Brad Zeller
For decades, starting in the early 50′s, Irwin Denison Norling photographed Bloomington, Minnesota, a booming bedroom suburb of Minneapolis now best known as the home of the Mall of America. By day a 9-to-5 Honeywell employee, at all other times he was a photographer who interrupted sleep and family dinners at the call of a police scanner, rushing out to take pictures of auto accidents, murders, and stray animal rescues. He also shot more mundanes events like parades, kiddie TV show host appearances, and supermarket openings. He was an unofficial police photographer, local newspaper stringer, and documentarian of the suburban explosion. It’s tempted to call him obsessed, but “dedicated” is both more kind and more accurate.
The Norling photos – while most were taken by father Irwin, his project was a family affair – aren’t striking for their style or artistic quality: the Norlings weren’t quite Weegees of the prairies. Nor will pictures of Bloomington fascinate anyone not from the area. They are an interesting look at a period of great change in the United States: the time of the great migration to the suburbs.