The
Game of Guns series appeared in '48 magazine, Regards(a Parisian publication),
and in Photography in 1952. This group of photographs dealt with violence in
children's play and the pictures were taken in New York City in the 1940's.
The poignant and disturbing images of children playing the game of cops and
robbers combined with prisoner of war games inspired by the prevailing romanticizing
of movie gangsters combined with the bombardment of information about the war
in Europe and the Pacific inspired a series of magazine articles about the alarming
effect on young children. This group of photographs illustrated vividly the
adult behavior of children engaged in games which clearly illustrated classic
response to an uncertain world.
-Barbara Head Millstein
Curator of Photographs,
Brooklyn Museum of Art