Playgrounds of the World

61 Pictures: 1-20 , 20-40 , 40-60 , 60-61

Playground Equipment

The playgrounds of my youth involve towering rusted steel monolyths posing as slides, toe crushing seesaws, rusted steel girders welded together into jungle gyms, and swings designed to hurl kids into the stratosphere.

In the 70s and 80s, lawyers discovered that there was big money to be made suing communities into submission over their playgrounds.

The playgrounds of my youth were systematically torn down. Today we see a new breed of playgrounds designed by professional playground manufacturing companies. The designs are made to appease liability concerns. They lack the great height and moving parts that might schrunch hands. Many of the playgrounds are designed around themes such as trains, forts or undersea worlds.

Anyway, as I photograph towns of the Mountain West, I thought I would aim the camera at different playgrounds.

Many of these pictures were taken on Saturdays and Sundays in the summer. Sadly, many use playgrounds suffer a conspicuous lack of children. Perhaps they are home playing with the many Toys and Games on the market.

Bitsbox

Context: Constructions