The Great Depression 

Following the tradition of documentary photography Borut Peterlin’s The Great Depression series of photographs records visual iconography of deep economic crisis in the years 2012-2014. These are the motifs of deserted industrial landscape and empty manufacturing halls of factories that have bankrupted and therefore they don’t serve their purpose any more. The artist has focused mainly on images of recently abandoned spaces depicting traces of human presence and reflecting (often very emotional) relation of former employees to their workspace. Produced in the technique of wet collodion plate, the photographs refer to the identical social and economic situation, the great recession of 1912-1913 and the great depression starting in 1929, that was taking place in the western world and led into the bloodbath of the World War I and II. By using vintage photographic processes he indicates brevity of historical memory and the cyclical nature of the history. Every generation, he says, is thus confident that the repetition of history will not happen.

Miha Colner