armedamerica

One thing about being a photographer, or a videomaker or a diarist, is that you become the keeper of memories. Things that pass from other people's minds are still in your files, your shoe boxes, your negative bins your notebooks -- those ordinary moments preserved with a clarity and when things happen, they're there to remind you and to make that day live again.

One of the up-sides of spending two years running around photographing people is that you get to see a lot of places and meet a lot of people. And one of the down sides, is that you suddenly know three hundred more people and three score more animals than you did when you started out and one by one you get to hear that they've died.

Fleming was, I think without a doubt, the most articulate person in the book. Both he and his wife were witty, and kind and delightful and their photo was always one of the most popular -- it was certainly my favorite in the whole book. (You can read their entry here.)

I was surprised to hear today that he'd died suddenly. An infection set in after routine surgery and the world is a little poorer for his passing.

Really nice review of Armed America from the Northampton Community College Libraries in Bethlehem and Tannersville, Pennsylvania.


They say:

"This book will demolish any preconceived notion you may have about the “typical” American gun owner. Arranged like a family photo album, this series of portraits links the faces of real people to the hotly contested meaning of the Second Amendment right to bear arms."

A good way to share books that you like with others (including Armed America) is by donating them to your local library.

Technoccult has a nice article "Lone No More: a look at alternative gun culture" that talks about Armed America quite a bit and includes a photo from the book.

nice review of armed america here.

I tried doing an article on British gun owners but found I couldn't get enough of them willing to be photographed. James Dare has succeeded where I failed. I give you this beautifully photographed collection of British Gun Owners:

National Geographic Explorer is doing a segment on Armed America. I'll be down in Washington next week.

There's also a video up on youtube from the Authors @ Google lecture I did

The New York Times did a nice review called "Stained Glass with Shotguns" on May 15th and then the Philadelphia Inquirer did a huge article that took up three pages of the magazine section called "Keeping and Bearing Arms" which was very nice.

The German press is ubiquitious -- I can't even keep up with all the reviews. Photographie picked it as their book of the month in May.

Lots of press coming out of Germany -- my inability to speak the language is partly responsible for my not keeping up with it. This one came out today (translated by Doug Sharp):


"The result manages to impress on many different levels because "Armed
America" works not only quite excellently in itself, but also as a
contribution to global social discourse. At a purely aesthetic level,
Cassidy has succeeded in creating a portrait album that presents images
that are anthropocentric and expertly characterise people."

http://www.literaturkritik.de/public/rezension.php?rez_id=12011

Very nice, very long interview with me up at ESPN

Also two pages in Art magazine last week.

This afternoon I did an interview with ESPN Outdoors (which may be a little bit strange, since the whole book takes place indoors but I'm not complaining) and then with the New York Times. They should both be out within a week. I'm excited about both of them.

I'm surprised at how much better I've gotten at interviews in the past few months. The answer really just is "be friendly, be yourself, be excited."

The Post Crescent has a really nice article about the book here.


in part:

Controversial gun, art book turns Iola's staid Krause inside out

IOLA — The most provocative work Krause Publications has ever produced started with a chance conversation between the author and a political operative.

(snip)

Cassidy didn't have any idea how a publisher would react. He sent out 10 photos with a letter of introduction. Krause — best known for books about coins and doll collecting — called in less than 72 hours.

"I was blown away," said Paul Kennedy, Cassidy's editor at Krause. "Each one made me stop, put it down, pick it up."

The book turned the tiny, staid Krause inside out and gave it its first publication ever listed among Amazon.com's Editors' Top 100 picks, where it ranked 61 overall and No. 8 among art and photography books in 2007.

"We have a very strong tradition and history in firearms, but to put it mildly, nothing like this. It's a totally different beast for us," Kennedy said. "It's not for the collector, it's not for somebody who wants more information about firearms. I've been here for more than 10 years and we have not published a book that has caused so much excitement, so much debate, so much enthusiasm. I don't think there's any gray."

I was really surprised yesterday to see the number of press clippings the German Edition of Armed America has racked up. The publishers have a collection of them here.

The German edition of Armed America was voted book of the month by Photographie Magazine in Germany.

There's a very nice, very long, interview with me up at gunpundit:


http://www.gunpundit.com/

Someone just forwarded this to me. It's nice to know that you're at the front of the wave....



"We are photographers from London, England, working on a photographic project for a book called 'Right to Bear Arms'.... and are looking for people who would be willing to have us take their portraits. We would like to meet people from all walks of life ... You do not need to pose - all we want is you standing still holding your gun - very easy! We don't want models only real people. We love the South and we want to show it exactly as it is.

The aim of the book is to create a series of photographic portraits of gun owners in the South
and their belief in their right to bear arms."


http://www.gunownersofthesouth.com/

Had a nice inter view With Susan Squire from the Post-Crescent in Appleton, WI. The article should be out some time this week.

The Armed America website got a face lift.

There have been a bunch of articles in European magazines lately and one huge four page feature in Marie Claire in Australia.

If you're visiting us from the Sunburnt Land, G'day!

According to google, there were 321 new entries for "Armed America" in the past 24 hours.

A blog in Spain published a link to Armed America, Yonkis. I know this because my ISP called, freaking out. The web site has gotten 500,000 hits a day, sustained, and they say this is worse (worse for them, better for me).

So, hola to all of you reading from Spain.

Here's a link to An article and interview in El Mundo from September 9th.

reddit.com and del.icio.us both picked up a blog post on funtasticus about Armed America and it's in the top 10 on both of those. Last time the blogosphere went crazy about this, my book wasn't out and I always thought we'd missed out. Who knows, we might get a second chance on the ride.

Of course, feel free to blog about the funtasticus blog or the lj blog post :-)

All any artist can hope for is that their work gets seen by people who'd like to see it. I've been very lucky, not just in this, but in everything. It's been a good life.

*** EDIT ****

* Scalzi's blog picked it up too
* Cynical blog picked it up
* Josh Kamler's Tiny Gigantic picked it up.
* Al Power picked it up. and says that "you can immediately see the photographer was aiming to shock viewers by portraying gun owners as nut-jobs" -- which I sadly take exception to.
* Sinnick on LJ picked it up
* Johnsenclan picked it up.</a>
* Trader Eyal picked it up.
* Toby Central
* g-lide on livejournal picked it up (in Russian)
* picked it up (also in Russian)
* Pieterb's blog picked it up
* Blogsdon calls it "some really great portraits"

*** EDIT ***
My amazon.com sales ranking just jumped from 50,000 to 9,317


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