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September 1, 2011

Your Turn: Rick Perry’s Six-Shooters

By Michael Shaw

If the photo is from April, the careless gun-pointing, the ill-fitting suit, the aggressive Latino, and the alarmed Black male are “oh-so-now.” Interested in what you’re seeing here in a photo that comes from a FP photo gallery on gun violence.

FP Slideshow: Packing Heat

(photo: Tom Pennington/Getty Images caption: Texas Governor Rick Perry carries two six-shooter revolvers during an event with the Texas Motor Speedway on April 15, 2010, in Fort Worth, Texas.)

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  • http://twitter.com/weldonberger Weldon Berger

    One pretty hilarious thing I see is a giant sign that says “Race Fans.” Then there’s the wonderful image of a politician apparently attempting to hold up his constituents at gunpoint, and one of them scolding him as if he were a child. This is just a brilliant get by the shooter.

  • Anonymous

    RP as dadaist performance artist. This is an incredible collection of unlikely elements starting with the backdrop of sleek gleaming skyscraper. What on earth is something that tall and starkly beautiful doing in Fort Worth Texas? And why are there two of them?

    Moving toward the foreground the Race in the banner refers, I assume, to the “sport” of going nowhere as fast as is mechanically possible. With beer.

    Our cowboy governor occupies the middle with his mismatched set of six guns. His left hand cradles a pearl-handled piece like it was a steamy diaper. His Worship seems to have forgotten the gun in his right. Oh well.  We can’t see who it targets but in a crowd there are surely bystanders standing innocently by. The governor’s twenty-first century cowboy ensemble is really made by the accessories — gold cuff links, a Texas-sized wedding band, and a perky modern half-pint version of the ten gallon hat.

    If I were to give this piece a title I’d reference Steve Earle:

    So then I went and bought myself a Colt 45
    Called a peacemaker but I never knew why 
    Never knew why, I didn’t understand 
    Cause Mama said the pistol is the devil’s right hand

  • Anonymous

    RP as dadaist performance artist. This is an incredible collection of unlikely elements starting with the backdrop of sleek gleaming skyscraper. What on earth is something that tall and starkly beautiful doing in Fort Worth Texas? And why are there two of them?

    Moving toward the foreground the Race in the banner refers, I assume, to the “sport” of going nowhere as fast as is mechanically possible. With beer.

    Our cowboy governor occupies the middle with his mismatched set of six guns. His left hand cradles a pearl-handled piece like it was a steamy diaper. His Worship seems to have forgotten the gun in his right. Oh well.  We can’t see who it targets but in a crowd there are surely bystanders standing innocently by. The governor’s twenty-first century cowboy ensemble is really made by the accessories — gold cuff links, a Texas-sized wedding band, and a perky modern half-pint version of the ten gallon hat.

    If I were to give this piece a title I’d reference Steve Earle:

    So then I went and bought myself a Colt 45
    Called a peacemaker but I never knew why 
    Never knew why, I didn’t understand 
    Cause Mama said the pistol is the devil’s right hand

    • Megan

      Boy howdy, do I dislike the scene in this picture.  What I see?

      Large knuckles, in almost fists, aimed at my line of sight.
      No women.  Why does this happen so often in pictures of Republican politics.
      Dark, ominous sky.
      The barest hint of anything green or growing.

      For a second, I wondered if this is a picture of former Governor Schwarzenegger.  I am personally very tired of large men using their bodily strength this way.  I’m a serious weight lifter and know lots of men from my gym who lift.  They have found ways to be strong and muscular without projecting that dominating, bullying aura.  The two don’t have to be linked, so I especially dislike it when they are.

      (Disqus still won’t let me initiate a comment, although I can Reply.)

    • LanceThruster

      Great song reference. My friend recently gave me Earle’s “Shut Up and Die Like an Aviator” concert disc and I haven’t taken it out of the car player since.

  • Anonymous

    RP as dadaist performance artist. This is an incredible collection of unlikely elements starting with the backdrop of sleek gleaming skyscraper. What on earth is something that tall and starkly beautiful doing in Fort Worth Texas? And why are there two of them?

    Moving toward the foreground the Race in the banner refers, I assume, to the “sport” of going nowhere as fast as is mechanically possible. With beer.

    Our cowboy governor occupies the middle with his mismatched set of six guns. His left hand cradles a pearl-handled piece like it was a steamy diaper. His Worship seems to have forgotten the gun in his right. Oh well.  We can’t see who it targets but in a crowd there are surely bystanders standing innocently by. The governor’s twenty-first century cowboy ensemble is really made by the accessories — gold cuff links, a Texas-sized wedding band, and a perky modern half-pint version of the ten gallon hat.

    If I were to give this piece a title I’d reference Steve Earle:

    So then I went and bought myself a Colt 45
    Called a peacemaker but I never knew why 
    Never knew why, I didn’t understand 
    Cause Mama said the pistol is the devil’s right hand

  • glenn

    The POV is weird. Where was the photographer, exactly?

    • Johndrabble

      On his knee with a wide angle lens (allowing the deep depth of field) positioned no more than three feet from Perry’s hand.

      I lived in Texas for five long years in the sixties. Gawd-how I hated that place and the people. I moved from there to California and felt like I’d left an ignorant hell for an enlightened heaven

  • Boxcar

    Who wears a baseball cap with a suit? What a hillilly!

  • Enoch Root

    “This is an incredible collection of unlikely elements starting with the backdrop of sleek gleaming skyscraper. What on earth is something that tall and starkly beautiful doing in Fort Worth Texas? And why are there two of them?”

    You’ve never been to Ft. Worth, have you? :-)

    This image is America in 2011. Perry is the reactionary yokel on the national stage, and everyone else is flipped-out by his play-acting. The race issue is disguised as something else. All of this amidst the gleaming towers of failed capitalism.

    • Anonymous

      Well, I did drive by Ft Worth once, long ago. Guess I’ve always thought “stock yards” whenever I heard “Ft Worth”. Those buildings say Pacific Rim, not beef-packing. Times change?

  • LanceThruster

    My first impression is that of a big lummox like Arnold Schwarzenegger in “Twins” (though in RP’s case, not a benign gentle giant).

  • Anonymous

    IF Obama has been photographed with a gun, the NRA, GOP and the talking heads would have been all over him BUT be any color but black it is becomes a joke.

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