[Leica] Washington Post Write Up

[kcassidy at asc.upenn.edu (Kyle Cassidy)]

The washington post mentioned the PAW in "The Power of Art" -- go LUG! 
(there does NOT seem to be an option in the outlook web client for "format 
in plain text" -- what gives mr. gates?)
 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/26/AR2007072602064.html
 

ARMED AMERICA Portraits of Gun Owners in Their Homes By Kyle Cassidy | 
Krause. 208 pp. $30

________________________________


Several of the staff photographers at The Washington Post 
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/The+Washington+Post+Company?tid=informline>
  are fans of a shooter (photographer, that is) named Kyle Cassidy. His 
photo-a-week blog, kylecassidy.com, has many comforting close-ups of 
sandwiches (mostly veggies on just-right toast) and of his cat, Roswell 
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Roswell?tid=informline> . 
His gallery shows and fashion photos, on the other hand, revolve around 
levitating bodies, bloody-lipped goths and dominatrices.

Now Cassidy has put out a coffee table book that combines in every image the 
ordinary and the bizarre, the comforting and the unnerving. Over the course 
of two years, he traveled 15,000 miles to take these pictures of shooters 
(gun owners, that is) in their homes. They pose with their Stoeger Condor 
12-gauges, Mossberg 590s, Mini Uzi SMGs, Glock 26s and AK-47s. And also with 
their chef's tunics, teddy bears and silk flower arrangements. A lot seem to 
have cats.

Cassidy asked each subject the same question: "Why do you own a gun?" Their 
answers are next to their pictures, without comment. The result is highly 
political, even polemical. The question is, in which direction? Each picture 
in Armed America could be a pro-gun advertisement -- or an anti-gun poster. 
That's what makes the book so riveting.

-- Alan Cooperman