While democracy's glorious ideals are bandied about with patriotic reverence, its actual implementation is a remarkably mundane affair. Paul Shambroom, in his photographic series Meetings , takes an in-depth look at the officiators — mayors, councilmen (councilpersons, in some communities), aldermen, and selectmen — at the most local level of our own political system. From 1999 to 2003, Shambroom traveled across the country photographing more than 150 town meetings, most in localities of fewer than 2,000 people. Shot with a large-format, panoramic camera, Shambroom's photographs from 40 of those meetings are collected in a handsome volume that includes the minutes from every one he attended. Each photograph is neatly annotated with the essential facts: the names and functions of the individuals, the date of the meeting, the town's population, etc. Democracy, in Shambroom's take, is synonymous with civility and order.

Perhaps because of our collectively idealized vision of our own government, Shambroom's portraits of civic life are, at first, almost shockingly banal. Though his compositions of citizen leaders seated around tables recall great European paintings like Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper , the subjects' glazed expressions often portray boredom and weariness — though occasionally intense contemplation is visible. Their tables are strewn with legal pads, piles of paper, soda cans, styrofoam coffee cups, and name-bearing placards. No two interiors look the same, but together, they share a spartan aesthetic.

A cohesive image of the United States and its citizens emerges through Shambroom's series, but the photographs are also filled with subtle, telltale signs that reveal distinctive local character. In a photograph of a city-council meeting in White River, South Dakota (population 598), someone has constructed a pyramid of plastic cups on the counter behind the purple t-shirt-and-suspenders-wearing mayor, Roland Iwan. In stark contrast, behind the well-dressed members of the Community Board of Manhattan District 7 (population 207,699) hang three grand, gold-framed oil portraits. A flattering excerpt from Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America serves as an introduction to Shambroom's book; taken alone, one might question many of Tocqueville's observations. After looking through Shambroom's photographs, however, one senses that, despite some dramatic exceptions, the praise is well-deserved.

-H.G. Masters