Two Girls and a Machine Gun
Ken Nadvornick

Two Girls and a Machine Gun

The M60 is a gas-operated, air-cooled, belt-fed, fully-automatic machine gun that fires from the open-bolt position and is chambered for the 7.62x51mm (0.308 in) NATO cartridge. Ammunition is fed from a 100-round bandolier containing a disintegrating, metallic split-link belt. The weapon can fire 500-650 rounds/min, with a muzzle velocity of 2,800 feet/sec, at an effective range of 1,200 yards.
Location
Arlington, Washington, USA
Equipment Used
4x5 Crown Graphic, 135mm f/4.7 Optar, Sunpak 622S flash
Exposure
1/200 sec at f/22 w/synchro-sunlight manual flash at 12-feet
Film & Developer
Ilford HP5+ at EI400 in D-76d (1+1) for 11 min at 68F/20C
Paper & Developer
Negative scan for now, printing this upcoming winter
Lens Filter
None
Sorry, I find this pretty sickening. Weapons are no toys. Remember the Sandy Hook shooting where girls like this were killed by a machine gun?
 
Being that I live one town over from Sandy Hook, and my step sisters and ex GF's went there when they were younger, so I feel that comment by spijker, I also find it strange that you didn't mention something in the comments like "don't worry I made sure to explain not to fire this to the kids before setting up the shot" or something that explains why this was even taken, I mean, it's just so out of context, why would you take this is the question. However, I'm not sickened, as much as just "shocked" as shocked as I could be anyway, I just find it odd, again, of all people why should I feel odd, I guess I would be more afraid that they would be children who might think it was funny to disobey directions and attempt to fire it. Now maybe the firing pin is missing etc, but you haven't said any of that, so I just find it an odd scene. Were you teaching them to fire it? Were they at a shoot you were doing and this was a random photo before the real shoot happened? Care to elaborate?
 
I find it sickening that these kids are raised with the notion that machine guns are cool. Machine guns are mass killing machines that are for war zones, not for recreation. But since this is not the place to discuss gun control, I'll leave it at that.
 
Sorry Ken, I don't get it. Kids and guns should never come together; not even for a picture.
 
Michael R 1974 said:
What a strange gallery posting. I'm not passing judgment on the image or anything. It's just so bizarre you have this picture of two girls with a machine gun and then there is a description entirely about the specifications of the gun.
That's what I'm sayin'....Ken, is this one of your "found photographs"? or did you take this?
 
Michael R 1974 said:
What a strange gallery posting. I'm not passing judgment on the image or anything. It's just so bizarre you have this picture of two girls with a machine gun and then there is a description entirely about the specifications of the gun.
Guess you stepped on a third rail here. What isn't PC in some parts of the country (or world) might be overlooked in others. You can't be too careful.
 
Wonderfully shot. I quess I'm not politically correct, the M-60 doesn't bother me(maybe because I used to own one). Children should be exposed to positive education about firearms, and not movies and TV shows or video games that promote random and indiscriminate killing.
 
Not to accept gender stereotypes, but this wouldn't have been nearly as eyebrow-raising an image if it had been two boys of the same ages - I would expect them to want to play with the machine gun, but not two little girls, especially ones who are wearing frilly sun-dresses. I also find the description that talks about the gun in significant technical detail while ignoring the presence of the girls to be disturbing. Reading it made me want to go all gun-geek for a second and talk about other machine guns, but I can't help but keep coming back to the mental conflict over the clash within the image between the girls and the gun and the clash between the image of girls with a gun and the clinical description, and I can't help but shudder each time. I'd really love to hear an explanation of those conflicts.
 
I do not like guns, especially when they are treated like toys. I do not appreciate the sense of the photo either, no matter how innocent the intent was.
 

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Ken Nadvornick
Date added
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