For photographer Jonathan Hobin, tragedy is child's play

In the artist's own words:

In the Playroom is a metaphor for the impossibility of a protective space safe from the reach of modern media. The quizzical disposition of youth and the pervasive nature of the media are symbolically represented in Hobin’s images through tableau-vivant re-enactments of the very current events that adults might wish to keep out of their child’s world. Just as children make a game of pretending to be adults as a way to prepare and ultimately take on these roles in later life, so too do they explore things that they hear or see, whether or not they completely understand the magnitude of the event or the implications of their play.

 Okay, I get it. But I was eight when Jim Jones served that Guyana Kool-Aid to more than 900 men, women and children, and I don't recall wanting to re-enact it...

The 1981 Reagan assassination attempt, however, we did pantomime in the schoolyard. But mostly just because we were boys and, you know, guns. (Although the Lennon assassination was off bounds because we were such Beatles fans...)

See the whole series at Petapixel. (Mr. Hobin's site is presently offline.)