Pictures capture extremes of power

Paul Shambroom is a curious, persistent and methodical man.

He spent two years writing letters and making telephone calls to persuade the military to let him visit nuclear arsenals in 16 states and nine years taking the photographs you’ll see in his one-man show at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center.

Similarly, he roamed the country over the course of four years to shoot portraits of council members at public municipal meetings in small towns (population under 2,000).

What links these seemingly very different subjects —- along with series devoted to office interiors, factories and homeland security testing sites sampled in the show —- is his underlying interest in institutions of power and individuals’ relationship to them.

Especially timely now, Shambroom’s work touches on all the issues in the presidential campaign: democracy and leadership, war and security, and labor and the economy.

In contrast to heated discussions of these subjects almost everywhere else, Shambroom’s photographs, though visually striking, are cool. The soldier at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana sweeping the floor of a storeroom full of B83 one-megaton nuclear gravity bombs exudes a downright chilling air of domestic intimacy.

The public council meetings have none of the pomp and awe of the Capitol. In the most extreme example, two selectmen in Buckland, Mass., (population 1,943) sit on one side of a desk in what looks to be a back office, with nothing but the nameplates and microphones to indicate your government at work.

Like a reporter, Shambroom gains access to places we would not otherwise see, gathers the data and lays it out in seeming objectivity. Yet, in our media-savvy age, we know that objectivity is a myth. The artist behind the lens shapes the data through myriad editorial and aesthetic choices. “Picturing Power” is a great place to consider the power of pictures.

In “Nuclear Weapons,” Shambroom presses this point by creating a tension between the aesthetics —- brilliant colors and almost abstract compositions (see the photo of the Trident submarine control room) —-and the “facts.” In “Meetings,” he invokes traditions of portraiture, accentuated by printing the images on canvas and varnishing them so they look like paintings.

His photos serve to focus our attention on his subjects (some of which we only know about in the abstract) and provoke us to think about them.

Not surprisingly, viewers often have opposing reactions. The larger point is that it’s our responsibility as citizens to engage in issues, seek knowledge and make our own decisions.

‘Paul Shambroom: Picturing Power’

Through Nov. 30. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays; 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Thursdays; noon-5 p.m. Sundays. $5; $3, students, seniors; free for members, children under 12 and free on Thursdays. 535 Means St. N.W. 404-688-1970, www.thecontemporary.org.