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Response to Wild (Response #3)

Uploaded 770 Days Ago by George - 22 comments

Photo © George - www.jargonhunter.com/images/daily
Unauthorized reproduction not permitted.

User Comments

lbimaging said 770 days ago:

Wild indeed! Excellent shot (pardon the pun) :-)

Montage said 770 days ago:

Disturbing, certainly. Not sure about wild though

VernonTrent said 770 days ago:

sorry.... I cannot bring any understanding for such a shot.

skomlos said 770 days ago:

Awesome photo.

gorin-images said 770 days ago:

I see the connection to the theme. Images with guns pointed straight at me are always sort of disturbing, and the fact that in this case, it's a child holding the weapon and staring me down makes it more disturbing. I realize it's a toy gun, but it's still pretty disturbing ;)

20x30 said 769 days ago:

Kids with Guns (even toy guns) scare me...

zorilla said 769 days ago:

This doesn't work on so many levels. Let's just say it's a bad and offensive snapshot.

Ana said 769 days ago:

ha ha. i know this shot!

faustina said 769 days ago:

I am so torn with this image. I am impressed with it's statement, but at the same time so saddened by it. Either way, I think it's well done.

CherryFairy said 769 days ago:

A really startling shot; very topical interpretation of 'weight'.

philippe said 769 days ago:

Impressive!

philippe said 769 days ago:

(having read the comments). One can find this provocative or disturbing, and that's why I like it, but this is certainly not a bad shot!(Oops, I did it too...)

uncommondepth said 769 days ago:

Why? Why would someone take this picture? Why would someone put a gun (fake or real) into the hands of child?

mitchh said 769 days ago:

Well I can't say I like this image, but it does have (disturbing) impact and fits the theme. Then again, I suspect it was intended to be disturbing. Depth of field from the eyes to the tip of the barrel (allowing the ears to go soft) would have helped, but may have been tough to pull off.

George said 769 days ago:

The visceral reaction to this image is not a surprise. The same thing happened to me when I saw the shot on my screen for the first time. I was taking shots of my friends' youngest boy for their album. There was no planning. None of the shots were posed, including this. We were simply playing around in the garden and the pool and I was mixing it up by taking shots of him. He picked up his toy plastic gun and raced about "firing" it left and right. (I remember doing much the same when I was a boy; some of you may have done the same, too. As an adult I own/use no guns and have no interest in them.) He swung it around, pointed at me and fired several times. I clicked the shutter. And this is what happened. It's certainly the most disturbing image I've made.

I offer this explanation simply as a background for those who are interested. While I hope that any personal biases about "guns" or "kids with guns" have not affected the ratings I suspect that's not the case judging by the current overall score. I'm pleased with the image for its strength and the statement it makes.

Lange said 769 days ago:

This image is too disturbing for words... so in that way it fits one of the interpretations of the theme. Yet it so hard to evaluate it as a photograph when the image itself invokes such a negative response in me.... not negative as a photograph, nor as a story.... but simply because seeing a child hold a gun like that in any sense is so sad and feels so utterly inappropriate.

Please do not get me wrong... I am not saying the image is bad or wrong... I am saying the actual event is inappropriate.... and if it was posing for the camera, it still disturbs greatly.... perhaps even more so.

tsunam said 768 days ago:

not sure how exactly this is "wild"

aedmonds said 768 days ago:

tremendous impact

gorin-images said 765 days ago:

About young boys and guns.....

My wife (someone who hates guns) decided she was going to never allow our oldest boy to have any toy guns. And she was pretty good about enforcing that decision for a while. She gave up one day at breakfast when she saw that the boy...at about age 3 had literally chewed his peic of toast into the shape of a gun, and was pretending to fire it.

I don't know what is so ingrained in young boys that makes them all want/need to play "guns". I was like that too, even though I have never, as a child or adult, had any real guns in the house.

It's weird, and I wonder if this is unique to Americans, or if it is pervasive throughout other countries also.....perhaps just part of man's instinctual hard-wiring?

George said 765 days ago:

@gorin-images:

I'm amazed by that story, not only because it begs the "hard wired" question, but also because the parents of the boy pictured here told me the exact same story about their eldest boy (who is now 8). He, too, was prevented from having guns and one day chewed a piece of toast into the shape of a gun! Go figure.

As to whether this is unique to Americans, no other western nation I'm aware of has such a ubiquity and availability of guns.

LynnR said 764 days ago:

holy crap!

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