Santa Fatally Shot

This scene comes from a diorama created by the 354 Photographers Collective featured in a new post and slideshow at Wired’s Raw File. The firm combines cardboard construction, live photography and Photoshop to created provocative social scenes.

I was interested in this because the politics of Christmas always seems to catch some kind of hook every year. Even though the firm is based in Belgium, I was also thinking about the larger political themes and events of 2012 in the U.S. The latter part of the year may have been dominated by the campaign and the super storm, but the earlier part, up through the Summer, was certainly characterized by incident after incident of gun violence. Of course, the image also touches on what seems like the perennial theme of culture, youth, innocence — and the lack thereof.

(photo: 354 Photographers Collective.)