How do you capture the mood of a government in crisis? In the days approaching the government shutdown, wire photojournalists foretold the approach of a catastrophe with melancholic visual tropes located around Capitol Hill. At some point, haggard congressional leaders standing at lecterns just aren’t nearly as dramatic as ominous shadows, apocalyptic sunsets, and precariously skewed architecture. Can’t you just feel the depression and anxiety?
The early morning sun rises behind the U.S. Capitol building. But what fresh crisis will the new day bring?
Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images
A U.S. Capitol police officer stands guard at sunrise, possibly wondering if he’ll receive back pay.
Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images
A statue of President George Washington stands in the Rotunda of the Capitol. He is doubtlessly questioning whether it was all worth it.
Photo by Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
A U.S. Senate employee walks through the Capitol crypt, perhaps pondering the deeper existential implications of being declared “nonessential.”
Photo by Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
Said Pablo Neruda, “You can cut all the flowers, but you cannot keep spring from coming.” If only these blossoms could have warned the folly of the filibuster.
Photo by Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
Government in the eye of the storm.
Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images
Government born free but everywhere in chains.
Photo by Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
Darkness descends. Creepily.
Photo by Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty
The Congress stands athwart history. History is yelling, “Stop!”
Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Image
A monument to peace, perfectly positioned to symbolize dysfunction.
Photo by Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty
The Capitol, sighted through crushing foliage. Can lawmakers find their way out of the wilderness?
Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Congress looms on a shadowy precipice within mere hours of a government shutdown.
Photo by Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images
A dark moment of personal reckoning consumes the National Mall after brinkmanship ends in stalemate.
Photo by Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images
Read the rest of Slate’s coverage of the government shutdown.