Nancy Floyd has been an exhibiting artist for thirty years. Her work has been exhibited in numerous venues including Solomon Projects, Atlanta, GA; Flux Projects, Atlanta, GA; the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center; White Columns, New York, NY; and the California Museum of Photography, Riverside, CA. Since 2009, her work has been part of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art Archive, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY. Floyd has received numerous grants and awards including a 2014 John Gutmann Photography Fellowship Award and a 2014 Society for Photographic Education Future Focus Project Support Grant. Temple University Press published her first book, She’s Got a Gun, in 2008.
Floyd earned an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA. She lives in Atlanta and serves as Professor of Photography in the Ernest G. Welch School of Art & Design, Georgia State University.
Sixteen-year-old Sandy Fong with Anshutz 1913 Rifle, The Women’s 50m rifle 3 position competition, U.S. Olympic Team Trials, Fort Benning, Georgia, 2004.
Taylor Beard Practicing with Anshutz 1913 Rifle. The Women’s 50m rifle 3 position competition, U.S. Olympic Team Trials, Fort Benning, Georgia, 2008.
Amanda Furrer with Anshutz 1913 Rifle, The Women’s 50m rifle 3 position competition, U.S. Olympic Team Trials, Fort Benning, Georgia, 2008.
She’s Got a Gun, 1993-2008
She’s Got a Gun is a photographic exhibition by Atlanta-based artist Nancy Floyd. The exhibition comprises approximately twenty photographs from this series that has been ongoing since 1993. Coinciding with the exhibition is the release of Floyd’s book of the same title published by Temple University Press. Her book is the first to combine personal story telling with a visual history of women and guns in America, 1850 to the present.
The photographic series She’s Got a Gun comprises powerful, compelling images of her research on the topic of women and guns in three specific areas: pleasure, power and profession. Images of women in the military, Olympic event shooters, female police officers, women who own for purposes of self-defense and many others are included in the exhibition. Floyd, raised in League City, Texas, grew up in a popular culture ripe with associations with guns: cowboy and Indian games, plastic pistols full of candy and watching Gunsmoke on television with her family. She purchased her first gun in 1991, right after Desert Storm, largely as a way to connect with her brother who had wanted to be a gunsmith. He died in Vietnam when she was 12. Initially, Nancy was afraid of the gun, but over time she began attending Ladies Night at the local shooting range and befriending other women who shared her interest. The exhibition of photographs explores fifteen years of her experience in the gun world.
The Women’s 50m rifle 3 position competition, U.S. Olympic Team Trials, Fort Benning, Georgia, 2008.
Sharp Shooter Karen Bowker with Smith & Wesson Model 41, Santa Ana, California, 1994.
Pistol Competition Shooter Jacqueline Morton with Hammerli 208, Practicing for Year 2000 Olympics, Lax Firing Range, Los Angeles, California, 2006.
Eleven-year-old Vanessa Noble with 9mm Ruger P89 before her first Practical Shooting competition, On Target Shooting Range, Laguna Niguel, California, 1996.
Maggie C. Brown in her garden with her Remington Single Shot .22, Farmington, Georgia, 1997.
Clair Sherwood with her Guns and her Grandmother’s Quilt, Atlanta, Georgia, 1997.
Gail with .45 caliber Colt Gold Cup National Match, 1994.
Barber Sandra Wolf with .38 caliber Lady Smith and Wesson, Long Beach, California, 1993.
Special Agent Terry Somers with Sig Sauer P228, 1994.
Officer Audrey Jenkins with 9mm Smith & Wesson, model 5903, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, 1997.
A1C Ashley-Ann Cady with M24 (Remington 700 bolt action rifle), Moody Air Force Base, Georgia, 2006.
Untitled, from the hand series, 1993-1996.
Abby Fong, 2012 from Nancy Floyd on Vimeo.
10.9 (a perfect score) is a collection of intimate portraits of elite female competition shooters.
For me the beauty is in the pause—the in-between time—when shooters assume a posture to slow their heart rate, steady their nerves, or to simply rest before the next shot
To view more of Nancy’s work please visit her website.