Capital A: Toy Stories

Watcharapom - Bangkok, Thailand

This photo series, "Toy Stories," by Italian photographer Gabriele Galimberti is incredibly endearing and endlessly fascinating to me. Traveling the world, Galimberti invited the children he met to put their most treasured possessions on display for his camera. The resulting images give incredible insight into the differences, but more so the similarities among these children from such disparate locales as Fiji and Malta. Their facial expressions run the gamut from unabated pride to timid uncertainty.

Bethsaida - Port au Prince, Haiti

Julia - Tirana, Albania

Kalesi - Viseisei, Fiji Islands

Alessia - Castiglion Fiorentino, Italy

Stella - Montecchio, Italy

Botlhe - Maun, Botswana

In his interview with Times Magazine's Ben Machell, Galimberti analyzes his experiences over the 18 months he spent on the project:

"The richest children were more possessive. At the beginning, they wouldn’t want me to touch their toys, and I would need more time before they would let me play with them... In poor countries, it was much easier. Even if they only had two or three toys, they didn’t really care. In Africa, the kids would mostly play with their friends outside.”

Cun Zi Yi - Chongqing, China

Pavel - Kiev, Ukraine

Naya - Managua, Nicaragua

Noel - Dallas, Texas

Puput - Bali, Indonesia

Chiwa - Mchinji, Malawi

Often the toys revealed more about their purchasers than their owners:

"Doing this, I learnt more about the parents than I did about the kids. 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. "