American Power.

Who: Paul Shambroom
What: Artist Lecture
When: February 11th, 2009
Where: Student Commons Theater
Why?

Amazing speaker and inspiring artist. Shambroom is surely a man worth running into. Within his work he discovers and presents his audience with the reality of power and culture. Though I was not fond of his subjects prior to attending this lecture, being nuclear weapons and homeland security, I became rather intrigued with his processes of achieving his work. His style of documenting behind the scenes work places allows Americans to understand that nuclear power is not just the talk of the town, but it is something real. His compositions are straight forward and somewhat expresses humor, at least to me.

Going beyond his love for weaponry, Shambroom explores the power in the hand of corporations and even the poeple of small towns. I found this work to be my favorite as it still shows viewers that there is even power in smaller hands. His series entitled Meetings, to me, is the most entertaining and inspiring to my own work. With this work Shambroom captures moments within small city councils. He places his subject in a way to portray a portrait, as he compared them close to da Vinci's Last Supper. I believe the simplicity of composure and lightly saturated colors really gets to me. The panoramic feel really plays a huge role within this series as well. I really can't explain my love for this work, for my eyes and not my mouth can only intake the beauty.

All in all, Shambroom is an amazing photographer. Not only does this man have the knowledge behind his subjects through research, he also has a witty humorous side that left me laughing for minutes on end. Although some of his subject matter is not of my like(ie. nuclear weapons), his work has surely given me ideas on how to compose an amazing photograph.