“Bureaucracy oh bureaucracy,” writes Heather Murphy for NPR. “How easy is to curse that amorphous force that sucks up time, binding productivity and creativity in red tape. But how do you show what it looks like?

“Six years ago, photographer Jan Banning sat, stumped by this question. The self-declared anarchist was given what seemed ‘the most horrible assignment of my entire life.’ A magazine had asked him to illustrate decentralization of administration in Mozambique.

[…]

“Then it occurred to him; ‘let's go meet the people involved.’ Having spent his life carefully steering clear of government officers, he was surprised to find they were far more varied and interesting than he'd imagined. The one-time assignment morphed into a four-year project, involving ‘Bureaucratics’ -- as his clever book is titled -- across the world.

[…]

“Because the pair of documentarians didn't tell anyone they were coming in advance, they sometimes encountered people snoring on their desks. Banning met people across the world, whose job is to do nothing more than literally shuffle paperwork from one room to the next. But, he adds, he also met people who work hard, driven by hopes of improving their lives and their countries.

“Perhaps most surprising, Banning, who is from the Netherlands, was most impressed with bureaucrats in the U.S. -- who not only seemed to take their jobs seriously, but gave their offices a ‘strong personal touch.’

“Banning's work is currently on display at The Stadthaus in Ulm, Germany.”

Here are some of our favorite photographs from Banning. See the rest of his photos and read the entire article at NPR.org.

Jiang Ji Yuan is chairman of the Art and Literature Association of Tai’an, Tia’an City, Shandong province.
Monthly salary: 4,000 renminbi (USD 469).
Standard Working wee: 40 hours

Roger Vacher is a narcotics agent with the national police force in Clermont-Ferrand, Auvergne region, France.
Monthly salary: Euro: 2,200 (USD 2,893)
Standard working week: 35 hours

Shane Fenton is sheriff of Crockett County, Texas
Monthly salary: USD 3,166
Standard working week: 40 hours

Dede McEachern is director of licensing, Texas Department of Licensing and Regulations, in Austin, Texas
Monthly salary: USD 5,833
Standard working week: 40 hours

Warford Weadatu Sr., a former farmer and mail carrier, now is county commissioner for Nyenaw district, Liberia. He has no budget and isn’t expecting any money soon from the poverty-stricken authorities of Monrovia.
Monthly salary: 1,110 Liberian dollars (USD 20), but he still is yet to be paid for the previous year
Standard working week 37 hours

Major Adolph Dalaney in the Reconstruction Room of the Traffic Police at the Liberia National Police Headquarters in Monrovia.
Monthly salary: barely 1,000 Liberian dollars (USD 18)
Standard working week: 37 hours.
Traffic victims are at times willing to pay a little extra if Dalaney’s department quickly draws up a favorable report to present to a judge

Nadja Ali Gayt is an advisor at the Ministry of Agriculture’s education centre for rural women in the district of Manakhah, Sana’a Governorate
Monthly salary: USD 160
Standard working week: 30 hours

Rodolfo Villca Flores is chief supervisor of market sanitary services of the municipality of Betanzos, Cornelio Saavedra province.
Monthly salary: 1,150 bolivianos (USD 143)
Standard working week: 40 hours

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