Neither to Criticize Nor Glorify: Paul Shambroom's Studied Objectivity

Neither to Criticize Nor Glorify : Paul Shambroom’s Studied Neutrality
Written for the catalogue of US photographer Paul Shambroom’s mid career survey, Picturing Power, which travelled to museums and contemporary art galleries in Minneapolis, Atlanta, Columbus, OH, and Los Angeles, the essay focuses on two of Shambroom’s series: Nuclear Weapons and Meetings. It shows how they capture revealing details of little-seen loci of power: from the smallest increment of elected governance, local council meetings in cities with two thousand or fewer residents, to the highest levels of national security, nuclear weapons. The quasi-clinical objectivity that adopted is a reflection of the political demands and the constraints under which Shambroom worked as well as the means by which he gained access from the Defence Department. Discussing Meetings, the essay likens Shambroom’s travels to road trips by artists and writes before him, underscoring their shared attempt to record ways of life – in this case, grassroots civic participation – that are in danger of dying out.