Kyle Cassidy

Kyle Cassidy

Cassidy in the Mojave desert
Born October 31, 1966
Woodbury, New Jersey
Occupation Author, photographer
Notable credit(s) Armed America: Portraits of Gun Owners in Their Homes
Website
www.kylecassidy.com

Kyle Cassidy (born October 31, 1966 in Woodbury, New Jersey) is an American photographer and videographer who lives in West Philadelphia. He holds a BA in English from Rowan University,[1] and also holds an MCSE.[2] He is the author of the book Armed America: Portraits of Gun Owners in Their Homes.[3]

Contributions to technology

In 1993 Cassidy wrote Saturn: A Beginners Guide to Using the Internet, followed by Stickman's Way Cool Guide to Network Wizardry.

Cassidy published two additional technology books, The Concise Guide to Enterprise Internetworking and Security and Introduction to Windows 2000 Network Administration. He co-wrote the paper "Can You Trust Your Email?" in 1993, warning of a flaw in the protocol used to deliver email, which could allow information to be forged.[4]

Contributions to photography

A publicity shot of band Ego Likeness by Cassidy

Cassidy's "Photo-a-Week" project[5] lets viewers into his life on a weekly basis starting on January 1, 2000.

His photographic style involves flights of fancy and a sense of humor. Laws of nature are applied inconsistently; people and objects are often levitating, and non sequiturs, whimsy, and cryptozoological intrusions are common. "I think the world in my photographs is a lot darker in many ways than the real world that people insulate themselves in, but it's also a lot funnier. My world is malevolent but humorous, as opposed to the real world which is malevolent and relentless, but is often packaged in a friendly box and rabbit ears," he said in a 2004 interview with A.D. Amorosi in the October issue of Art Matters. His images often explore themes of "truth" and "fiction". This culminated in his July 2006 show "Lies" at the Sol gallery in Philadelphia. "Photography," he says in the artist's statement for that show "is about lies just as much as it is about the truth."[6]

His work with cutters and homeless orphans presaged his 2004 fascination with American gun owners which led to the book, Armed America: Portraits of Gun Owners in Their Homes,[7] which provided a view into the lives of a controversial culture, praised by advocates of both gun control and gun ownership. It was named by Amazon as both one of the ten best art books of 2007,[8] and as one of the 100 best books of 2007.[9]

Cassidy's approach to shooting portraits has resulted in book covers and album art. His portraits are often shot in context[10] but in the early days of Occupy Wall Street he set up mini-portrait studios at both the NYC and Philly protests, to remove the context and focus on the individuality of the people attending. The photos were published at the Huffington Post,[11] and he hung a show of the Occupy shots at the Bluestocking Gallery[12] in Manhattan.

In 2012, Cassidy released War Paint: Tattoo Culture & the Armed Forces, a book of photographs and interviews with tattooed veteran soldiers.[13] In 2013, he became involved with the North Dakota Man Camp Project, a project to document the lives of oil workers in the area around the Bakken formation.[14] In October 2013, his poster and photo for the Curio Theatre Company's production of Romeo and Juliet[15] led to an interview published in the New York Times.[16]

Published work

Publicity photo of Weird Al Yankovic

He has written books on information technology, as well as working as contributing editor for Videomaker Magazine. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Barron's Magazine, Photographers Forum, The Huffington Post, Asleep by Dawn, Gothic Beauty and numerous other publications.[17][18]

References

  1. ↑ Ponzi, Katie (May 2008). "Alumni Profile". Rowan Magazine. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
  2. ↑ "Kyle Cassidy Profile". informit.com. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
  3. ↑ Stained Glass, With Shotguns (New York Times book review)
  4. ↑ Cassidy, Kyle; Berman, A. Michael, Ph.D. (1993). "Can You Trust Your Email?" (PDF). Retrieved 2008-06-23.
  5. ↑ "Join PAW". Retrieved 2008-06-23.
  6. ↑ Cassidy, Kyle. "About Lies". Retrieved 2008-06-23.
  7. ↑ Cassidy, Kyle (2007). Armed America: Portraits of Gun Owners in Their Homes. Krause Publications. ISBN 0-89689-543-2.
  8. ↑ "Best Books of 2007: Top 10 Editors' Picks: Arts & Photography". Amazon.com. Accessed 5 April 2010.
  9. ↑ "Best Books of 2007: Editors' Top 100". Amazon.com. p. 3. Accessed 5 April 2010.
  10. ↑ writers at work, gun owners in their homes
  11. ↑ Huffington Post
  12. ↑ Bluestocking Gallery
  13. ↑ Cassidy, Kyle (13 June 2012). "War Paint: The Intimate Stories Behind Military Veterans' Tattoos". Philadelphia Weekly. Retrieved 8 June 2013.
  14. ↑ Dalrymple, Amy (11 February 2013). "UND: Life in the man camps". The Jamestown Sun. Retrieved 8 June 2013.
  15. ↑ "Romeo and Juliet". Curiotheatre.org. Retrieved 2013-10-04.
  16. ↑ Erik Piepenburg (October 4, 2013). "Maximum Shakespeare, Behind the Poster: ‘Romeo and Juliet’". The New York Times Company. Retrieved 2013-10-04. Curio enlisted two local artists — the painter Elizabeth Gallagher and the photographer Kyle Cassidy — to design promotional artwork for the show. Ms. Gallagher, a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the daughter of Aetna Gallagher, a founding member of the company, created a colorfully feminine illustration featuring two women dressed in period gowns and holding hands. Mr. Cassidy took a darker route with his image of two underwear-clad women cuddled in bed and surrounded by candles and a gun.
  17. ↑ Amazon.com: Profile for Kyle Cassidy
  18. ↑ Wells, Steven (August 1, 2007). "Friendly Fire". Philadelphia Weekly. Retrieved 2008-05-25.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kyle Cassidy.