Administrative Typologies Pt.II - Paul Shambroom

This was going to be my original post on this topic - the work of Paul Shambroom in his Meetings series.

Much of what I said yesterday also applies to these. To look at them on a gallery wall (or in Paul's book) I would find myself going back and forth between pictures, comparing settings and faces and little incidentals.

Paul also makes good use of captions with this work; in this case often the minutes of the meeting (such as for the picture above):

(Sedgwick, Arkansas (population 112) City Council, May 13, 2002 (L to R): Wilma Britton (Recorder/Treasurer), Stanley Debow, Frankie Britton (Mayor), Clara Manus (citizen), Beverly Fowler, Ezra Pierce (city policeman), Homer Harper, Charles Petty, Tommie Pierce (citizen))

Sedgwick City Council Meeting May 13-02

Meeting was called to order at 7:00 P.M

Present Mayor Bud Britton, Rec. Treas. Wilma Britton, Councilmen Present Beverley Fowler, Stanley Debaw, Charles Petty, Homer Harper, absent Blake Burvis. Visitors Edd Pierce, Tommie Pierce, Claire Manus, Tammy Wielier, Jeff Moskop, Paul Shambroom was there taking pictures of the meeting.

Minutes of last month meeting was read and financial report given. Motion to accept by Stanley Debaw, second by Homer Harper. All Councilmen voted yea.

Bud said he would check with Atlas to why they are not starting work on the street. If they can't start on it he will give job to A-State if they can start on it. Talked about Walk was not sure where to put it.

Meeting adjourned at 7:45 P.M.

Mayor
Rec Treas. Wilma Britton

I would guess that for many, sitting through seemingly endless small meetings such as these - town council, school board, parish council or whatever is a common experience - either as participants or audience. In part, it's certainly mine, and when the meetings do begin to drag, the mind wanders and focuses on small, odd details: "huh, I never noticed in that photo of the old mayor on the wall one side of his moustache is longer than the other"; "what was Mrs. Lukowski thinking wearing that lime green striped dress"; "hmm, the police chief could do with losing some weight"; "I just noticed the roof joists aren't straight"....

This work highlights the small - often quirky - sometimes humorous - differences between these seemingly similar scenes and events.

These are also pictures where making them big makes sense to my mind. They were photographed using panoramic medium format and then printed nice and large - 5 1/2 feet or so.

BTW, Paul also has some other interesting work on his site. His Security series and Nuclear Weapons series are worth looking at.

(1987 Toyota Celica, 500 lbs ANFO explosive. (Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center (EMRTC), New Mexico Tech, Socorro, NM))