap between how we measure economic success and how that success is actually experienced by ordinary Americans.
The project emerged from my own experience working security in Manhattan's financial district during the 2008 crisis, where I witnessed firsthand how economic recovery could coexist with persistent hardship. I recognized the same pattern in 2024's inflation victory—celebration in marble-columned policy rooms while families gathered around kitchen tables to decide between heating bills and groceries.
This series doesn't diminish the genuine achievement of avoiding recession while reducing inflation. Instead, it questions whether our metrics for economic success adequately capture the human cost of getting there. The images reveal how statistical victories can mask ongoing struggle, and how institutional power operates at scales that dwarf individual economic agency.
Through contrasting the spaces of economic power with the intimate geography of household economics, these photographs document a moment when America achieved technical economic success while leaving millions of its citizens behind. They challenge us to consider what economic policy is truly for, and whether celebration is appropriate when success remains abstract for so many.
Photographer Statement
During my years as a security guard in Manhattan's financial district, I spent my days watching economic power flow through glass towers while my nights were consumed by my own financial struggles. This experience taught me that economic policy operates in two distinct realms: the institutional spaces where it's conceived and celebrated, and the domestic spaces where it's endured.
"Soft Landing, Hard Lives" attempts to bridge these realms by documenting them simultaneously. I photographed Federal Reserve meetings where officials celebrated successful inflation management, then drove to working-class neighborhoods where families still struggled with the accumulated effects of price increases. The visual language deliberately emphasizes this scale difference—showing how individual economic experience gets dwarfed by institutional power.
My approach treats economic policy as both technical achievement and human experience. These images aren't meant to dismiss the genuine skill required to reduce inflation without triggering recession. Instead, they reveal how our measures of economic success can become disconnected from the lived reality of economic policy's effects.
This work continues my ongoing investigation into how abstract economic forces manifest in concrete human experience. Previous projects examined gig economy labor and minimum wage work; this series expands that focus to examine the gap between policy success and household economics. It's documentary photography that attempts to make visible the usually invisible connections between institutional power and individual struggle.
Image Captions and Prompts
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Image 1: The Celebration
Caption: Federal Reserve officials and economic advisors celebrate successful inflation reduction during a policy meeting in Washington D.C., December 2024. While inflation dropped from 6.8% to 5.9% during the year, families across the country continued struggling with accumulated price increases from previous years.
Prompt: Federal Reserve officials in expensive suits raising champagne glasses in marble-columned meeting room with economic success charts on wall screens, wide establishing shot showing institutional grandeur, shot on Canon EOS 5D Mark IV with 24mm f/8 lens, dramatic architectural lighting emphasizing power and success, rule of thirds composition with officials dwarfed by institutional architecture, rich color palette emphasizing luxury and achievement, celebratory mood contrasting with underlying tension, award-winning photojournalism, World Press Photo winning style, professional documentary photography
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Image 2: Kitchen Table Economics
Caption: Maria Rodriguez, a nursing assistant from Detroit, reviews her family's monthly budget with her teenage daughter. Despite working two jobs, Rodriguez struggles to balance rent, utilities, and food costs that remain elevated from inflation peaks. "The numbers say things are getting better, but my paycheck doesn't feel it," she explains.
Prompt: Hispanic woman and teenage daughter sitting at worn kitchen table surrounded by bills, calculator, and grocery receipts, intimate medium shot showing concentrated faces and scattered financial documents, shot on Canon EOS 5D Mark IV with 85mm f/2.8 lens, warm domestic lighting from overhead fixture creating pools of light on papers, shallow depth of field isolating subjects from cluttered background, earth tone color palette emphasizing working-class domestic space, serious but dignified mood, award-winning photojournalism, World Press Photo winning style, professional documentary photography
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Image 3: Two Realities
Caption: A split composition captures the contrast between a champagne toast at a central bank policy success celebration and the Johnson family's dinner of canned soup in Cleveland, Ohio. Both scenes occurred on the same evening that new inflation data was released showing continued improvement.
