Sure ShotWith the Tamron SP 10-24mm and 18-270mm VC lenses, Kevin Gilligan documents an artist who transforms seized and abandoned firearms into sculptures. |
Article by Jenn Gidman Images by Kevin Gilligan |
In 2009, the Los Angeles Police Department launched its gun buyback program, an innovative initiative in which people can turn in their firearms and ammo without being interrogated in exchange for prepaid gift cards. Since then, more than 6,200 guns have been retrieved, and gun violence in the city has been reduced about 20 percent, according to the LA Times. |
But what happens to those weapons after they make their way into the LAPD's custody? Painter and sculptor Victor Hugo Zayas collaborated with city police to help take at least two tons of guns off their hands, transforming them into sculptures after the firearms were ground down into safe-to-use remnants. Photographer Kevin Gilligan, who has known Zayas for six years, went on a one-day photo shoot with him (and a well-armed SWAT team) to document the process. |
"Victor is such a talented artist, he's a world-class painter and sculptor," Gilligan says. "When the LAPD and Victor came up with this idea, I helped them set up the logistics and photographed it. It was really amazing how he took those remnants and turned them into such beautiful pieces of art." Zayas' sculptures were featured in his "Mi Obra" exhibit at the Laguna Art Museum earlier this year, and 15 of Gilligan's images of the intriguing process were printed in the museum's catalog. |
To capture the process, Gilligan used the Tamron SP 10-24mm wide-angle lens and the 18-270mm VC. "I really wanted to highlight the power of these guns," he explains. "Because most of them were rifles and automatic weapons, they were long - I wanted to make sure I captured the entire length of the guns and they didn't get cut off. The 10-24 lens was perfect for that, because I could really get in tight and capture the entire pallet with the guns on top." |
The versatile 18-270 lens served as Gilligan's workhorse lens throughout the shoot. "After the guns were ground down, they were spread out on the cement, with about 20 officers walking through to inspect them," he says. "There was no way I could have gone to the location ahead of time, so I didn't know what to expect. The range and versatility of the 18-270 allowed me to adapt to the situation quickly so I could get a variety of nice shots." |
From Metal to Masterpiece |
The process for the daylong shoot actually started for Gilligan the night before. "The guns were kept in the property room at the LAPD," he says. "I realized, though, that because they were starting very early the next morning, I'd probably need to get into that property room the night before if I wanted to photograph the guns before they were ground down, so I arranged for that. I was right: By the time I got there the next morning, the guns were already packed away in bins, which means I wouldn't have been able to get shots like the one of the guns on the pallet. Always ask questions before the shoot so you're prepared!" |
Next the team, accompanied by SWAT officers, took the guns to an undisclosed location, where they were ground down in preparation for Zayas' sculptures. "The gun remnants first had to be examined to make sure they weren't usable in any way, shape, or form," Gilligan says. "That was very important to the LAPD - they even ground the guns down a second time in some cases. After that, they took the remnants to Victor's place so the welding could begin." |
Gilligan used the 18-270 on-site where the guns were ground to help him document the action and adapt to the spontaneity of the situation. "One of the images I took with the 18-270 was of this incredibly heavy, dense magnet attached to a large crane," he says. "They basically dumped all of the ground gun parts onto the blacktop. After they sifted through them to make sure the parts were safe, they used the magnet to pick up the metal and drop it into large cans. When that magnet dropped and hit the ground, it made such a thud that everyone turned around. It was an unbelievable sound - the ground shook!" |
The 18-270 also allowed Gilligan the flexibility to get creative with what might look, on the surface, to just be boring mountains of metal. "I was shooting the piles of gun refuse, just circling around to see how I could capture them in interesting ways," he says. "For the shot I took with the orange cones, the pile I was focusing on really did just look like a pile of junk. Then it hit me that I had to get a SWAT officer in the background. I focused on the guns in the foreground and intentionally blurred out the SWAT officer in the background - if you look really closely, you can see the automatic rifle in front of his body. Including that officer told the story and really made the shot for me." |
Working with fickle light made parts of the shoot more challenging. "When I was shooting Victor with the 10-24 as he was welding his sculptures, it was taking me a long time to illuminate them properly," Gilligan says. "The way the lighting was, the sculptures looked flat and dead. They were too dark, and I wasn't happy with it. Then I decided to take an off-camera flash and put it below and to my left. As soon as I saw this image, I knew I had finally lit it to get the texture I wanted. Plus I had successfully lit Victor's face so you could see all of his features. It looked great."
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To see more of Kevin Gilligan's work, go to www.photosbykag.com. |