Here's kind of a fun Friday post.
While I was researching for an article, I came across this interesting tidbit that doesn't fit for this particular story, but is really worth sharing. Paul Shambroom is a Minneapolis-based photographer whose work focuses on power and culture in America. His name rang a bell as I was doing my research because in March 2008 I wrote about his exhibit at the Weisman Art Museum, Paul Shambroom: Picturing Power. It was a retrospective of five major photography series he's done, one of which was titled Meetings. In this series, Shambroom took photographs of local government meetings, like city councils and community boards, across America from 1999 to 2003. He writes:
"My photographs of government meetings are part of my long-term investigation of power begun in previous series on nuclear weapons, factories and corporate offices, and currently on homeland security training and preparation.
A common impulse in these projects is my quest as one individual to understand and illuminate seemingly overwhelming and abstract power systems. Although town council and community meetings are open to the public, the process of governance can still seem somewhat invisible and separate from the lives of ordinary people (as evidenced by the fact that many of the meetings I photographed were sparsely attended.)"
I didn't really make the connection back in March 2008, but for anyone who plans meetings and events or writes about them, and the social interaction and group dynamics that take place at them, Shambroom's work is pretty interesting. He goes on to describe how his Meetings photographs reveal an almost theatrical aspect of meetings, in which individuals take on roles and the agenda is like a script or program.
His Meetings series, and other series on corporate offices, factories and security, are definitely worth checking out, and his comments accompanying the images are very insightful and thought-provoking.
--Marni Ginther
Assistant Editor
Image: Manhattan Community Board 10, New York, New York, March 6, 2002, archival pigmented inkjet on canvas with varnish, 24 X 66 inches, from PaulShambroomArt.com
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