12/11/2020
The story behind this actual photograph exhibited currently at ART TROPE GALLERY from my series AGE OF INNOCENCE. During nearly 4 years I went cross country to explore and document through portraits and a simple question “What do you like about guns?” the emotional relationship of children with guns in America. Each time, I setup a “nomadic” studio in such places like a shooting range, a hotel conference room, people’s livingroom, garage or basement…. I invited parents to come with their children and their guns. 90% of the time I never met my subjects before the sitting. The idea was open-call for whoever wanted to come and being part of the project. For this actual portrait, we had set-up the studio in an existing photo studio in a small rural town in Texas during the summer of 2016. I had asked one of my local assistants to find a US flag, as I wanted to take a photo with reference to one of my earlier projects AMERICAN DREAM (2006). The next day my assistant brought a very large faded cotton flag that he had found a few months earlier in an abandoned construction site. I took portraits in this studio during 3 consecutive days. I kept the flag handy in case I would find the perfect subject and idea to involve it. The last day C.J (15 years old) featured in this portrait, came with his dad. This day, it was over 100 degrees outside and our A/C in the studio broke down that morning. It didn’t help that the roof was made of corrugated metal panels, so it became quickly extremely hot inside the studio. My assistant had to put a fan underneath my digital Hasselblad camera, as the body of the camera was so hot I could barely touch it. In the early afternoon, I started to take photos of C.J. in his regular clothes, but at this point the heat was unbearable and the teenager took his shirt off. I asked him if he didn’t mind wearing the flag on his shoulders for a couple of frames. This teenager had never posed for a professional photographer and had no clue of his good looks - with piercing green eyes and flawless tan. A sweet country boy who enjoyed hunting.