WOMEN AND GUNS
BY WALL DONE, 09/08/2010
Women and Guns started as a reaction to the DC sniper episode and the inevitable gun debate it prompted. I started the project with a definite and strong point of view about guns, but as I traveled the country and met and photographed women my stance evolved. Most rural people grow up with guns around the house. For these folks guns don't hold some numinous quality and they are not making a political statement by owning them. They are tools of basic existence and as the project progressed I sought to tell that side of the story, too. The most interesting part of the series for me was the reaction to the photos of people in DC and New York. Friends who I considered politically progressive and open-minded would see the work and react in what I considered calloused and prejudiced ways toward the subjects of the photographs.
—Amy Stein
All images © Amy Stein
