If Gabriele Galimberti had happened to shoot me, aged 6 and surrounded by my

favorite toys, he would have seen the following: plastic medieval weaponry;
assorted Lego (Space, Castle and Pirate); an inflatable Tyrannosaurus rex
(punctured slowly into extinction); a Superman action figure (I lost it and
hyperventilated with grief); a pair of cuddly rabbits (Sally and Billy); toy cars; a
tiny guitar; a plane you launched with an elastic catapult; a replica pistol I
thought my mum didnt know about.
Everyone remembers their childhood toys. The fact that I can recall how most of
mine tasted better than I can remember the names of my primary school
teachers says everything you need to know about the universe kids inhabit.
Indeed, when Galimberti hit upon the idea of photographing children from around
the world with their toys, he was not expecting to uncover much we did not
already know: kids love dolls and dinosaurs and trucks and cuddly monkeys, and
will construct worlds around them before eventually, inevitably, disregarding
them for ever. At their age, they are pretty all much the same, is his conclusion
after 18 months working on the project. They just want to play.
But how they play can reveal a lot. The richest children were more possessive.
At the beginning, they wouldnt want me to touch their toys, and I would need
more time before they would let me play with them, says the Italian, who would
often join in with a childs games before arranging the toys and taking the
photograph. In poor countries, it was much easier. Even if they only had two or
three toys, they didnt really care. In Africa, the kids would mostly play with their
friends outside.
Yet even children worlds apart share similarities when it comes to the function
their toys serve. Galimberti talks about meeting a six-year-old boy in Texas and a
four-year-old girl in Malawi who both maintained their plastic dinosaurs would
protect them from the dangers they believed waited for them at night from
kidnappers and poisonous animals respectively. More common was how the toys
reflected the world each child was born into: so the boy from an affluent Beijing
family loves Monopoly, because he likes the idea of building houses and hotels,
while the boy from rural Mexico loves trucks, because he sees them rumbling
through his village to the nearby sugar plantation every day.
Ultimately, the toys on display reveal the hopes and ambitions of the people who
bought them in the first place. Doing this, I learnt more about the parents than I
did about the kids, says Galimberti. There was the Latvian mother who drove a
taxi for a living, and who showered her son with miniature cars; the Italian farmer
whose daughter proudly displayed her plastic rakes, hoes and spades. Parents
from the Middle East and Asia, he found, would push their children to be
photographed even if they were initially nervous or upset, while South American
parents were really relaxed, and said I could do whatever I wanted as long as
their child didnt mind.
With the exception of computer games, he noticed that toys havent really
changed over the past three decades or so. And there is something reassuring

about that. Id often find the kind of toys I used to have, he says. It was nice
to go back to my childhood somehow.
Ben Machell The Times Magazine

Maudy - Kalulushi, Zambia

Maudy was born in a hut in a small
village close to Kalulushi, in Zambia.
She grew up playing in the street with
the other children in the village, who all
attend the same school, where
students ages 3 to 10 years old are in
the same class. The village has no
shops, restaurants or hotels, and just a
few children are lucky enough to have
toys. Maudy and her friends found a
box full of sunglasses on the street,
which quickly became their favorite
toys.
Puput - Bali, Indonesia
Puput was born at home in Ubud, Bali.
She never met her father, who died
when her mother was five months
pregnant. Her mother works as a cook
in a little restaurant just 200 yards
from their house. Puput doesnt have
many toys, but plays with these plastic
balls like bowling pins, placing them on
the ground in a triangle and rolling the
rubber ball at them.

Alessia - Castiglion Fiorentino, Italy

Alessia was born and raised in the
country, his family owns one of the
largest farms in the city. She loves to
play with animals and helping her
grandfather with the work of the farm.
With her small tools she brings food to
the many Chianina cows.
Noel - Dallas, Texas
Noel is 100% Texan! He has very clear
ideas already, he wants to be a pilot!
Noel plays only with airplanes of all
sizes and sometimes with the

Orly - Brownsville, Texas

Orly was born in Browsville from a
Mexican mother and American father.
He has never been in Mexico, 2 miles
south of his house and his mother
hopes that he will never go there
because, she says, it is a dangerous
place.
He loves dinosaurs. He says that those
that fly over his bed protect him from
ghosts and from the mexican people
that might kidnap him.

