Shots Fired

• Photographer
  Mark Teiwes, United States

Photography as Evidence and Abstraction: Using a camera-less
process, I shoot photosensitive material with a gun. It is the literal
documentation of a gun’s effects on the material. The objects are
exposed to the ambient light and later developed. While issues of
guns and violence in society are complex, for me the work
continues to inspire new inquiry, investigation, and discourse on
contemporary issues in photography, society, and culture. When
photographic material physically interacts with the exterior world,
the medium’s relationship to veracity, realism, and referent are
affected. The inquiry and experimentation in my artwork produces
objects that capture a moment of violence. The abstract becomes
physical.