Enduring Justice: Photographs by Thomas Roma [Hardcover]

Thomas Roma (Photographer), Robert Coles (Introduction), Norman Mailer (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2001

Camping out in the Brooklyn Criminal Court building from December 1997 to early 1999, Roma, photographer and director of photography for Columbia University, talked to victims, defendants, trial witnesses and their families, and sometimes took their portraits then and there. The result is this collection of 83 duotones that give human faces to the application of the law.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Camping out in the Brooklyn Criminal Court building from December 1997 to early 1999, Roma (Come Sunday), photographer and director of photography for Columbia University, talked to victims, defendants, trial witnesses and their families, and sometimes took their portraits then and there. The result is this collection of 83 duotones that give human faces to the application of the law. As Norman Mailer writes in a short foreword, "justice comes to long dead hours sitting around," as the beleaguered visages and tired bodies here readily attest. As Robert Coles, Harvard social ethicist and presidential Medal of Freedom winner, puts it in an introduction, these photos show "the struggle of various Americans 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.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

As Norman Mailer writes in a short foreword, "justice comes to long dead hours sitting around," as the beleaguered visages and tired bodies here readily attest. As Robert Coles, Harvard social ethicist and presidential Medal of Freedom winner, puts it in an introduction, these photos show "the struggle of various Americans 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.

Thomas Roma, two-time recipient of Guggenheim Fellowships, has exhibited internationally, had one-man shows at The Museum of Modern Art and the International Center of Photography, New York. His work is in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Canadian Center for Architecture, Montreal. The Director of Photography at Columbia University, author of Come Sunday, Found in Brooklyn, Sunset Park, and Higher Ground, and founding contributing photographer to DoubleTake, Roma lives in Brooklyn with his wife Anna and son Giancarlo.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 184 pages
• Publisher: powerHouse Books; 1 edition (April 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576871029
• ISBN-13: 978-1576871027
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #690,804 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars AN EMPTY SHELL..., June 5, 2004

By 

Lawyeraau (Balmoral Castle) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Enduring Justice: Photographs by Thomas Roma (Hardcover)

It is hard to believe that it took Thomas Roma fourteen months, roaming the grimy corridors of the Brooklyn Criminal Court Building, to take the eighty black and white photographs that appear in this book. There is nothing special about them. On any given day, one can see faces like these in the Brooklyn Criminal Court Building, which is located at 120 Schermerhorn Street in Brooklyn, NY. Perhaps, this is what the photographer intended. I am only surprised that it took him fourteen months to capture what should have been all in a day's work. As a practitioner in Brooklyn, I am disappointed that the portraits are, for the most part, so very ordinary, but, perhaps, that is his intended silent commentary.

The foreword by Norman Mailer is ridiculous, as he talks about the ubiquitous attorney who "...charges more than you can afford while all the while he emanates his profound dissatisfaction with what he is being paid." In Brooklyn Criminal Court, the majority of defendants are assisted by public defenders or court appointed attorneys who do not charge the defendants for their services. It is taxpayers who are footing the bill. Moreover, Mailer also assumes in his foreword that lawyers and judges are men. He would be shocked to discover that many are women. He also further assumes that defendants are all men. Although, the majority are men, women are also increasingly appearing as defendants. I do not know whether his perceptions are born from an inbred misogyny or from simply not having done his homework before writing this foreword. The introduction by Robert Coles is much better written, as it is more substantive and seemingly better informed, though he, too, assumes, as does Mailer, that all the photographs in the book are those of defendants in a criminal case, as well as those of their families.

As to the photographs themselves, the problem is that it is not clear whether they are photographs of just defendants and their families, or whether the photographs include police officers, victims, and witnesses, as well. From the book cover flap one would think that it was inclusive, but the text from the foreword and introduction would lead the reader to think otherwise. There is no text accompanying the photographs that clarifies this issue. The photographs themselves are divided into two parts. Other than part one presents predominately male portraits and part two presents predominantly female portraits, I do not really understand the bifurcation or why it was necessary, as it does not add to the cohesion of the book. The problems inherent in this book may be chalked up to poor editing but, considering the price of the book, that is really no excuse. The end result is that the book is merely another overpriced art book that is nothing more than an empty shell.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars beyond art or document, June 30, 2006

By 

jack kerr (northport, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Enduring Justice: Photographs by Thomas Roma (Hardcover)

thomas roma's photographs represent some of the most challenging, enlightening work of the past few decades. each of his books is worth whatever price they ask, but this project i find particularly brilliant and powerful, as he photographs victims, criminals, family member of both, employees, lawyers - the whole world of a new york city courthouse which must be one of the most intriguing mixes of people and all their telling details. this is just a great book.