Anticipating the inauguration of President Barack Obama, Twin Cities photographer Alec Soth compiled a series of photos entitled, “The Last Days of W.” Taking its title from a poem by Lester B. Morrison, the series (and book) offers a poetic look at the country George W. Bush leaves behind. Shot in Minnesota and across the United States, the works represent “a panoramic look at a country exhausted by its catastrophic leadership.”

“In assembling this collection of pictures I’ve made over the last eight years, I guess I’m not really trying to accomplish much at all. But as President Bush once said, ‘One of the great things about books is, sometimes there are some fantastic pictures.’”

Priscilla, Los Angeles, California

RNC, Saint Paul, Minnesota

Whether dawn or dusk,
Don Knotts or the deputy,
There is nothing left but gas

You’ve exhausted

You’ve laughed your head off
Wrapped it in black burlap
And bounced on the branch
Till sticky with candy and mâché.

Now the ranch is quiet,
Brush cleared,
Fields burnt,
Almost bored.

These are the last days of W.

—Lester B. Morrison

Osama, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Related: Alec Soth on photographing the Minnesota Senate recount
And: Imagining Bush: Artists on the official presidential portraits

10. Friends of Todd

When Sen. Norm Coleman and Todd (but not Sarah) Palin rallied in Duluth in October, an ardent supporter carried this curious sign, captured on film by Paul Demko.

9. Meter remade

A hacked parking meter, spotted by Steve Perry during the Republican National Convention in St. Paul.

8. Spraygun

RNC police breaking out high-powered pepper spray aerosol cans, photographed by Jeff Severns Guntzel.

7. Anti-RNC Everyman

Vermin Supreme, the most ubiquitous RNC protester, photographed by Molly Priesmeyer.

6. Why we vote?

A discarded newspaper, photographed by Paul Schmelzer outside a north Minneapolis polling place on Election Day, may offer a glimpse at voter motivations in 2008.

5. With Rage on-stage

An eerily lit shot of crowds at the September Rage Against the Machine concert, by Tony Nelson.

4. RNC onlookers

A pair of protesters watch an RNC demonstration go by, by Mike Dvorak.

3. Ready

A phalanx of riot police at the Republican National Convention, by Tim Roman.

2. Franken foregrounded

Senatorial candidate Al Franken speaks at an Oct. 21 rally at the University of Minnesota as a well-known supporter looks on. Photo by Andy Birkey.

1. Keith Smith (before photo)

Our top photo of the year, shot by Paul Demko, shows 17-year-old protester Keith Smith just hours before he was reportedly beaten by police at the Republican National Convention.

To see more Minnesota Independent photos, visit our Flickr site.

More of MnIndy’s Best:

Ten most popular stories of 2008

Top videos of 2008

Top RNC tweets

Brie Cohen, shooting for the Albert Lea Tribune, got up and under to add drama to counting at the Freeborn County Government Center Wednesday.

A few government-issue desks or folding tables. Stacks of paper. Bleary-eyed officials peering at the umpteenth ink-smudged ballot. Minnesota has seen its share of surprisingly arresting imagery about mundane processes — meeting photos by Jerome Liebling and, more recently, Minneapolis’ Paul Shambroom’s four-year project in which he criss-crossed America photographing government convenings — but this week’s statewide recount has offered little in the way of fodder for photojournalists looking for compelling imagery.

While many valiant (and some successful) attempts have been made, the recount photos tend to be dull. And in fine-art photography, that can even be okay, at least according to Shambroom. A former news photographer, he presented his “Meetings” series as a set of 40 photos accompanied by full minutes of meetings, the blase faces of, say, the Marshfield, Missouri, aldermen mirroring the nouns and verbs that contribute to the tedium.

But in news, viewers have little time to pore over images and, with smaller sizes and lower-resolution printing, they likely have less interest in doing so. These images need to be emblematic, arresting.

“What works as a piece of art on the wall does not necessarily work as a news photo,” Shambroom says. “In fact, they’re sort of diametrically opposed.”

How would Shambroom photograph the recount if he was assigned to the job?  “I’d try to embrace the boredom,” he said. “That’s what I did in my ‘Meetings’ to make them interesting to me. I’d take what is the strongest visual quality of those situations, which is the boredom, and just kind of put my arms around it.” (Put on the spot by my Friday-afternoon call, he acknowledged he couldn’t yet say what that might look like.)

Shambroom adds that the most interesting recount photography he’s seen this week have been images of the disputed ballots themselves — a point St. Paul-based photographer Alec Soth made in an email to me today.

“I thought that these documents are more telling than (1) pundits (2) photographs of election booths, etc.,” Soth wrote. “Raw documentation, be it a cell-phone snap or a scan of a piece of paper to me seems more powerful.”

Now, a look at some of this week’s news photos:

The Star Tribune’s Larry Holt captures an election judged flanked by campaign monitors on Wednesday in Northeast Minneapolis.

Police tape adds visual interest – and DANGER! — in this New York Times photo by Caroline Yang.

Ditto for this Pioneer Press image shot by Scott Takushi in Hastings.

Elizabeth Flores of the Star Tribune gives a good glimpse of how annoying counting must be with challengers like Bob Murray of the Coleman campaign hovering over your shoulder.

MnIndy’s Paul Demko took a straightforward approach, capturing the recount — as this tallier’s facial expression suggests — in all its glorious tedium.

Then there’s the array of dull shots of white people with paper and tables:

The Farmington Independent

The Crookston Daily Times

The Worthington Daily Globe

Hands down, the best photography of the recount yet, as Soth and Shambroom concurred, show the ballots themselves — but not because of artistry. Documentation of challenged ballots illustrate clearly — and hilariously, at times — just what the Franken and Coleman camps are fighting over.