Armed Girls of Tinder

If you were to make dating into a video game you would get Tinder. The popular app lets you browse a selection of potential dates within a specified distance and age; a dating radar. Matches, if available, will be shown to you one at a time. You get one decision with each match; you can either swipe left if you're not interested or you can swipe right if you are, and you cannot skip this decision (the paid version lets you undo a swipe). The only time either sides gets a notification of a "like" is if both sides have "liked". A one way like is only greeted by silence.

While on Tinder I kept noticing girls posing with guns. As a photographer I found this choice of a prop interesting; not only in the actual way they were posing with the weapon but also where in the ordering of photos they were placed. Some were front and center while others were tucked away towards the end; like some sort of afterthought. It's a polarizing prop to say the least so extending this publically sends a strong message.

What I wanted to explore was how much one could ascertain about an individual as a potential mate given only this photo. While no individual photo tells the whole story the collection I hope tells more.

The photos were gathered over several months around Portland, Oregon.