SHAMBROOM’S MEETINGS, SIGNED BY HIM

SHAMBROOM, Paul. Meetings. (London: Chris Boot, 2004). Oblong octavo, original cream stiff paper boards, original photographic dust jacket. $350.

First edition, with 40 color photographs, several double-page, of small town council meetings across the United States, signed by the photographer on the title page. A candid glimpse of democracy at work.

Between 1999 and 2003, Shambroom traveled the United States attending over 150 town council meetings in 30 states to document “the current practice of local democracy” (page [3]). “If [his earlier work] Nuclear Weapons put macroscopic power in this country on display, these images presented the microsopic counterpoint… Shooting his subjects from an eye-level frontal position typical of classic documentary photography, Shambroom inserted his Meetings in that tradition” (Julie Saul). “He shows how dull, trivial, sometimes smug and self-serving the process of democratic government can be, but also how, as Winston Churchill noted, this imperfect system is the best we have, and must be cherished” (Parr & Badger II:49). The volume includes the official minutes of each meeting depicted.

A fine signed copy.