Playground

This voyeur video was filmed in Scranton , Pennsylvania during my visit there in 2005. I was walking around early one Sunday to photograph a closed down industrial area when I saw this group of kids from a distance. I had to sneak up on them to see what was going on and placed my video camera in the cover of some tall grass only meters away. What I captured was a group of kids with one male parent playing with the children, shooting at squirrels in the tree top with paintball guns. With a reference to child soldiers, and videos from the Middle East where children participate in political demonstrations and weapon training, all of these activities are condemned by the west. But do we teach our children the same thing? The parent in this video seem to encourage violent behavior and foul language. Learning by playing and imitating grownup behavior is an essential part of a child’s education.

"Analyze and imitate, no other school is necessary"

Raymond Chandler

Stills from the video: