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Updated: September 2002 ENDURING JUSTICE "There's something oppressive about being in the Brooklyn Criminal court Building. You feel it as soon as you walk in, and you see it everywhere: no one really wants to be there.... Beginning in December 1997, I spent two to four days a week for fourteen months meeting and photographing people in the hallways. In a time often filled with hope and dread, I tried to create a moment between waiting and the outcome to make a portrait. When departing, instead of saying 'Good-bye,' we'd usually say, 'Good luck.'" —Thomas Roma, DoubleTake (8 page excerpt) "Roma's photographs are consistently charged with a bipolar mixture of sexiness and spirituality." —The New Yorker "...a study in despair and survival..." —Talk, with excerpt of Norman Mailer essay "As Robert Coles, Harvard social ethicist and presidential Medal of Freedom winner, puts it in the introduction, these photos show 'the struggle of various American to find themselves, to get a grip on their emotional moorings, to steer clear of all sorts of perplexing and scary legal imperatives as they descend upon one's eyes, ears, thoughts, anticipations, expectations, amidst a series of events that have their own momentum, logic, prompt their own requirements, madness, obligations.' That sentence's complexities perfectly reflect those of the photographs." —Publishers Weekly "As he leafs through Enduring Justice, Roma describes how reluctant one subject, a man in a Tommy Hilfiger shirt, was to participate. 'He kept shaking his head, and finally he said, "Look, I don't need any trouble." I said, "Trouble? You think I'm trouble? Look where you are, you're in criminal court." And he looked at me. I said, "You don' think you weren't photographed walking in this building? There are hidden cameras all over the pace." Well, he laughed hysterically." —Blake Eskin for ARTNews "The photographs reflect the racial and ethnic mixture of Brooklyn, and the only common denominators are boredom, persecution, unease, no desire to be there, caution. Romas does not record or report the stories he heard on his morning visits. His photographs suggest stories of their own. You can almost feel the stark surroundings, the bleak decor....The early morning, despite its still sleepy state, holds promise, which only the day's deliberations and interactions can affirm or deny. In the early morning, everyone is waiting and Roma's photographs capture the baseline humanity of those men and women at the center of the justice process." —The ICAA Review of Books "...provides a unique perspective on the American criminal justice system." —Columbia College Today "The prints show men and women in candid shots as they endure the moments when the wheels of the criminal justice system has ground to a temporary halt. There are no captions or explanations for the photographs, so the viewer is left only to wonder at the stories behind the images." —BookNews More Press Coverage !! |
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