Gun Nation

What associations of a Russian person does the word America cause? Usually this is: New York, Hollywood, Cowboy, Money, Exchange, White House, Bush, etc. But besides this, facts such as: twin towers, terrorist attack, crime, murder and weapons gradually come up in the brain. America is both the most reliable and the most dangerous country in the world.

For three years, photographer Zed Nelson, marked by many awards, studied American culture of weapons. In his Gun Nation project, he avoids depicting stereotypical gang members posing with weapons and extremists in camouflage forms with exhausted faces. Instead, Nelson focuses on the so -called “ordinary” law -abiding citizens in weapons shops and at the congresses of the National Rifle Organization, in living rooms, first aid and at school venues. “I wanted to show how the weapon penetrates into all spheres of society,” says Nielsen.

These collective images show the paradox of the fact that the American most powerful symbol of freedom is simultaneously one of its main killers (annual mortality statistics in America are more than 30,000 citizens).

Zed Nelson does not avoid conflicts, disagreements or crises. Gun Nation is one of the most important photos of projects today. He was published in many famous magazines, was shown on British television and received prestigious awards on photojournalism. Not so long ago, the works of this project were published in the form of a book.

Having worked for more than ten years as a photojournalist in the most cruel and lawless places in the world, Zeda Nelson had a unique opportunity to attest to the destructive effectiveness of the most beloved by a person who is deadly weapons - a pistol. When Nelson worked as a correspondent in a war in Afghanistan, he was wounded and this injury “originated the seeds of an idea”, which was later embodied in the Gun National project.

Zeda Nelson began to study the American culture of weapons after the English massacre in Dunblane in Scotland, where 16 children and their teacher were shot. This incident gave rise to a fierce reactionary movement against weapons in the UK with a demand to prohibit the possession of firearms. While these debates took place in Britain, Nelson transferred the focus to the United States - a nation, a long -term culture of wearing weapons faced the reality of modern life.

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