Gun 2, New York,

1955

Klein’s willingness to get up close and personal with subjects he found on the streets of New York often yielded curious results. This photograph of a mother holding a toy gun to the head of her giggling child suggests a bizarre mixture of child’s play and violence. Unconcerned with composition and print quality, Klein embraced the grainy aesthetic of the image and the cropping of the mother’s head. He considered his photographic accidents to be a key part of his pursuit of a kinetic style of "anti-photography," which emphasized the subject over photographic technique.