Margaret McCarthy, Gays Against Guns

Archival pigment print, 8.5 x11inches – larger sizes also available, Price: On Request, New York, USA

Gays Against Guns is an inclusive direct-action group of LGBTQ people and their allies who march carrying the portraits of those who have fallen as victims to gun violence.

LGBTQ people continue to be unduly vulnerable to gun violence, especially in the swell of prejudice-based hate crimes (California State University’s Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism). Transgender women, especially trans women of color, are hugely and disproportionately impacted by gun violence.

Dressed in white, in veiled costumes that evoke bee-keepers costumes, each marcher carriers a portrait, holding the space of a person killed by gun violence.

I’m fascinated by how this group of veiled activists use portraiture to make us aware of the price we pay in unique lives lost – they do this by covering their own faces. For me, their work resonates and relies on the power of the human face – and in the power of its absence.

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