Photographer Jean-Pierre Laffont's most significant work captures members of the Savage Skulls, the Bronx's most dangerous gang in 1972. After reading about the gang's violent activities targeting drug-pushers, the French photographer approached them with a cameraman friend and was surprisingly welcomed into their world. The gang spontaneously posed for the photograph at a basketball court, eager to display their signature sleeveless denim vests adorned with skull and crossbones designs, providing Laffont with intimate documentary access to their lives.

The gang members were remarkably young—the youngest just 13 years old, with none older than 20—mostly Puerto Rican and Spanish-speaking. Laffont spent only a few days observing their territory, their basement club and weapon storage, and their frequent fights on the basketball court. Decades later, a woman called him requesting copies of his photographs for her mother's funeral; her mother had been a rare female gang member captured in Laffont's images, prompting his reflection that "those kids I photographed in 1972 weren't kids any more." The photograph ultimately became a powerful documentary record of a brief moment in New York's troubled urban history.