Inside the hidden archives of America's mass shootings
- Text by Andres Gonzalez
- Photography by Andres Gonzalez
On 14 December, 2012, Adam Lanza walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and shot and killed 26 people, most of them under the age of seven, before killing himself.
Two weeks earlier, I had just returned to the US after living in Istanbul for six years.
Having recently published my first monograph of photographs from far-flung locations, I felt like it was time to try and interpret my own home.
Then came Sandy Hook. I remember the day acutely, the complicated emotions of transition and tragedy embedding themselves in my soul.
Over the following year I thought seriously about the cloud that hangs over this country and how I could explore it as a visual storyteller.
I started visiting sites of mass shootings – from Columbine to Sandy Hook – in a bid to understand the cycle of violence overwhelming America.
Commemorative balloons released into the sky.
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