TOYS & GAMES BY JULIO ETCHAR

Play is precious to children. It is a time for growing and learning or just having fun.The toys children play with tell us much about their lives. Many poorer children can’t take them for granted. They may have to work, or fight a war, or they are refugees on the run.Yet even in the worst situations you find children making do with wonderfully improvised toys made from tin cans, wire or wood, whatever they can lay their hands on.
'Toys', the result of more than ten years of travels round the world, with text by Jeremy Seabrook and poetry by Imme Dros, has been published in Dutch and English by Mets & Schilt in Amsterdam, and in German by Editions Braus in Heilderberg. It is distributed by Pluto Books in the UK, Oxfam Intermon in Spain, and by the University of Michigan Press in the USA.

Tug of war. Maranhao, Brazil

Camera made of recycled materials. Havana, Cuba

Boy with wooden top. Chitwan, Nepal

Flying a kite in a rubbish dump. Luzon, Philippines

Toy gun in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Special needs school. Port au Prince, Haiti

Girls riding in bamboo tube. Shanghai, China

Girl on a swing in a playground in Lebanon

The world upside down in Nicaragua

Father showing Action Man gun to his son at a toy store, London

Girl playing on stilts at a refugee camp in Mozambique

Wicket made of old tins. Eastern Cape, South Africa

Playing old computer games in the streets of Delhi, India

Taking photos of 'Minnie' at the Hall of Fame in Disneyworld, USA

Roller-skating in the streets of Paris

Nursery game at a Polisario refugee camp in Western Sahara

Playground in Managua, Nicaragua

Bartering old toys during Queen's Day open fair, Amsterdam

Playing piano under Che playing chess, Cuba

Driving into virtual reality canyons. California, USA

Improvised playground by giant sculpture, Punta del Este, Uruguay

All images © julio etchart

http://www.julioetchart.com/