Gun Farm. Part Two

jack: 30th Oct 2006 - 17:06 GMT

it seems that young people get some rush being that close to weapons of death. the first pic reminds me too much of nam. i got a cold chill down my spine when i see those kinds of weapons. those are weapons of death, not sport. if you want a rush try firing a 50 cal machine gun. i carried one for awhile. it can cut down a tree in seconds. it can obliterate a human in one second. an american grenade takes 5 seconds to explode after you pulled the pin. believe me you cannot pull the pin with your teeth. so if you want to explode a nade on enemies heads just pull the pin, count to three and throw. i hate war. i saw my friend die in my last month in the army. i heard him screem. i couldn't help him. death is not glamorous, and i know that all of you understand this, but death comes quickly and you just go down and the last thing a soldier is crying for is his mother. yet there there they are, soldiers on the lines, protecting the rest of us. heroes. our boys and girls.

chiamattt: 30th Oct 2006 - 22:39 GMT

jack: I have never killed anyone. I have not seen anyone die from a gunshot. I do not wish for these weapons to be sold at Walmart or my local 711. I am very much pro gun control. But I do think it is fun to go to a place like this and fire off some rounds at a target. I guess I should have pointed out more clearly that while I was at the gun farm I never "thought" about it as 'acting out' war. I was not in that frame of mind. I don't want to change what you felt when you looked at these pictures. That would be wrong.

To be frank, before spending time in Cambodia, I had a very different idea of war. I had a more romantic idea of war. But once in Cambodia, I saw the results of war everyday and it did change me. Cambodia changed me, and hopefully as you see more of my pictures from Cambodia, you will see that this was but just one experience.

jack: 31st Oct 2006 - 00:48 GMT

its ok chiamattt, i thought war was romantic and daring and like in the war movies but as i got older i realized a lot of buddies were never to grow older like me. i think the black and white was too much for me, i'm sorry, i'm just an old man now.

Sirhcbre: 31st Oct 2006 - 02:41 GMT

I think these pictures are much more powerful than they're supposed to be. They remind me of war photos that should feel horrifying yeat they are all pictures of people having fun. It's an excellent and beautiful series and the contrast between the feelings the photos portray compared to what is actually happening is very interesting.

Franny Wentzel: 21st Jul 2009 - 01:22 GMT

I find it sorta ironic that someone is sporting a Che T-shirt (brought to you by Capitalism) in a country where 3 million people were hand-genocided by the hard-core Communists of the Kmer Rouge.