Portfolio Category - Portrait Awards 2014

My First Rifle, or Crickett, comes in all different candy-colored variations to fit your child’s personality. This 22. caliber rifle is built with smaller proportions to fit the frame of a child. The guns are especially designed for kids, they almost don ‘t have any weight and are more or less made for the age of five to twelve. Any older and the gun is too small to handle. In the heartland of America, families are teaching kids from a very young age how to shoot guns to protect themselves, their family and their property from potential burglars and/or any other dangers. In a country where nearly one third of the population owns at least one gun, it’s comforting to the parents to know that their children know how to use a gun properly, if the time would ever come. In May this year I heard of My first Rifle for the first time. It was a news-story that got international publicity where a 5-year old boy accidentally kills his 2-year old sister with his Crickett. He got this rifle as a birthday present the year before. The gun, to many of the American families I met, represents the ability to protect oneself. To them, if kids could use guns responsibly, they would be safer in the future. Safer from gun related accidents, burglars, and anything else that would threaten them. I wanted to capture the kids in their own environment with their own first rifle, and see what they were afraid of. I wanted to see if these kids with guns were a symbol of hope for their families, or just were a product of their fear.