Jane Hilton

Palo Gallery is pleased to present LA Gun Club, an exhibition by English photographer and filmmaker Jane Hilton. Renowned for her work documenting American culture, Hilton has explored the extraordinary realities of ordinary people for the past twenty-five years. Presenting a series of photographs of shooting range targets, Hilton continues her examination of subjects which blur the line between legal and social acceptability.

Conceptualized by Hilton, inspired by her exposure to American gun culture while living and working in downtown Los Angeles. Hilton remembers visiting a gun club at the suggestion of her assistant, “I was given a ten-minute induction, and four different guns: an AK47, a rifle, Glock, and a .44 Magnum revolver, the same gun used by Clint Eastwood in ‘Dirty Harry’. I was then handed live ammunition to fire at a target of my choice. I was terrified. I had never held a gun in my life, and my hand was shaking,” Hilton wrote of her visit to the gun club.

Hilton returned to Los Angeles six months later - but instead of her initial plan to photograph personal gun collections opted for a more conceptual approach. Remembering the paper targets from the gun club, Hilton chose to examine the visual images people opted to shoot. Hilton found each of the chosen targets extraordinarily provocative; caricatured Middle Eastern men, “thuggish” burglars, and kidnappers. Deciding she could achieve a more resonant statement by interviewing the gun club shooters, Hilton took their ‘shot up’ targets back to her London studio—preparing to shoot them herself. The result is a series of photographs and their accompanying text which creates a snapshot of American attitudes towards guns, gun use, and gun ownership.

Jane Hilton (b. 1962, United Kingdom) lives and works in London and has exhibited internationally. Precious is Jane Hilton's second monograph. Her first, Dead Eagle Trail, on cowboys of the twenty-first century, was published by Schilt Publishing in 2010. She was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society in 2014. Most recently Hilton was chosen as one of the 'Hundred Heroines' honoring the most inspirational women in Photography today. She has appeared in numerous major publications including The Sunday Times Magazine, Telegraph Magazine, and FT Magazine. Widely collected and exhibited, Hilton’s recent solo shows include: American Cowboy, Nailya Alexander Gallery, New York (2015); Jane Hilton's America, Schilt Gallery, Amsterdam (2014); and group shows Real Wild, Palo Gallery, New York, The Scarlett Muse, Daniel Cooney Fine Art, New York (2016); The Future Can Wait, Charlie Smith Gallery, London (2014); Knock-Knock, Jerwood Gallery, Hastings (2013).