Prompt: Split screen composition showing champagne glasses clinking in elegant boardroom on left side and family eating simple canned soup meal at small dining table on right side, dramatic contrast in lighting and setting, shot on Canon EOS 5D Mark IV with 50mm f/4 lens, high contrast processing emphasizing the divide between wealth and struggle, symmetrical composition highlighting inequality, contrasting warm artificial light in domestic setting with cool professional lighting in boardroom, powerful documentary photography, award-winning photojournalism, World Press Photo winning style
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Image 4: Statistical Success
Caption: Economic data showing declining inflation rates glows on multiple screens in a New York financial district office, while in the background, visible through the window, a mother and child walk past an eviction notice posted on an apartment building. The data celebrated by markets tells only part of the story.
Prompt: Multiple computer screens displaying economic charts and declining inflation graphs in foreground, with large window showing apartment building and eviction notice in background, wide shot connecting institutional data with human impact, shot on Canon EOS 5D Mark IV with 35mm f/5.6 lens, sharp focus throughout frame for maximum detail, cool blue screen light contrasting with warm exterior sunlight, layered composition showing connection between abstract data and concrete consequences, professional documentary photography, award-winning photojournalism, World Press Photo winning style
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Image 5: Towering Power
Caption: A single pedestrian walks past the imposing Federal Reserve building in Washington D.C., dwarfed by the institutional architecture that houses the nation's monetary policy apparatus. The dramatic scale difference illustrates how individual economic experience relates to the powerful institutions that shape it.
Prompt: Dramatic low-angle shot of massive Federal Reserve building with neoclassical columns towering above tiny solitary figure walking on sidewalk below, emphasizing overwhelming scale of institutional power versus individual human presence, shot on Canon EOS 5D Mark IV with 24mm f/11 lens, deep depth of field keeping entire building sharp, strong vertical composition with heavy architectural elements, desaturated color palette emphasizing institutional coldness, imposing and contemplative mood, award-winning architectural photojournalism, World Press Photo winning style, professional documentary photography
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Image 6: The Gap
Caption: Through the window of their cramped apartment, the bright lights of Manhattan's financial district are visible as the Chen family discusses whether to pay their heating bill or buy groceries for the week. The proximity of economic success and ongoing struggle captures the paradox of America's soft landing achievement.
Prompt: Family silhouetted in small apartment window with Manhattan financial district skyscrapers glowing brightly in background through glass, intimate interior shot contrasting modest domestic space with gleaming corporate towers outside, shot on Canon EOS 5D Mark IV with 85mm f/2.8 lens, dramatic contrast between warm interior lighting and cold exterior urban glow, depth of field separating subjects from background cityscape, powerful juxtaposition showing economic inequality, contemplative and melancholic mood, award-winning photojournalism, World Press Photo winning style, professional documentary photography
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Image 7: Persistence
Caption: Despite official economic success, food bank lines in Phoenix, Arizona remained as long in December 2024 as they had been during inflation's peak. Volunteer coordinator James Williams notes that demand hasn't decreased even as economists celebrate policy victories. "Statistics don't fill empty stomachs," he observes.
Prompt: Long line of diverse people waiting outside food bank with volunteers distributing boxes, wide establishing shot showing persistence of need despite economic improvement, shot on Canon EOS 5D Mark IV with 24mm f/8 lens, natural overcast lighting creating even exposure across scene, documentary composition emphasizing dignity of people seeking help, warm earth tone color palette highlighting community resilience, serious but hopeful mood, award-winning photojournalism, World Press Photo winning style, professional documentary photography
Photographer Portrait Prompt
Middle-aged Polish-American man with salt-and-pepper beard and weathered hands, wearing worn flannel shirt and carrying professional camera equipment, standing in working-class urban neighborhood with industrial buildings in background, natural outdoor lighting, serious expression showing both determination and empathy, professional portrait style showing photographer's connection to working-class subjects, shot with shallow depth of field isolating subject from background, authentic documentary photographer aesthetic
