This image uses narrative because is shows women sat around a table comparing the guns they have just bought. This image looks very natural and not staged - this is strange because they seem so relaxed even though they are all sat there holding guns. This shows how relaxed american culture is about posessing/keeping guns.
This image is quite shocking because it shows a man holding a gun and a baby at the same time. It doesn't seem right that babies should be associated with guns. This is different to the first image because this is posed/staged whereas the first one is very raw and natural. This man says he is protecting his family by having a gun.
These are some bumper plates for sale to go on the back of cars. America is very big on the theory of protecting yourself by having a gun. This is quite shocking for me as a british viewer because you would never see anything like this in shops or on the back of peoples cars.
This photograph uses narrative showing that this 10 year old girl working in her fathers gun shop. She said that she had just received her first gun from santa claus. This is very shocking because I don't think that it is right that children should be involved in keeping guns. I think it is fair enough if the parents want to protect their family and their children but to involve their children by giving them a gun may be a bad influence on them for the future and train them into thinking that having a gun is fine and it's ok to go and shoot people.
This image uses narrative because it shows that bullets are quite accessible. This image reminds me of pick 'n' mix sweets in a sweet shop. This is quite a disturbing contrast between bullets and sweets.
This photograph uses narrative within this set of images because it shows a husband and wife posing with their gun. At first glance this photograph looks quite a nice family photograph but when you look properly the gun is quite an eyesore and distracting to the audience,
This shows the consiquences of a gunshot to the chest. This is quite a horrific however would be worse if the image was in colour.
This is a picture of a mans thigh after being shot by his friend in a drunken argument. This hits home about how dangerous guns can be and how they are made more of a risk by having them accessible in most american homes.
DISCLAIMER : These images were taken by Zed Nelson.
None of the above images are my own.
Images taken from www.zednelson.com
Zed Nelson lives in London and has published and exhibited his work worldwide. These photographs were all taken by Zed Nelson over a period of 3 years to illustrate the relationship between americans and gun ownership. This set of images makes the audience form an opinion about american gun laws and a lot of the images are quite disturbing. They show the different aspects of guns and gun posession, good and bad.
I personally believe that gun's shouldn't be as accessible as they are in america as a lot of these images involve children and I don't think that they should be being associated with guns at such a young age. The set of photographs 'Gun Nation' has been awards 5 major international photography prizes.
I think that the set is both objective and subjective because the images themselves are objective showing real people who own guns going about their everyday lives. The set is subjective as a set because Nelson has captured them in a way that may shock people/change peoples opinion on the subject. He wanted to create a reaction from his audience and that's why he photographed what he did and the way he did it. In a way it is objective because I believe that the people in these images are real and the idea of gun culture hasn't been staged.
I like how all of the images are in black and white, this creates unity within the set. I also like how there is a variety of set-ups within this set of images. Some are real (informal, not staged) and some are models posing for the camera.
I think that all of the images are quite chilling in different ways. Gun's are such negative things and these pictures show how American's are completely comfortable with having them in their lives.
Nelson was inspired to photograph this narrative when a gunman entered a school in Scotland and shot dead 16 pupils and their teacher which sparked a huge backlash against guns in the UK. He then decided to focus on America - a country which has traditionally celebrated it's relationship which guns - and has a shocking 40 percent of households which hold at least one gun. Nelson found throughout his project that the American's would refuse to accept the link between how many people own guns and how many people were killed by guns. Their motto was "guns don't kill people, people kill people" and classed the guns as inanimate object. Throughout the first year of this project, 34,000 people were shot dead with the inanimate objects.
This set of images affected the audience in different ways. For people who live in the UK where gun's are a rarity and aren't kept in many households this set is very shocking and quite unbelievable that people could live this way. For the American audience it almost hit home about the danger of guns and how relaxed life is around them when perhaps it shouldn't be. The expressions on peoples faces in these images show very clearly 'this is the norm, this is not staged'.
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