Martin J. Fumo, innovative photographer, popular musician, and retired school band director, has died at 82

Martin J. Fumo, 82, of Philadelphia, innovative photographer, lifelong musician, retired band director for the School District of Philadelphia, and DIY home repair expert, died Monday, July 21, of complications from Alzheimer’s disease at Wyncote Place assisted living center.

Born in West Philadelphia and reared later in Fairmount, Mr. Fumo learned to play the saxophone and clarinet as a boy, and went on to play sax in the Roman Catholic High School band and for decades in local groups and jazz trios. He began teaching instrumental music and directing bands at Kensington High School in 1969, left in 1974 to pursue his other love, commercial photography, and returned to the school district about 30 years later to lead middle school bands until 2013.

Over five decades, Mr. Fumo experimented with photography and film, and his unique images were published in The Inquirer, New York Times, American Poetry Review, and elsewhere. A natural innovator, he pioneered the manipulation of film from a Polaroid SX-70 camera to create what he called “dreamlike or surreal” images of real life.

“I like to extend my photographs to go beyond what the camera has done,” Mr. Fumo said in an online profile.

He called his photos “Window in Wildwood,” “Backroad in Blackwood,” “Mummer,” and “Art Museum Fountains.” His celebrated 1975 photo “Master Street playground” shows a bare-chested young boy standing in front of a brick wall at a Philadelphia playground, and it resides in the Library of Congress in Washington.

His surrealistic black-and-white photos appeared with cover stories in The Inquirer’s Sunday Magazine in 1982 about city life, 1983 about a college campus rape case, and 1984 about Christmas and Hanukkah celebrations.

“I have no explanations about the meanings of my photographs, and I don’t think it’s really necessary,” he said in his online profile. “What is important is that the viewer experiences something positive from them.”

He headlined exhibitions at galleries and museums in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, New York, Maryland, and Massachusetts. In 1989, his photo called “Four Level Parking” was one of several highlighted at “The Extended Image” exhibition at the Pennsylvania State University gallery in Abington, and the show director called his work “little jewels.”

He was featured in the Abington Art Center’s “Photography ‘98″ exhibit, and Inquirer art critic Victoria Donohue said: “Marty Fumo is a tease with his digital camera, making a mockery of our expectations of a photograph.”

Stephen Perloff, editor of the Philadelphia-based Photo Review, said Mr. Fumo had a “keen eye” and a “gregariousness and playful spirit.” He said: “Marty was an essential part of the founding of the Philadelphia photography community in the mid-1970s.”

Mr. Fumo majored in classical flute at the old Philadelphia Musical Academy after high school, earned bachelor’s degrees in music and music education in 1969, and played in the academy’s first jazz group. One of his early bands played on American Bandstand in the 1950s, and his Marty Fumo Trio and Midi Trio played jazz gigs around town for years.

He met English teacher Mimi Barton on a picket line during a teachers strike in 1974, and they married in 1979, and had a daughter, Margaret. They bought a big old house in Fairmount in 1984, and Mr. Fumo, using do-it-yourself videos and books, taught himself plumbing, carpentry, tile work, and electrical wiring, and refurbished the place himself.

“He was very hardworking,” his wife said. “When he was on a project, he could stay up all night.”

Martin John Fumo was born June 24, 1943. He liked to swim, go to the movies, and hang around museums as a boy.

He won a music award in high school, and his teenage bands played nights and weekends at local bars, weddings, and birthday parties. Much later, he and the middle school musicians he directed specialized in Motown music.

Mr. Fumo collected paintings and sculptures, was interested in horticulture, and especially loved roses. His parents were from Italy, and he learned Italian and visited Europe with his wife several times.

He spent many mornings with his daughter before school when she was young and took her often to his studio at 915 Spring Garden St. He enjoyed cats, his wife said, and his family was distraught when a house fire in 2021 destroyed nearly all of his photos and their possessions.

In 1984, a portrait of Mr. Fumo and his father, Leon, was published in The Inquirer with a story about Father’s Day. “He was easygoing with a good sense of humor,” his wife said. “He was a great father.”

In addition to his wife and daughter, Mr. Fumo is survived by a sister and other relatives. A sister died earlier.

A private celebration of his life was held earlier.

Donations in his name may be made to Play on Philly, Box 8662, Philadelphia, Pa. 19101.