Child with a Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park, NYC

Image Information
Creator	Diane Arbus, American, 1923-1971
Title	Child with a Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park, NYC
Date	1962
Material	gelatin silver print
Measurements	H: 37.4 cm, W: 37.1 cm
Repository	Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA  Museum purchase, Karl E. Weston Memorial Fund  93.4  http://www.wcma.org/
Subject	child; boy; Central Park, NY; weapon; toy
ARTstor Collection	Williams College Museum of Art Collection
Source	Data From: Williams College Museum of Art
Rights	This image was provided by Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA. Contact information: Rachel Tassone, Manager of Collections Information, 15 Lawrence Hall Drive, Suite 2, Williamstown, MA 01267, (413) 597-2396 (ph), (413) 458-9017 (fax), rtassone@williams.edu.  Please note that if this image is under copyright, you may need to contact one or more copyright owners for any use that is not permitted under the ARTstor Terms and Conditions of Use or not otherwise permitted by law. While ARTstor tries to update contact information, it cannot guarantee that such information is always accurate. Determining whether those permissions are necessary, and obtaining such permissions, is your sole responsibility.

This is one of my all time favorite photographs.  It's so jarring and makes you feel slightly uncomfortable.  I love the boys expression and his disheveled appearance. He's slightly creepy. Even though Arbus put the word "Toy" in the title the fact that the boy is holding a grenade is unsettling.  What if it wasn't a toy and what if the photo wasn't taken in NYC in the 60's?  Try and imagine it was in a country at war, where death and weapons were not fun and games, but a daily reality.