James Mollison: Playground by Jon RonsonMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book is one of the genre where the author takes photographs of people and cultures around the world for purposes of description, comparison, and illustration. The first one of those that I remember reading was Material World: A Global Family Portrait, where families around the world took all of their possessions out of their houses and put them in front of their houses to be photographed. There have been others since then - at least one having to do with the food consumed in a week, I believe.
In this book, the photographer presents pictures of playgrounds in schools around the world, when the children were out at recess. Although I would have loved to have a wider range of examples of different schools and cultures, I think that is, in part, because I found it so intriguing that I just wanted more. My analytical self would love to measure all sorts of things with regard to the kids and cultures photographed: how many pictures show adults supervising the recess? how many show physical aggression? how big is the playing space? what types of structures are available for play? how close together are the students? how many students seem to be in groups? how many seem to be playing alone? are there differences between schools with all boys and schools with both boys and girls? on and on.
Too bad this book has to go back to the library.
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