Beautiful Pig

Beautiful Pig is Ben Schonberger's photobook study of American police culture, built from studio portraits, found ephemera and archival material rather than reportage from the street.

The book interleaves posed portraits, including an officer photographed wearing a tallit over his uniform and group portraits from a police academy class, with a grid of found Polaroid booking photographs annotated by hand with case notes, and objects pulled from an officer's personal archive: a cassette tape with its reels torn out, sticky notes recording what was on it, snapshots from awards dinners. Softcover and perfect bound, running past 200 pages at 8.25 x 10.75 inches, the book carries a foreword by Chad Alligood. Schonberger self-published a first edition, since out of print, followed by a second printing in 2014.

Schonberger's other project titles, including Detroit Shoreway and Hammer, share this working method: found archival material, ephemera and staged portraiture combined to examine an institution or place from within.