[Leica] re: armed america -- not wanting your picture taken

[philippe.orlent at pandora.be (Philippe Orlent)]

Just a thought:
Get your project on (a) local newschain(s). Maybe by mailing them  
before you arrive in the local community(s). This way you can explain  
what you're doing before you arrive at people's doors, and it will  
legitimize what you're doing.
Maybe it will soften those you'd really like to photograph, too.



Op 27-jun-06, om 17:45 heeft Kyle Cassidy het volgende geschreven:

> steve again sagely posited:
>
>> further Kyle, how about those people who like them, want them, and  
>> care
> about them...
>> use them for good, or for bad, or don't use them at all....but don't
> want to advertise these
>> facts with photos, especially sitting in their living rooms... ?
>
> i'm not so much worried about that group, you'd find that anywhere --
> soccer families who don't want their picture taken, cancer  
> survivors who
> don't want their picture taken, etc. most of them are probably well
> enough represented in the demographic that is already being
> photographed. but what is definately getting cut off are the very top
> and the very bottom, the people you've already mentioned, who are
> ambivilant about their guns and don't really care to be  
> photographed and
> the people at the extreme OTHER end of the spectrum who think i am:
>
>   a) a terrorist surveying america for the best place to launch an
> attack (i kid you not)
>
>   b) an agent of the ATF trying to create a list of gun owners, where
> they live, and what guns they have
>
>   c) in the employ of sarah brady
>
> all of which i've run into. the scariest was the guy who thinks i'm a
> terrorist. he kept threatening to call the FBI and i actually wouldn't
> be suprised if they show up at my door. he was so adamant that the  
> only
> reason i could possibly be doing this was trying to find weak,  
> unarmed,
> areas of america ripe for invasion.
>
> i am really concerned about at this point is the difficulty i've  
> had in
> convincing african americans to participate. as a group, african
> americans do represent a smaller percentage of gun owners, but  
> certianly
> not to the extent that my portfolio now suggests. there's a pervasive
> fear among middle class african american gun owners i've met that  
> either
> intentionally or not, they'll be portrayed as thugs. it's a whole
> 'nother layer of this onion to contend with.
>
>
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