Paul Shambroom will present The Bunn Lectureship in Photography

02/03/2012 4:46 PM

By Ivy Hillman ’12

This year’s Bunn Lecturer in Photography is Paul Shambroom from Minneapolis, Minn. He also currently has an exhibit called “Paul Shambroom: Power and Place” that can be seen at Bradley’s Heuser Art Gallery. 

“Shambroom is an accomplished photographer whose large-scale photographs, currently on display at Heuser Art Gallery, are intriguing investigations of American power and culture,” said Erin Zellefrow, director of university galleries, exhibits and collections.

Shambroom can’t pinpoint what exactly got him interested in photography, but said that he has been doing it for most of his life, starting at just eight years old.

“It’s a good vehicle for interaction,” Shambroom said.

Shambroom is a documentary photographer and regularly photographs town meetings, public architecture and civic monuments. He currently has several different albums available for viewing on his website, including some that can give new insight into what is really out there in our world. His album “Security” depicts different forms of security used in multiple situations. He also has an album of nuclear weapons and one of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

“A lot of artists follow their curiosities, and culture is what interested me. Many also choose to go somewhere else, but I like my own hometown culture,” Shambroom said.

Paul Krainak, chair of the Department of Art, invited Shambroom to Bradley. Zellefrow is sure that students will have something to take away from his lecture and exhibit.

“Students attending Shambroom’s lecture can expect insight into his cultural investigations captured on photographic road trips. These shrines, petroleum reserve sites and relics documented can serve not only as a reflection of our nation’s past but as a lesson for our future,” Zellefrow said.

Shambroom’s exhibit started on Jan. 16 and will be shown until Feb. 17 at Heuser Art Gallery. His lecture is on Thursday, Feb. 9 at 5:00 p.m. in the Caterpillar Global Communications Center.

Paul Shambroom will present the Bunn Lectureship in Photography at 5 p.m. Thursday in Horowitz Auditorium of the Caterpillar Global Communications Center. A 6 p.m. reception at the Heuser Art Gallery will follow the lecture. Shambroom, a faculty member at the University of Minnesota-Minneapolis, concentrates his photography on capturing American power and culture. His photographs are on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago. His exhibit, “Power and Place,” will be on display through February 17 at the Heuser Art Gallery.