School Shootings

School Shootings
in America

On View: February 7 – March 16, 2025

Bronx Documentary Center
614 Courtlandt Ave, Bronx, NY 10451

Free admission.

Featuring: Barbara Davidson, Tamir Kalifa, Callaghan O’Hare, and Zackary Canepari.

This exhibition is curated by Mike Kamber and Cynthia Rivera.

Spanish translations by Maria de la Paz Galindo. 

This exhibition was made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; and the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs.

In September of 2024, The Washington Post reported that there have been 417 school shootings since 1999. “Children, The Post also determined, are responsible for more than half the country’s school shootings — none of which would be possible if those children didn’t have access to firearms,” reported the newspaper. This exhibition created by the BDC, School Shootings In America is meant to highlight the facts around America’s firearms and profile some of the thousands of young people and families who have been affected by school shootings since the Columbine massacre in 1999.

Tamir Kalifa

“On May 24, 2022, 19 children and two teachers were massacred at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. It took 77 minutes and the arrival of over 350 law enforcement officers before the classrooms were finally breached and the gunman killed. In the time since the shooting, the families of the 21 victims have slowly been working their way through a wilderness of grief, anger, despair, frustration and confusion – searching, if not for peace, then at least purpose. This long-term project documents the lives of these families since the shooting.”–Tamir Kalifa

Zackary Canepari – Thoughts and Prayers

“Thoughts & Prayers is a documentary project about the culture of active shooter preparedness and the normalcy of mass violence that has calcified in America and become commonplace for an entire generation born into a post-Columbine world. In the absence of meaningful gun reform, a $3 billion dollar cottage industry has inserted itself into our everyday lives as a possible solution to this violence. Empowered with training programs, products and technology, America is hardening itself for the inevitability of a mass shooting. pervasive threat of gun violence, and the lack of political will to address the issue at its core.”–Zackary Canepari

Callaghan O’Hare

“This body of work highlights the immediate aftermath of a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School as well as the months that followed in Uvalde, Texas. On May 24, 2022, a gunman entered an elementary school and killed 19 students and 2 teachers. The small town was thrust into the national spotlight as an all too familiar scene in American life played out. (…) Over the coming months, the media left and the public’s attention shifted. No longer making headlines, the town was left to grieve. The flowers wilted, and residents grew angry at local law enforcement’s response to the gunman and the lack of accountability from the police. In the wake of the tragedy, parents became activists, schools built security fences, and vigils were held to mark the painful passage of time. Ultimately, Uvalde joined a long list of places across the country shaped, molded, and remade by gun violence.”–Callaghan O’Hare