Richard Ross photographs "Architecture of Authority"

Here's a gallery of Rick Ross' stunning photos about the "Architecture of Authority." Shown above: "Homeland Security, San Francisco."

For the past several years--and with seemingly limitless access--photographer Richard Ross has been making unsettling and thought-provoking pictures of architectural spaces that exert power over the individuals within them. From a Montessori preschool to churches, mosques and diverse civic spaces including a Swedish courtroom, the Iraqi National Assembly hall and the United Nations, the images in Architecture of Authority build to ever harsher manifestations of power: an interrogation room at Guantanamo, segregation cells at Abu Ghraib, and finally, a capital punishment death chamber.Though visually cool, this work deals with hot-button issues--from the surveillance that increasingly intrudes on post-9/11 life to the abuse of power and the erosion of individual liberty. The connections among the various architectures are striking, as Ross points out: "The Santa Barbara Mission confessional and the LAPD robbery homicide interrogation rooms are the same intimate proportions. Both are made to solicit a confession in exchange for some form of redemption." Essay by Harper's Magazine publisher, John R. MacArthur, also a columnist for the Toronto Globe and Mail.

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[#1 posted by Vengefultacos , May 23, 2008 2:01 PM]

Oops. Got through a few pages of the collection before it turned into the Gallery of SQL Errors. Probably not a good idea to use a SQL-backed database to store your art collection, if you're hoping to get a lot of publicity/visitors.

[#2 posted by BaronVonHog , May 23, 2008 2:07 PM]

Hey look! The left window is wheelchair accessible. Thank you Homeland Security!

[#3 posted by Cefeida , May 23, 2008 3:40 PM]

That looks a lot like the little room at the Canadian Embassy I had to visit before being granted a visa. Except I never got a chair to sit on.

[#4 posted by Antinous , May 23, 2008 3:48 PM]

The American Embassy in Cairo had a window roughly 3" square with glass approximately 18" thick. That was welcoming in an emergency.

[#5 posted by ME , May 23, 2008 6:03 PM]

Yikes. What was the emergency?

I can't help but notice the lack of sunlight is the most awful aspect of so much of this architecture.

And it really is a shame that the web interface is too fragile to handle a heavy traffic load consistently.

[#6 posted by sixister , May 23, 2008 7:26 PM]

Seeing my own city of Santa Barbara in here about a dozen times is awkward...

[#7 posted by sixister , May 23, 2008 7:31 PM]

Oh... that's because he lives here. Fabulous!

[#8 posted by Pyros , May 24, 2008 8:00 AM]

interesting

[#9 posted by Tenn , May 24, 2008 9:20 AM]

How the heck did he get in all these places to photograph?

[#10 posted by noen , May 24, 2008 9:45 AM]

I'm sure he just asked nicely for permission. You'd be amazed how well that can work. Having a professional demeanor works too.

[#11 posted by Jake0748 , May 24, 2008 10:37 AM]

The photos remind me of the US Embassy in Belgrade. My wife and I visited many times and spend many hours inside. Although there was some attempt to make the rooms pleasant (chairs, magazines, etc.), The iron doors to the building weighed tons, the windows were several inches thick and the only people you talked to face to face were the guards (everyone else was dealt with through a thick window).

All that still didn't stop about 1/4 of the building from being blown up the day after Kosovo declared independence. (We were long gone by then, thankfully).

[#12 posted by braschlosan , May 25, 2008 7:49 PM]

Wow,,, I've been in the room shown in the picture above.

Not something I'd like to experience again.

[#13 posted by cdotyrussellwilliams , August 10, 2008 9:49 AM]

Richard can get into any place...and he can probably get out of any place, too, come to think of it!