Li Yi Chen - Shenyang, China

Li Yi was born in Shenyang, a big city in
the north part of China. He lives with
his parents and his grandmother in a
small appartment in the south suburb
of the city.
His favourite toys are the guns. He
loves to put little boxes above the table
and then i likes to shoot at them
rubbers bullets with the gun. He also
love to play with the YoYo because his
favourite character of cartoon uses the
YoYo like a weapon.
Abel - Nopaltepec, Mexico
Abel, the third of five children, was
born and raised in the small town of
Nopaltepec, about an hour southeast of
Mexico City. In this photo hes posing
with all of his games. He loves to race
with his toy cars, and sometimes plays
with them with his younger sister.
Allenah - El Nido, Philippines
Allenah Lajallab was born and raised in
El Nido, a small town north of Palawan
in the Philippines. In El Nido there
werent hospitals and she was born at

playstation but only with a flight

simulator. His favorite game is to put
the little men of lego on his big boing
that his father gave him and then let
them fly to the bottom of the garden
where there is a small pond. He
envisions bringing legos on vacation at
the lake, then after making him take a
bath, puts them in the aircraft and
brings them back home.
Oscar, 7 - Bradfortd on Avon, U.K.

Keynor - Cahuita, Costa Rica

Keynor was born in Cahuita, in the
caribbean coast of Costa Rica, and he
has never left that place neither for a
day. He lives 300 meters from the
beach and sometimes his mother lets
him go to swim together with his older
brother Deynor. Keynors father has a
strong passion for toy cars, he maybe
has more then 200 small cars. Every
once his father gives him an old car
and now Keynor has started his small
collection!
Mikkel, 5 - Bergen, Norway

home. She has a lot of stuffed animals,

and her favorite is the orange one
because she loves the color. She
doesnt like the white stuffed animal as
much, because it gets dirty too easily.

Tyra - Stockholm, Sweden

Tyra lives in a beautiful wooden house
in the south part of the city together
with her parents and her older sister.
She always plays with the sister wich is
just a year older. Their favourite toys
are the red coockers and the dollhouse.
Sometimes, when she plays with her
sister, she love sto pretend shes her
mother and she cooks for her.
Arafa & Aisha - Bububu, Zanzibar
Arafa and Aisha are twins. They sleep
in the same bed, have the same
clothes, go to school together and
share the same toys. They live in a
two-room house in which both of the
rooms are bedrooms, and the kitchen
and restroom are outside. The big
photo above the closet is a portrait of
the formal president of Zanzibar.

Bethsaida - Port au Prince, Haiti

Bethsaida was born in Port-au-Prince
where she has always lived in a house
with her family since, almost 2 years
ago, a big earthquake distroyed it. Her
parents are both deaf but fortunately
shes not. Now they live in a camp site
out of the city. The camp was built from
an american NGO which works with
deaf, so in the camps almost 90% of
the people cant hear and talk. All the
toys that Bethsaida has are donated
from the NGO. She wants to be a
hairdresser and loves combing her doll

Enea - Boulder, Colorado

Enea was born in Tuscany to an Italian
father and an American mother, but
now lives in Colorado. His uncle is a
musician and Enea loves to imitate
him. He often plays with his small
musical instruments, trying to play the
theme songs from Batman and
SpiderMan. Sometimes he plays with
his older sister Anita, and they pretend
to have a band.
Shotaro, 5 - Tokyo, Japan

Ernesto - Firenze, Italy

Taha - Beirut, Lebanon

Taha was born in Palestine but now he
lives in Beriut where hes a refugee
together with his family. They lives in a
sort of shantytown together with a few
thousand of other people. Everybody
there is from Palestine. To get water
and electricity they need to illegaly
connect their house to the public
service. Taha has just one toy, the car,
and he didnt have any doubt when i
asked him to show me his favourite toy.

