Children play in an outdoor shower as a soldier takes part in a surprise operation in the Manguinhos slum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thursday, January 18, 2018. Troops have been sent to Rio due to the increase of the violence, and in an attempt to help restore order, but so far have had little impact. The operation on Thursday took place three weeks ahead of Carnival, when thousands of tourists are expected to arrive in the city. (Photo by Leo Correa/AP Photo)

Team Strong Silvers member Ngai Hin Kwok, 66, works out as teammate Ng Siu Chi, 57, watches at a stadium in Singapore March 15, 2015. Team Strong Silvers, is a group of senior citizens who train in calisthenics. The trio trains individually at least three times a week, and meets up for joint calisthenics at least twice a month. (Photo by Edgar Su/Reuters)

In this Tuesday, March 10, 2015 photo, rime ice covers rocks on the summit of Mount Washington in New Hampshire. Rime ice occurs when freezing fog hits stationary objects in frigid conditions. (Photo by Robert F. Bukaty/AP Photo)

From Manhattan and Brooklyn's trendiest neighborhoods to the far-flung edges of theouter boroughs, Will Ellis has spent the last three years photographing and researching the lost and lonely corners of the United States' most populous city. His photo book Abandoned NYC is packed with 150 color images of sixteen of New York's most beautiful and mysterious abandoned spaces, paired with detailed essays on the fascinating history of these forgotten sites. Here: Letchworth Village is located just an hour's drive from NYC in Thiells, NY. It was founded in 1912 to house the city's developmentally disabled as a ”state institution for the epileptic and feeble-minded”. (Photo by Will Ellis)

Tourists look at would-be immigrants at the Maspalomas beach, on Gran Canaria in Spain's Canary Islands, after some 21 would-be immigrants arrived in a fishing boat on their way to European soil from Africa, November 5, 2014. (Photo by Borja Suarez/Reuters)

An Iraqi demonstrator runs as others burn tyres to cut-off roads in the southern city of Basra on November 25, 2019. (Photo by Hussein Faleh/AFP Photo)

Female female male threesome. My bit on the side is my best male friend. (Photo by Laoshi/Getty Images)

In a simpler time all a child or an adult needed to enjoy the outdoors was a ball and a stick. Or maybe an old tire tied to a high branch to fashion a swing. And the only instruction given to children was to “be home before dark”. Now there are iPads and computers and television screens and shrinking safe public spaces. But despite the distractions and limitations of space, these images show the charm of kicking a ball or skipping rope endures. Sometimes with modifications as a nod to changing times. Here: in this Saturday, June 20, 2015 photo, a boy runs while playing with a motorcycle wheel in Samugari, Ayacucho, Peru. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)