Paul Shambroom - Visiting Artist Lecture

Paul Shambroom seemed like an incredibly insightful and interesting person. His photography, although sometimes very average looking, stressed ideas and opinions regarding power, weapons, and national security. Like most artists after 9/11, Shambroom's interests in these topics increased, but i find his interests more unique because he was interested in these things before 9/11.
I really enjoyed how Shambroom incorporated humor and irony into his photographs, though i probably would not have noticed the humor if he hadn't been there explaining the situation of each picture. I think it is extremely humble that he does not try to force his political/social opinions on his viewers, and instead focuses mainly on the reality of the situation, letting the viewers make their own opinions about what each photograph means to them.
Another aspect of Shambroom's lecture that impressed me was his emphasis on access. Most artists seem to be secretive about their means of access, but he seemed eager to explain how learning to get into places you want to shoot is a big part of his job. Shambroom explained that most of his time is spent focusing on access while he only actually shoots for a small portion of time on that project.
I couldn't think of any questions to ask him at the lecture, but i think i would love tosit down and just have a conversation with Shambroom, even if it didnt involve taking pictures at all.

Alex Pearlstein.

I attended Alex Pearlstein’s video art lecture. I found the lecture to be a little slow and found it hard for myself to pay attention.Her videos, though creative, were slightly jarring to watch due to extreme zooming and uneasy sound affects.I did enjoy being able to hear a performance artist’s explanations of what their work means to them. Its admirable to hear how much time she puts into her preparation and into her performances.I thought maybe it would have been better if she had used more unique sound effects. I feel the sounds were generic and possibly from some sound clip bank. The questions afterward seemed forced and although I didn’t have any of my own, I wish others had had more interesting questions.