Building a file photo legacy

In late July when I covered Montgomery County’s District Attorney announcing charges in connection with two assaults in a Cheltenham High School football locker room, I knew the story was something we would be writing about for some time.

Aware that we used the same photo, taken in 2018, with stories about the high school hazing leading up to the indictments, I left from the DA’s office across the street from the Courthouse in Norristown and drove to the school in Wyncote to take “fresh” ones.

I wrote last week about the web’s appetite for photos. But there’s another kind of photo: the thumbnails that are attached to every story, whether or not they are “live” photos.

Most of those little horizontal photos — none are verticals — of flashing police lights or yellow tape; headshots of politicians; city street scenes and skyline, or many, many photos of signs and buildings are file photos.

Like the 2018 one of Cheltenham High School. And the July 2026 version — in a variety for views — that I made last week, that already have and will be used again and again.

The frame at the top was made with a aperture of f/22 so I could get both signs in focus, at shutter speed of 1/15 second to blur the passing cars. Getting the window was just good luck.

I thought of file photos this week when another one of mine was used in a story about N.J. Gov. Mikie Sherrill declaring a steak place in Camden has better cheesesteaks than the “millions” she has tried in Philly.

After celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain died in 2018 I set out to photograph — and eat — at some of the food destinations he visited on his Emmy Award-winning CNN show Parts Unknown.

Following in the footsteps of the globe-trotting adventurer, I flew not to some far-flung place with exotic cuisine but drove instead to all 10 spots he featured in an episode on the food and culture of his home state, New Jersey.

» READ MORE: On the trail of Anthony Bourdain’s New Jersey

It was one of my top 10 favorite stories of my career. Foodstagrammers had visited many of the places featured in the episode but I couldn’t find any foodies who had been to all of them.

Each one had its own history, personality, and flavor, but together all captured exactly what Bourdain loved about New Jersey: community and authenticity, and incredible food without the pretense.

Donkey’s Place in Camden was one of the most memorable. I made three trips there for the story, and took hundreds of photos while sitting at the bar with cheesesteak aficionados and talking with third generation owner Rob Lucas (his grandfather, Olympic boxer Leon Lucas, had a punch they said was like the kick of a mule).

I could go on about the memories served at each of the places Bourdain was drawn to, but getting back on the file photos track, of all the photos I made that summer, the one image that gets reused the most often is one from Donkey’s, made as I was walking to my car after my last visit.

I paused, waiting for anyone to walk in or out. I’d just spend a couple hours there, and it was slow by then, mid-afternoon, and the light wasn’t that great anyway, so I took a quick picture and left, figuring it’s close by (compared to the other places) and I could come back at lunchtime later.

Of course that never happened before the story published, and the straightforward photo of the outside of the restaurant was used. I had lots of other really good photos (if you haven’t already, click through the embedded gallery). So, no big deal. Except that exterior view ends up being the only photo in our photo library with the Donkey’s sign so it gets used every time we write about the place! And the only picture among the dozens from all the other nine places that ever gets republished (I really need to go back and update).

Another file photo I have updated, among my most-published, is a photo I first took at the University of Pennsylvania. We do lots of stories there, and once while leaving a parking garage, I noticed a logo on the window of the elevator.

I rode it up and down, over and over, looking for the cleanest spot on the glass, trying different camera exposures — just like with the Cheltenham signs — and getting different angles in the background.

I have also photographed sculptures, signs, and scenes around campus when on other assignments, but the parking garage image seems a favorite whenever a generic Penn file photo is needed.

Finally, in the early days of the web, my most-used file photo was one I made during this column’s first summer (then, in 2007, called a blog). While making weekly roadtrips and posting every day or two about the places and pictures I went, I spent one late night that faded into early morning.

I stopped at service plazas along the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The story is here — but with only one photo (a future column will lament how even when stories get archived by newspapers the pictures that accompanied them are often not saved).

While getting on and off the turnpike at different exits to backtrack, I photographed the sun rising behind a turnpike sign. It was a vertical, but has been recropped many times to fit the web’s 3:2 thumbnail ratio.

I still drive the turnpike, and update that photo every once in a while. Versions are still used.

I guess you could call it one of my “greatest hits.” My legacy.

Since 1998 a black-and-white photo has appeared every Monday in staff photographer Tom Gralish’s “Scene Through the Lens” photo column in the print editions of The Inquirer’s local news section. Here are the most recent, in color: