about us
Wounded in America is the work of photographer Robert Drea, and writer Stephanie Arena, a husband and wife team documenting stories and portraits of gun violence survivors.
“We began Wounded in America as a response to shootings in our neighborhood. Our attention was first drawn to the issue in the late eighties when we learned that a fifteen-year-old boy had been shot and killed a block from our home. He was killed by another teenager who coveted the victim's basketball jersey.
“After this we began to watch the newspapers for mention of shootings. We started calling the survivors whose numbers were listed in the phone book. We also continued to observe multiple incidents of gun violence in our neighborhood:
"One afternoon on Halloween--about a hundred yards from our home--a teenager fired a gun toward a group of trick or treaters.
“Later our teenage neighbor was shot in the arm while he was working as a camp counselor at a playground a few blocks away.
“In the summer of 2003 a serious shooting took place a few hundred yards from us, during which a young man was shot in the back and disabled.
"The next summer at a skateboard park two men began to argue because one of them was riding his bike in an area designated for skateboards only. Fifteen minutes later, when the two men were leaving, their verbal exchange escalated into a physical fight. As we watched, a third man pulled a gun from his pocket and stood over the two men, alternately aiming at each of them as they punched each other and rolled on the ground. When the police arrived the armed man slipped the gun back in his pocket.
"Over the fourth of July weekend, an eight-year-old boy who lived a block from our house was shot in crossfire while sitting in the park with his mother; he was hospitalized in critical condition.
“These experiences motivated us to begin Wounded in America. Our goal is to bring documentation of gun violence to the public. We view gun violence as an alarming trend in the United States, and as a serious threat to American's health, safety and security, and pursuit of happiness.
“We've photographed gun violence survivors around the country and recorded their stories so that these survivors' experiences can teach us about the realities of a violent gun culture."