Espen Rasmussen

John Bryant lives beside the Rouge River. The area is cluttered with chemical factories and oil refineries. “This area looks like a dump. People are dumping trash, oil, furniture and everything else in the streets. A lot of the houses have been burned or are still standing as ruins. A lot of middle class people lost their jobs and had to downgrade.”

Hard.Land is a multimedia project – a journey through Blue Collar America to meet the people struggling to keep the American Dream alive: The middle class, the unemployed, the new poor, the workers on low or minimum wage – and those who have lost benefits and had their salaries slashed.

From Chicago to Detroit, Youngstown, Beckley, Williamsport and finally New York, reporter Roy Freddy Andersen and photographer Espen Rasmussen tell stories of people who are facing difficult times, and those who still have work, but often on minimum wages.

Project webpage: hard.land
Facebook: facebook.com/myhardland
Instagram: myhardland
Twitter: myhardland

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If you are interested this film or have any questions please contact marina@panos.co.uk directly.