LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Violence Policy Center, along with VPC Benefit Committee members Shiva Rose and Dylan McDermott, will host a major photography exhibit and fundraiser on June 5th at Berman/Turner Projects, Bergamot Station, 2525 Michigan Avenue, in Santa Monica, California. The event will consist of a cocktail reception and silent and live auctions of iconographic and collectible photographs taken by renowned photographers. The fundraiser is a high-profile event and a magnet for collectors, featuring the work of more than fifty acclaimed photographers including Luca Babini, David Bailey, Ruth Bernhard, Alexandra Boulat, Jeff Bridges, Ed Clark, William Claxton, Lynn Goldsmith, Henry Diltz, Douglas Kirkland, David LaChapelle, Kevin Mazur, Jean-Baptiste Mondino, Seamus Murphy, Ethan Russell, Mark Seliger, Peggy Sirota, Melvin Sokolsky, Art Streiber, Edmund Teske, and Albert Watson, among others. The VPC's 2005 exhibit and fundraiser is widely anticipated by photography enthusiasts following the outstanding success of the organization's first photography exhibit and auction held in 2001. Admission price for the event is $50 and tickets are available by calling the Violence Policy Center at 310.247.8227.

Founded in 1988 and based in Washington, DC, with an office in Los Angeles, California, the Violence Policy Center is a national non-profit educational organization that works to stop gun death and injury in America through research, advocacy, and education.

Each day in the United States, eight children and teenagers die from gun violence. Recent mass shootings in Wisconsin and Minnesota have highlighted the epidemic of gun violence in the U.S. that results in more than 30,000 firearm-related deaths every year.

The VPC is currently focusing on the threat posed by 50 caliber anti-armor sniper rifles: tools of terror that can down helicopters, destroy passenger jets, and penetrate armor plating from a mile away -- yet are sold under federal law with fewer restrictions than a standard handgun. As a result of the VPC's work with California advocates, in September 2004 California became the first state in the nation to ban these military rifles.