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What the Flower Show looked like before opening

Scene Through the Lens with photographer Tom Gralish.
Setting up for the PHS Philadelphia Flower Show ahead of its Feb. 28 opening at the Convention Center, stagehand Dewayne Walker, with Local 8 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) paints the case for one of the floral design displays at the show - Store Window Class 156 - for individuals, groups of friends or families, clubs, and other organizations, “to show off their creativity and skills.” This year the theme of the nation’s largest and longest-running horticultural event is “Rooted: Origins of American Gardening.” Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer

Newspapers do many service stories, letting readers know about upcoming events.

The “things to do” pieces are usually illustrated either with pictures provided by the organizations or their public relations partners or, in the case of annual events, our own staff’s file photos from previous years.

If the event is large enough — like the Mummer’s parade or the PHS Flower Show opening to the public today (Feb. 28), we cover the “pre-game” doings.

I was at the Convention Center earlier this week to photograph preparations for nation’s largest and longest-running horticultural event. As with similar preview assignments, the stars of the show — the flowers in this case — were not quite ready for prime time.

Most of the blooms are waiting to be unloaded from refrigerated trucks, and those inside the Convention Center are still wrapped in plastic. So I rely on close-ups, or take advantage of the play of color and light.

It is hard enough to convey the perfumes of thousands of blooms in the air with mere photos — or the vibrant color of the petals in the meticulously designed displays. Imagine trying to showcase it all in black-and-white.

That’s my photo on the cover of The Inquirer Weekend section on the left, from 40 years ago when the Flower Show was at the Philadelphia Civic Center in University City. David Swanson made the close up on right 30 years ago, the year the show moved to the new Pennsylvania Convention Center.

When The Inquirer and Daily News knew we were switching from black-and-white to color presses a forward-thinking photo editor had us pop in a roll of color negative film while covering some events so we’d have some color photographs in the files when the time came. (That finally happened in March of 1993. In a focus group a few years earlier, loyal readers “were horrified” when they were shown a prototype of a possible color Inquirer.)

I don’t know yet if I’ll be back at the Flower Show this week, or if another photographer will be assigned, but you can count not only on seeing live coverage, but some of the photos again before the 2027 show.

Favorite assignment anniversary

Speaking of anniversaries and black-and-white photography, I am often asked if I have a favorite assignment.

It was 40 years ago this week that I made the Weekend Flower Show cover photo above — days after returning from six weeks in the Philippines. I was there as millions of Filipinos took to the streets in a “People Power” revolution (also known as the EDSA Revolution).

The nonviolent revolution led to the ouster of President Ferdinand Marcos as Corazon “Cory” Aquino became the county’s 11th president. It was seen as a model for similar uprisings that occurred around the world in the following years, from the occupation of Tiananmen Square to the Fall of Communism and the Arab Spring.

These images are the original prints — developed in a hotel bathroom I converted into a darkroom — transmitted back to The Inquirer in January and February of 1986.

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: