The wages of austerity

(Milos Bicanski) Bicanski began documenting Greece's ups and downs the only way he knew how: by making images. The difference, he says, is that this is not a photo assignment in some far-flung locale, where he could find the story, capture it, then leave it behind."My family and I are a part of this crisis," Bicanski says. "With every cut in the health care budgets, or the school budgets, we feel it. We are involved in this story."

(Milos Bicanski)

(Milos Bicanski) As Greece's economic situation has become more tenuous, Bicanski says he's witnessed a shift in his fellow countrymen. While Greeks once protested — sometimes violently — against their government's handling of the crisis, now they seem resigned to eking out an existence."In the beginning, people still had some money left, still had jobs — unemployment was rising, but there was hope that the situation could be turned around," Bicanski says. "But the gap between the rich and poor has only grown, with the number of people living under the poverty line increasing drastically. There's no middle class anymore."

(Milos Bicanski)

(Milos Bicanski) This may not be what most people would think of as a "crisis zone," Bicanski notes. There are no tanks, no explosions, no coups.But what is happening in his country, the photographer says, feels as palpably dangerous to him as when he covered the breakup of Yugoslavia."Actually living here and photographing the crisis, it makes you more involved," Bicanski says. "You continually meet the people you've photographed, and for the majority of them, their situations are only getting worse."

(Milos Bicanski)

(Milos Bicanski)

(Milos Bicanski) Bicanski's hopes for his country's future are dim, and he says he worries that neighboring European countries could find themselves in similar straits, with the rich getting richer and the middle class continually shrinking. Therein lies the story he is determined to tell."As the crisis has continued to get worse, I've become more and more interested in showing how it is affecting the everyday people at the center of Greece, how their futures are changing," Bicanski says. "There is not much happiness when your life is being taken away from you — and that is what is happening to the Greeks."

(Milos Bicanski)**See more of Milos Bicanski's work via his website, and follow him on Twitter**