Child with a toy hand grenade in Central Park, N.Y.C by Diane Arbus

Child with a toy hand grenade in Central Park, N.Y.C
1962
Documentary Photography
Gelatin Silver Print
The Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, New York City, New York, USA

Instead of portraying the young boy as angelic or playful “Child with a toy hand grenade in Central Park” depicts the boy in a moment of confused frustration. His wiry limbs and clenched teeth are suggestive of a child filled with nerves and anger. His right hand is clamping the toy tightly while his left looks taut and claw-like. Alone, the empty space he is in suggests his isolation from others. Arbus has positioned the boy at a bend in the [path where a tree acts as a visual line from the boy’s legs bringing a balance to his edgy nature.

Diane Arbus
Straight Photography, Street Photography, Documentary Photography, Modern Photography, Identity Art and Identity Politics
Born: 14 March 1923, New York, USA
Nationality: American
Died: 26 July 1971, New York, USA

Arbus was a photographer who photographed a wide range of subjects during her career including strippers, carnival performers, children, mothers, couples, elderly people, and families. Arbus is noted for expanding the concepts of acceptable subject matter and not objectifying her subjects so as to capture them with a rare psychological intensity