armedamerica

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 04:31:25 GMT

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.

I'll be at the library

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:00:55 GMT

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.

new review

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 16:47:21 GMT

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.

review

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 20:35:15 GMT

nice review of armed america here.

English Gun Owners

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 15:52:11 GMT

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

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 13:47:45 GMT

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

New York Times and Philadelphia Inquirer

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:18:09 GMT

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.

Germany

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:52:20 GMT

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

interview

Thu, 22 May 2008 13:29:51 GMT

Very nice, very long interview with me up at ESPN

Also two pages in Art magazine last week.

interviews

Thu, 08 May 2008 02:18:27 GMT

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."

Review

Tue, 06 May 2008 19:06:49 GMT

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."

reviews

Tue, 06 May 2008 19:05:22 GMT

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.

Germany

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:08:15 GMT

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

Interviews

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 18:08:02 GMT

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

http://www.gunpundit.com/

quick! everybody do a book of gun owner portraits!

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 12:33:45 GMT

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/

Interviews

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 15:44:17 GMT

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

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 19:09:08 GMT

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!

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:25:19 GMT

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

Hello world

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 15:58:57 GMT

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.

Going Viral Today Are We?

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 20:03:04 GMT

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

# jonathan
March 14th, 2008 - 5:08 pm e

If the purpose of Art is a “springboard for spiritual contemplation” these are highly successful photos.

If you’re anti-gun, a picture of toddlers “toddling” with guns will shock-and/or-incite action in you, if you’re pro-gun you’ll note how the majority of these folks are practicing decent gun safety (unloaded, pointed down or up, finger off the trigger) and also note how many of these folks have a LOT of “dangerous” guns and seemingly no issues…

If you don’t know or have mixed opinions about the issue, these images will compel you to dig deeper for your own understanding of the subject… this… ladies and gents, is art’s highest purpose.

Yosemite1967
March 14th, 2008 - 5:20 pm e

Way to select the most white-trash-looking people possible! Almost everyone I know owns firearms, but not a single one of ‘em looks as white-trash as any of these folks. I would question the selection process here–definitely looks agenda-driven.

#
# Drewon 14 Mar 2008 at 12:37 pm

Quote from above:
“While gun nuts that feel the need to own enough gear to equip an infantry fire team do scare me a bit, I can kind of understand the mindset…each item has it’s own purpose and its own appeal.”

That’s it. For what it’s worth, I’m a die-hard liberal/constitutionalist who votes for Democrats almost all the time — and I vote almost all the time. I’m also a gun owner.

I think that gun violence is a major problem. I actually think that the gun ownership/gun control debate is a lot more nuanced that the NRA and the gun control advocates make it.

I don’t see any conflict between gun ownership and belief in Christianity either. I’m positive there’s nothing in the bible that prohibits hunting, target shooting, or other peaceful (to the humans, at least) uses. Now, murder with a firearm (or any other implement) is pretty well prohibited in both testaments — not to mention local, state, and federal laws.

For me, the more interesting aspect of the book is how people read it — the semiology of it. What do the guns in the picture signify? What do the other features signify? What does that say about the people interpreting those signals?

Maybe Umberto Eco will drop by and contribute.

# davedavedave

they're really good "straight" portraits, they pass no judgement, the models look as if they posed themselves, and they came to him. it's super interesting work about the culture of masculinity and to a lesser extent jingoism of some americans.

seriously

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 04:58:33 GMT

One of the most thoughtful reviews of Armed America is here at bibliomene. The author's not sure how s/he feels about guns but spends a commendable amount of time thinking about it.

Reviews

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 19:59:41 GMT

Someone just forwarded me this comment from a reader of accurateshooter.com:

Maybe its just me, but I wasn’t too impressed by the book.

Actually thought my collection, or those of people I knew would have stood out better.

Shooting is an expensive sport/hobby. You’ll notice none [sic] in the book representative of the lesser known actions, more expensive rifles, or even people (highly educated) with a variety of arms.

Don’t know. Book was not overly positive for me.

Since there are at least five fully automatic weapons in there and a pair of Parazzi MX2000's, there are "more expensive" firearms (or at least five that cost more than $10,000 each) (And I hesitate to think what a Civil War canon goes for, or how much John put into his Winchester 52.) But what's really interesting (to me anyway) is that the commenter thinks there are no highly educated people in there. I didn't survey people about their educational backgrounds and nobody's got their diploma's on the wall -- so I don't know how educated the people are in the book -- how are we left to gauge the level of someone's intellect? I see these comments from anti-gun people a lot "This guy's itching to use his gun" or "That poor kid, his parents must be cruel." Throughout this experience the one thing that's really fascinated me the most is how we all, gun owners, non gun owners, (and myself included) judge people based on their appearance, by their clothes, by their furniture. That we'll all look at a photo of someone and say "that person is uneducated." Where are the visual clues that make us think these things?

That's what fascinates me the most.

Women who own guns

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 15:36:35 GMT

Someone just pointed me this way and it might appeal to people who bought Armed America, so I'll pass it along:

http://nancyfloyd.com/

Nancy Floyd, a photography professor at Georgia State University is publishing a book called "She's Got a Gun" -- portraits of women who own guns.

You can order it from Temple University Press:

http://www.temple.edu/tempress/titles/1809_reg.html

gunpundit

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 15:54:06 GMT

I met the nice folks who run "gunpundit.com" at the SHOT show. They blogged a bit about the book today.

A lot of people at SHOT had heard about the book, and people were constantly coming up to me. Some people didn't know what to make of it. I learned that everybody comes into this with their own perceptions, some gun-owners just like some non-gun owners are prone to pre-judge people based on how they look, which I think is one of the amazing things about this book.

I had a nice time talking to people about the trip and about how the book has been received and I got an opportunity to spend some time in the desert looking at the scenery.

SHOT was fun, Vegas was weird.....

SHOT show

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 22:47:39 GMT

I'm going to be at the SHOT show this weekend in Las Vegas. I'll be hanging out at the F+W Publishing Booth (#5021) Saturday from 10:00 - Noonish and Sunday from 1-3ish. I'll probably hang around longer, it depends on how interested people are. If you'll be at the show, please stop by!