The SHOT: We the People Trilogy and the role of photography in documenting resilience and collective healing.
Across contemporary documentary photography, some of the most resonant work is being shaped through sustained engagement with lived realities rather than reaction to the pace of the news cycle. This ongoing series has focused on photographers whose practices move beyond observation toward responsibility—artists working within the social, emotional, and structural conditions that define the present moment. Their projects do not attempt to resolve complexity; instead, they remain with it, allowing time, trust, and proximity to guide the work.
The photographs of Kathy Shorr firmly embrace this philosophy of commitment. Since 2013, Shorr has developed SHOT: We the People, an evolving trilogy examining the human aftermath of gun violence in the United States. While the subject is often widely framed through urgency and political division, her approach centers on something more enduring: community, healing, and the ongoing process of living after trauma. The work does not isolate moments of violence; it traces the lives that continue beyond them.
The newest chapter, SHOT: We the Community, expands this framework to include students, educators, parents, and community members whose lives have been permanently shaped by school shootings. As with earlier installments, collaboration remains central to the process. Participants select locations that carry personal meaning—places tied not only to loss, but to memory, resilience, and continuity. These environments ground the portraits in lived experience, transforming each image into both testimony and presence.
Across the trilogy, Shorr maintains an unblinking yet deeply human perspective. The photographs resist spectacle and instead emphasize connection—families, classrooms, neighborhoods, and support networks navigating grief together. This shift in emphasis reframes gun violence not as a series of isolated incidents, but as a shared social condition whose effects reverberate across communities long after headlines fade. Healing, in this context, is neither simplified nor resolved. The structure mirrors the way healing often occurs—not as a singular moment, but through ongoing acts of recognition and support. One tiny step, one more day of living followed by another. And another. And another.
What emerges through this sustained structure is a project built as much on listening as on image-making. Relationships formed in earlier phases of the work continue to shape its direction, allowing the series to grow organically through trust and shared purpose. The resulting photographs carry a quiet steadiness, asking viewers not simply to witness trauma, but to recognize the lives unfolding in its wake.Within the broader landscape of socially engaged photography—and in keeping with the themes guiding this feature series—SHOT stands as a reminder that meaningful documentary practice often develops through persistence rather than immediacy. In person, Shorr brings the same qualities to her work that the photographs themselves convey: focus, clarity, and a determined sense of intention without self-promotion. At a time when discouraging narratives dominate much of the public conversation, her commitment remains grounded in the belief that careful attention and community-centered storytelling can still contribute to understanding—and, ultimately, to change.
– Cary Benbow, Editor, Wobneb Magazine
SHOT: We the Community : the third installment of my trilogy on gun violence in America.
This body of work focuses on students, parents, teachers, and community members whose lives have been forever changed by a school shooting.
The first series, SHOT: 101 Survivors of Gun Violence in America, took me to 45 cities and towns across the country. I photographed 101 survivors ranging in age from 8 to 80, representing a wide range of races, geographies, and socioeconomic backgrounds—from high-profile incidents to local tragedies. Some were gun owners; one was even an NRA member. Most portraits were made at the sites where the violence occurred—places that are striking for their normalcy and banality.
In 2021, a survivor from SHOT: 101 reached out, urging me to document the experiences of mothers in Philadelphia who had lost a child to gun violence. His plea inspired the second series, SHOT: We the Mothers.
After photographing 51 mothers in Philadelphia, I expanded the project to Miami—creating a vivid contrast in setting while revealing heartbreaking similarities among communities affected by gun violence.
When the third installment is completed in 2026, I will have photographed more than 260 people across America whose lives have been touched by gun violence. Together, these three series will form SHOT: We the People.
My goal is to present this collective work as a large-scale public art exhibition in Washington, D.C.—installed across the capital in parks, along fences, on billboards, and on digital screens. By placing these portraits throughout the symbolic and political heart of the nation (on city-owned, not federal, property), the project aims to bring the realities of America’s gun violence epidemic before policymakers, public servants, and the broader community.
Art has the power to connect where debate has stalled, and this work seeks to do just that—amplifying voices too often unheard and personalizing a crisis too often reduced to statistics.
SHOT: We the Community spans all levels of American education—elementary schools, high schools, and universities—both public and private— to reveal a simple but devastating truth: no one is safe from gun violence in our schools, or anywhere in America. Each participant chooses their own portrait location, selecting a place that holds personal significance and connects them to the event, transforming each image into both a memorial and an act of resilience. – Kathy Shorr
Bio
Kathy Shorr was born in Brooklyn, New York. Her work crosses the borders of documentary, portraiture and street photography. She received her undergraduate degree in photography from The School of Visual Arts and has an MS in Education, earned while working as a New York City Teaching Fellow working in the NYC public schools. Her work has been shown in galleries throughout the United States and Europe including the celebrated Visa Pour L’Image for photojournalism in Perpignan, France. Her first book “SHOT … 101 Survivors of Gun Violence in America” was published by powerHouse Books in 2017. In 2022, she received the NYFA grant, the National Press Photographers Bob and Millie Lynn grant for photojournalism and the Miami Dade Cultural Commission grant for public art. Her most recent book Limousine was published by Lazy Dog Press in December of 2024. She is currently working on the 3rd installment of her trilogy on gun violence in America, SHOT: We the People.
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Website http://www.kathyshorr.com/ / Instagram @katshorr
The ongoing series of features and posts on the significance of documentary photographers and photojournalists can be found at Wobneb Magazine.
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