to practice, but unfortunately her

brother has cut off half of the hair of
the doll.
Botlhe - Maun, Botswana
Botlhe has a lot of friends, and all of
them live really close by to the small
house where she lives with her family
in a residential complex. In the
complex, there is one toilet for every
four families. Botlhe has only one toy,
the monkey, but she almost never
plays with it because she prefers to go
out with friends and play with them.
Lucas - Sydney, Australia
Lucas lives with his parents and his
sister in a big house in the east part of
Sydney, Australia. The first toy that his
father gave to him two years ago is a
little train.
Since that moment Lucas loves little
trains and He has a lot of them. His
favourite one is the one made of wood.
He always plays with that and he says
that his dream is to work in the subway
of Sydney.
Cun Zi Yi - Chongqing, China
Cun Zi Yi just turned 3, and received a
lot of gifts for her birthday. She plays
with everything and cant choose her
favorite toy. Her parents say that shes
really good at painting, and will be an
artist when she grows up.
Ralf - Riga, Latvia
His name is Ralf, like the Formula1
champion, said proudly the mother
when i asked for this childs name. She
has been taxi driver for more then 10
years and she tells that Ralf has
pratically grown up inside a car.
Sometimes I also brought him at work
with me says again the mother. He
now loves toy cars and he cant never
get bored of them. He love to make
them run on the pavement pretend
they are racing rally. His favourite
movie is obviously Cars and he watch

it almost once a week.

Chiwa - Mchinji, Malawi
Chiwa live in a small hut with her
mother, father and sister. They dont
have electricity and running water.
Chiwa used to help her mother to carry
water at home from the river. In the
village there are other 50 children
(more or less) and they always plays all
together outside. Chiwa has just 3 toys
that some volonteers of an NGO gave
to her when she was born. Her
favourite is the dinosaurus because she
says that he can protect her from the
dangerous animals.
Elene - Tblisi, Georgia
Elene was born in the south of Georgia
five year ago but then she grew up
with her family in Tblisi. She doesnt go
to school yet but she already knows
how to read and write. Her favourite
toys are all connected with school
somehow. She loves pencils,
notebooks, colour pens etc

Jaqueline - Manila, Philippines

Jaqueline has a loto of different toys
but her favourite is for sure Tinker Bell,
the little green fairy that her best
friend gave her. Her father is a fashion
photographer and almost every day
takes photos of her too. Jaqueline says
that she will be a model in the future.
Julia - Tirana, Albania
Julia was born in Tirana where she lives
with her parents in a small appartment
in the center of the city. Her father
works in a gas station and her mother
is an housewife. Both of the parents
speak a good italian because they
learned from the italian tv, probably
the main one in Albania! They are sure
that their child Julia will learn soon

Jeronimo, 4 Colombia

Pavel - Kiev, Ukraine

Pavel doesnt have any doubts: he
wants to be a police man. He loves
guns and plays with them all the time.
His younger brother is always under
Pavels arrest. Pavel handcuffs him,
questions him and accuses him of
stealing cars. Sometimes he lets his
brother be the police man, but only
when other friends come over and
become the bad people Pavel wants
to arrest!
Tangawizi - Keekorok, Kenya
Tangwizi was born in a Maasai village in
the south of Kenya in a small hut made
of dung and straw. His bed is made of a
few rags on the ground. He always
plays outside with all the other childern
of the village but every night he sleeps
together with his unique toy: a little
pelouche monkey.
Kalesi - Viseisei, Fiji Islands
Kalesi loves to cook for her dolls using
her small cook tools and the mud from
the garden. She has an older brother
which goes to school every morning
and she love to pretend to go to school
too. She puts small toys and some
paper in her back pack (the one from
transformers is her favourite one) and
she goes in the garden where there is a

Italian too. She loves dolls and

especially barbie but her father
recently gave her a small guitar
because he would love her to be a
musician.
Reanya - Sepang, Malaysia
Reanya was born in Kuala Lumpur, but
now lives in a big, new house built in
one of the many satellite cities around
the capital. Her family shares the
house with her uncles family, in a
neighborhood that looks like an
American suburb, where all the houses
are very similar. Her parents give
Reanya a lot of different toys, but she
love bears the best.
Norden - Massa, Marocco
Norden lives in Massa, a small village
40km south of Agadir. In the room
where he plays and sleeps there is
nothing, except for a carpet. Every day
he wakes up early together with his
family and he goes with the down to
the valley where they have some
pieces of land to farm. He spends most
of his time playing with a small dog
outside, even because the ones in the
photo are all the toys he owns.

