The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Black-and-white photograph of three smiling children with dark skin tones playing on swings. The central child grasps the swing bars, legs swinging and smiling at us. Two children on either side each tug the swing in their direction, creating a diagonal movement from the lower left to upper right of the photograph. Behind them, a metal bar fence overlaid with chain link fences off a dark stained wall.

Three Children on Swings, Pitt Street, New York

1950

Walter Rosenblum

(American, 1919–2006)
America
gelatin silver print
Image: 14.6 x 17.9 cm (5 3/4 x 7 1/16 in.); Paper: 15 x 18.4 cm (5 7/8 x 7 1/4 in.); Matted: 35.6 x 45.7 cm (14 x 18 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1997.133
© Walter Rosenblum
Location: Not on view

Description

A frequent theme for Helen Levitt was the power of the imagination in children’s play in New York City’s poorer neighborhoods. The boys with toy guns may be playing war or cops and robbers. Whatever scenario they chose, their game echoed grave events from the adult world. Levitt often used a right-angle viewfinder so her subjects were unaware; they thought she was pointing the camera in another direction. The children in Walter Rosenblum’s image, in contrast, smile directly at the photographer as they express the sheer physical joy and glee of taking flight on swings.
  • A New York Minute: Street Photography, 1920–1950. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 11-November 7, 2021).
  • {{cite web|title=Three Children on Swings, Pitt Street, New York|url=false|author=Walter Rosenblum|year=1950|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1997.133