Posted on 11/20/2023 10:31:43 AM PST by algore
I am a 100 percent believer in strong gun control,” Berkeley-based photographer Judy Dater told me in September shortly before the opening of The Gun Next Door, her latest exhibition at Oakland Photo Workshop.
“I don’t have a gun. I’ve never shot a gun. I believe we would all be safer if no one had a gun.
But I also see we have a huge problem with so many guns out there, and we really need to understand why so many people in this country feel they need to have one or two or several hundred.”
A pioneering feminist artist renowned since the 1970s for her psychologically expressive portraiture, Dater has been wrestling for years with the nation’s response to the post-Columbine explosion of gun violence. Thinking about guns, she found herself wondering, as she put it, “What kinds of people have guns? And why?”
Dater, now 82, thought she’d be able to answer those seemingly simple questions by doing what she has always done best: using her camera to understand people better. She started by inviting gun owners to her studio to sit for portraits while holding their firearms.
Eighteen large-format black-and-white images, representing about half of what Dater has shot—some portraits printed as large as 30 by 40 inches—show men and women, young and old, most gazing directly into the camera and holding their personal firearms. Dater’s subjects look calm and unapologetic; none fit neatly into any stereotypes the viewer may hold of gun enthusiasts. Among those photographed were a poet, a tech manager, a doctor, a surgical assistant, a civil rights activist, a merchant sailor, two veterans, a self-described pacifist, and more than one vegetarian.
Millions of Californians live with guns in their homes: 5.2 million, to be exact, or 17.6 percent of all adults in the state, according to a 2021 survey conducted by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. CBS reported that an estimated 28.3 percent of adults in California had guns in their homes in 2021. And yet, despite widely reported gun ownership statistics, which are republicized in the wake of every horrifying mass shooting (for instance, that the United States has an estimated 120 guns for every 100 people and that almost 20 million new guns were purchased in 2021 alone), the reasons people want to own guns, like everything about the gun debate, are complex.
Geez. Don’t put yer finger on the trigger unless you are gonna shoot someone/something.
Daddy makes me slightly tingly.
Looks like she got a bunch of random San Fransicko-ites off the street, dressed them up weirdly (well ... top left is normal for SF), and had them pose with Airsoft “guns”.
The Dim-inspired riots are the #1 reason a person should have multiple guns.
why, just why?
Is that a tingling in the back of your throat, combined with a coppery taste at your jaws?
Get the bucket, FRiend ... you'll need it.
So. When/IF Dater got hacked to death with a machete or brained in the head with a brick from an angry minority who “just wanna hit some white people” that’s okay, huh?
The fact is that she’s probably still alive at her age is because Law Enforcement has guns that protect her, even though she thinks no one should have a gun.
A self proclaimed idiot. You would not be safer, but at the mercy of anyone believing differently.
There is no way to eliminate firearms from your world, you delusional fool.
Lol. Another “renowned” person that I’ve never heard of.
Yes, lots of bad safety practices. I bet most of them have no idea what the laws in California are regarding the “legal use of deadly force.”
Someone should investigate how and where she got those guns for her photo shoot
It being California and Bezerkly - I bet some laws were broken.
omg! hahahahaha
Without guns all people would live at the mercy of big, strong, young men with swords and clubs.
This article makes me think photography is more dangerous than guns.
Ditzy broad takes black and white photos and thinks that makes her an artiste.
Why do so many of us feel we need to have guns? Because we can read history.
“I believe we would all be safer if no one had a gun.”
You know who especially agrees with that??? Criminals and tyrants.
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