Ragnar - Reykjavik, Iceland

Ragnar has a small room in a big house
in the north part of Raykjavik. Their
parent rent the house and they have
been living there for 5 years. The
monkeys mask is for sure his favourite
toy. He pass 90% of his free time inside
because in Iceland is too cold, dark and
humid for playing outside. He almost
never plays together with his older
sister.
Virginia - American Fork, Utah
Virginia was born in Salt Lake City but
she has past her first 5 years of life in
American Fork, a little town 50km
south of the capital. Shes from a
mormon family. She love to play

small table that she uses as a school

desk.

Niko - Homer, Alaska

Niko was born in a small town in the
mountains of Alaska in the Kenai
peninsula. His father is a fisherman and
his mother is a teacher. Niko loves to
play with Legos and similar games. He
built a small Lego spaceship and likes
to imagine hes bringing little men up
to space.

Shaira - Mumbai, India

Radhika was born in Mumbai 6 years
ago but she lived the first 3 years in
New York together with her family. Now
she lives in Mumbai but her first
language is still english. She knows just
few words in hindi and just because her
babysitter speaks just hindi. Shaira
loves table games. She spends a lot of
time playing with the board games
together with her family. From her
rooms windows, at the 18th floor of a
new building, she can see almost the
whole city.
Stella - Montecchio, Italy
Stella was born in Italy to an Italian
father and Australian mother. They live
in the countryside of a small city in
Tuscany. She loves to play with dolls
and dress them up like princesses, and
she also loves to dress up like a
princess. Her favorite toy is the small
pink pig behind her.

Ryan - Johannesburg, South Africa

Ryan lives with his parents and his
younger sister in the north part of
Johannesburg, more then an hour
driving from the center. He has never
been at school and he will never go

baseball together with her little

brother. He launches the ball and she
hit it, it never happens the opposite! In
the garden her family keeps some
animals, like goats and chickens. She
has a favourite goat and she always
wants to play with her.
Farida - Cairo, Egypt
Faida lives with her family in the east
area of Cairo, the newest and maybe
richest part of the city. Her father work
abroad for an oil company and he gains
a lot of money. Every time that he
comes back home (almost five days for
month), he brings back a gift for her
and almost every time the gift is a
peluche. Her favourite one is the with
bear she holds with her hand. Hes
name is Peter and he comes from
Canada.
Davide - La Valletta, Malta
Davide lives with his big family in a
small city just 20 minutes south of the
capital Valletta. There are more then 10
people living together in the same
house. He has a younger brother and
an older sister and each of them has
his own room. Davide doesnt have a
favourite toy, he love to play with
everything.
Watcharapom - Bangkok, Thailand
Watcharapon loves motorbikes! His
father has a scooter and every morning
puts his helmet before to leave the
house, then he goes out, on the street
in front of the house where he keeps
his scooter and he goes to work.
Watcharapon loves to imitate him e
puts the helmet at home, then he plays
with his little motorbikes.
Louis 4 - Bogot, Colombia
Fermina, 5 - Montevideo, Uruguay

because his mother says that she

doesnt believe in others people
teaching and she want to teach to her
children by herself. Ryan loves to play
with lego and build castles.

Callum, 4 - Fairbanks, Alaska

Talia - Timimoun, Algeria

Talia was born a Timimoun, in the
middle of the Sahara desert. She has a
little brother and they share the same
room. Her parents work in a small
travel agency and they accompany in
the desert the few turists that travel in
that area. Talias birthday was a week
ago this photo were taken and the bike
its the gift from her father. So, now the
bike is her favourite toy.
Naya - Managua, Nicaragua
has few small cook tools but she never
gets bored to play with them. She uses
mud and grass from the garden to
pretend to cook some cakes for her
older sister. She says that in the future
she will manage a restaurant and shes
sure that turists will love it!

Sofia, 4 - Bradfort on Avon, UK