Steven Brahms asks his neighbours to pose with guns in his new project
Few of us will ever brandish a gun, but most have mimicked holding one. From the casual one-fingered pow! to the two-handed “I mean business” shooter– we’ve all had a go. Actions like this have been endlessly fed to us via television, film or conflicts in the real world but this constant stream of reinterpretation is what photographer Steven Brahms (who guest posted on the site last year) sees as a problem. He feels all of our actions are now performances so warped and misinformed that none of us in contemporary society really understands what’s happening anymore.
His latest project, Violent Materials, focuses on this notion by showing eight men from Steven’s neighbourhood, holding a handgun and making an action pose. Shot in his signature style, the images are set against vast blank space giving a filmic quality. Once again, Steven knocks out some powerful images while also making us think how wrong society’s getting it at the moment.
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Rebecca Fulleylove is a freelance writer and editor specialising in art, design and culture. She is also senior writer at Creative Review, having previously worked at Elephant, Google Arts & Culture, and It’s Nice That.