Philadelphia

Philly, home of Rocky Balboa, The Liberty Bell & Philly Cheesesteak Subs was an eye opening experience. A short rail journey from Penn Station in New York I arrived to a warm and wet morning in this industrial, mid scale, socially scarred & seen better days but still thriving, essential Pennsylvania city. It reminded me a little of my own home town, Liverpool which like Philadelphia has a rich history, was vastly more important back in the days when the trading of goods was king but leaves a magnificent legacy in the shape of parks, museums and some quite beautiful buildings.

Uptown

After a short journey from the station I found myself in a slightly miserable modern city block centre, strangely devoid of people on the streets but full of sculptures. This was no Manhattan. It was wet though ! I found myself wandering through bits of downtown, winding my way through to the Rocky Steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which was a much longer walk than I had anticipated.

• Apartment Block Rooftop Pool overlooking the City 1/ 120th @ f6.3 ISO 100

Storm Downpour - American Supersized Portion

Then drizzle turned to downpour and thunder rattled out as loud as thunder gets. Suddenly I was stranded in the middle of a lightning minefield and soaking wet I took refuge underneath an arch. Little did I know I was standing in the doorway of the Rodin Museum. I didn't even know there was one this far from Paris. I stood there at the side of the avenue, sheltering from the rain, recording thunder with my headphones on, looking like something between a missing part of a film crew and a private detective, detecting leaves on trees.

• a View of the industrial outlying areas of Philadelphia where chimneys still stand tall 1/200th @ f6.3 ISO 100

Museum Visit

I decided to dry off in the Museum and tumble dried my soaked shorts under the hand fan in the gents. I had unwittingly stumbled into a piece of art history extraordinaire. A beautiful building with an amazing collection by one of history's greats !

The Museum was the gift of movie-theater magnate Jules Mastbaum (1872–1926) to the city of Philadelphia. Mastbaum began collecting works by Rodin in 1923 with the intent of founding a museum to enrich the lives of his fellow citizens. Within just three years, he had assembled the largest collection of Rodin's works outside Paris, including bronze castings, plaster studies, drawings, prints, letters, and books. In 1926, Mastbaum commissioned French architects Paul Cret and Jacques Gréber to design the museum building and gardens. Unfortunately, the collector did not live to see his dream realized, but his widow honored his commitment to the city, and the Museum opened on November 29, 1929. Murals in the museum were executed by the painter Franklin C. Watkins. source = wiki

• Lamp lit reflections in a puddle reveal elegant details of old Philly in the background as water pours down from the heavens above 1/160th @ f7.1 ISO 100

Pat & Geno's

So very touristy, I was told to go compare cheesesteaks @ Pat & Geno's. A Philly tradition, they sit on opposite corners and their friendly rivalry ensures a mutual benefit. The locals may have their favourite but everyone else must eat two. Even if you share two it's a lot to gobble down. When you order it's perfunctory; provolone, with denoting choice of cheese & with onions. They also serve Birch beer, a type of root beer and although there is a sign in the window of Pat's saying Speak English, this is America, they found my actual English accent difficult to decipher. Something about the way we say Birch.. pronounced 'burch' made it almost impossible. Oh the irony

Liberty Bell

I went to see Liberty Bell which was surrounded by British tourists. (Oh the irony again) The old quarter was indeed evocative of buccaneering days when the implications of American independence were just starting to sink in for the British Crown. It was old America and it looked how I would have imagined it might. Open, spacious and grand in an olde worlde way. It was a grey day, I never let the rain spoil it.

I did do the tourist thing and run up to the top of the steps made famous by Stallone (singing the theme tune) and I watched a woman get mad at a Mcdonalds in the spooky underpass because they didn't have icec ream. I encountered a few rough looking inhabitants in Philly where I stuck out as * not from around these parts* but I didn't see any trouble. My trip to Pat & Geno's was a little window into downtown Philly where cosy communities of low rise housing can easily & quickly turn into derelict crack den streets one after the other. I felt a bit sorry for this once great city with it's murder capital reputation and wondered if it could ever truly re-invent itself for the future.

