Tom Franks’ ‘The Second’ series captures relationship between Arizonians and their firearms

In his series titled “The Second”, which includes both a photographic portrait series and a short film, photographer and emerging director Tom Franks offers a chilling social commentary on the relationship between ordinary citizens in the US state of Arizona and their firearms.

Over two weeks in January 2024, he headed to Prescott, Arizona with one goal – to talk his way into the living rooms of seemingly ordinary citizens and learn about the normalization of gun ownership in the USA.

Says Rachel Henderson, EP of Flint: “We started talking with Tom about joining Flint in mid-December 2023. We knew we wanted him to join the roster and agreed to speak again early in the new year. On the 2nd of January, we got a call from him saying that he’d love to join Flint – but was getting on a plane to Arizona the next day to go and try and talk his way into people’s homes and photograph them with their guns. Four days later we started getting messages from him. Video messages of him drinking coffee with senior NRA members in their homes, surrounded by guns and videos of him in the desert encircled by guys wearing full tactical gear shooting semi-automatic weapons. Who have we just signed – and does our insurance cover this?!”

Says Franks: “Having grown up in the UK and immigrated to Australia in my twenties, I had always been baffled by the US gun culture, and this idea that in places not dissimilar from my own home ‘everyone simply owns a gun’.

“I was curious how truly ‘normal’ could this be, and often wondered if my elderly mum back in England was to live in a place like Arizona, would she own a small armoury of firearms too?”

Over the ten days Franks spent in Arizona, he created what’s later been described as an “uncomfortably unjudgemental” portrait series and a short film.

“The Second Amendment was partially written to ensure that civilian America was sufficiently armed that they could deal with the British invasion should it ever happen, and yet here I was, door-knocking with a British accent asking to enter people’s homes to see their guns, have a chat – and take their photo.  I’m not sure what they all figured a full-scale British invasion was going to look like, but the irony of the situation was not entirely lost on me,” Franks said, laughing.

“I don’t think I’ll ever adequately be able to explain how this all came together, because, in all honesty, the truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.”

Follow this link to watch the short film, view the full series – and hear how this came together.

For more information, contact: Rachel Henderson @ Flint / 0417 215 886 / rachel@flint.net.au