Photo Gallery Images of a Crisis?

It's not easy to photograph a news event that takes place primarily on the balance sheets of banks. But photographers have to try. What they come up with is often quite creative.
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Pretty much every stock market story is illustrated with some trader pulling out his hair. This time around, given the global nature of the story, things got a bit more interesting...

Foto: AFP
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... and intense. But one can only take pictures of so many upset traders. And there were a million of them. Until ...

Foto: REUTERS
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... Monday at least, when these two DAX traders started giggling like school girls. But how else can one photograph a financial crisis?

Foto: DDP
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A bull hanging from a computer on the DAX trading floor, for example?

Foto: Getty Images
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A sinking ship (it's a sculpture) off of Canary Wharf in London perhaps?

Foto: Getty Images
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Or, also in London, a poster of sharks as a backdrop to some guy walking in the financial district.

Foto: AFP
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Ambulance. Times Square. News ticker announcing the US bailout. Get it?

Foto: AP
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This one is especially painful. German rail was planning on going public this month, but the cratering stock market put those plans on hold. Clear from the image, right?

Foto: DPA
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German mortgage lender Hypo Real Estate was, ummm, looking for the emergency exits until...

Foto: AP
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...it was bailed out by the German government.

Foto: Getty Images
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And last week, judging by the photos available, the weather was pretty lousy across the globe -- like here in Tokyo...

Foto: DPA
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...and here in London, in front of the Bank of England. But when it comes to umbrella images...

Foto: AP
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...this picture takes first prize.

Foto: REUTERS
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Ouch.

Foto: DDP
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A bear biting into a bull. How apt.

Foto: AFP
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In a similar vein, a demonstration by an environmental group in Berlin provided this image, taken just as the German cabinet was meeting on the financial crisis.

Foto: Getty Images
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A businessman leaving New York's financial district.

Foto: AFP
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Life saver for the German economy, anyone?

Foto: AP
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And finally, no series of images would be complete without this tipped over bicycle in Iceland, presumeably symbolizing that country's tipped over economy.

Foto: AFP