When in Philly visit Pat's & Geno's on opposite corners and decide for yourself which one does the best Philly Cheesesteak here's Pat's on one corner 1/160th @ f5.6 ISO 100

• & here's Pat's on the other corner. pick a cheese, (don't eat whizz it's basically plastic and make sure you order a large Birch Beer to wash it all down. 1/160th @ f5.6 ISO 100

• for me, low slung overhead telegraph cables are a sign you're in decadent America. In the UK, you don't see them much anymore as telephone cables started going underground with the optical fibre revolution. to be fair the service in Pat's was a bit friendlier and because I ate their first, I think it tasted better, like the first bowl of cornflakes, the second one is never quite as good. 1/200th @ f5.4 ISO 100

Geno's had better signage and I think it looked like an Edward Hopper painting waiting to be immortalised in oil. To be honest there wasn't much difference between the two. I think Geno's seemed a bit greasier, or was that just sloppy seconds ! 1/ 200th @ f5.4 ISO 100

• The kid in Geno's wasn't happy about having his photo taken for the 357th time today. I couldn't resist that Herman Munster fringe though. 1/100th @ f4.6 ISO 100

• His older and less hirsute colleague was more happy to become tumblr ( I mean STEEMIT) famous and obliged with a smile and a wave. Have you ever seen such a pile of onions or with as you are supposed to say, as in with onions. If you don't say with, you don't get em. 1/180th @ f3.6 ISO 100

• This old gentleman in the middle of town has waited for the bus so long yet he never seems to catch one, even though he always has his hand out flaggin one down. 1/100th @f2.6 ISO 125

• Admit it, you thought this was The Kiss by Auguste Rodin, It's a common error and this lovely example in the Rodin Museum is actually Eternal Springtime. 1/60th @ f3.5 ISO 250

• This is The Kiss. You need never get them confused again if you just remember The Kiss is a closed Embrace and Eternal Springtime has an outstretched arm. 1/60th @ f4.4 ISO 125

• Detail from The Kiss. Rodin was a master of his art and this exquisite detail from The Kiss shows just why. For me, it's the lightness of touch and tenderness in stone, which is the real masterstroke. A true classic for all of time. 1/100th @ f4.5 ISO 100

• The Gates of Hell. One of the most impressive sculptures I have ever seen greets you on entrance to the museum. This pair of Bronze doors was commissioned for a museum which never opened. Originally conceived to depict Dante's "The Inferno" the first section of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, the 6 metre high doors contain 150 figures and over 37 years it slowly transformed into a more personal piece, incorporating many of Rodin's famous motifs. 1/160th @ 3.5 ISO 320

• Details from The Gates of Hell. The only way to really appreciate the magnificence of this epic piece of work with a camera is to lie down with your head against the door and shoot upwards, (upside down) rendering the characters in a horizontal position, then you see them as they really are. Stuck in the quagmire of a hellish existence. 1/50th @ f3.5 ISO 800

• On the way home I was treated to unusual views through the mist. Here our train passes underneath a double highway concrete bridge and you can see the supports in perspective getting smaller and smaller into the distance until it curves out of view. Nature in engineering like the backbone of a huge Whale 1/125th @ f3.6 ISO 125

technical

I love shooting in the rain. As long as you're dressed properly and your camera can handle a bit of mist, rain offers opportunity that bright sunshine cant' offer. A very soft lightbox effect from heavy cloud will produce moody and elegant images of otherwise ordinary viewpoints. Soft shadows accentuate form and mist can create that vintage Suschitzky look I find so timeless and intriguing. Rain bounces and scatters light and puddles can create a looking glass effect where images are reflected through a surface. Concentric ripples in rain are one of my favourite images, creating perfect circles within circles. A metaphor for life perhaps. A fast lens is good for the rain. Like always, balancing the triangle and playing around with the different sides of it can create bags of mood on an overcast day. The first image of the swimming pool looks as if it's stood still in time. I was kind of hoping for it to start raining on the surface of the glassy pool. Next time !

all images copyright Christos Hatjoullis (Outerground)