All in how you see it | Scene Through the Lens

Seeing the object in its full 51-foot size, with the accompanying six-foot-high glob of paint on the sidewalk below, it is easier to recognize the Claes Oldenburg sculpture “Paint Torch” outside the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts as a brush lifted into the sky “in a depiction of the act of painting a picture.” Installed in 2011, Oldenburg’s work honors the act of painting, but its form also doubles “as a torch and a symbol of liberty in homage to the city’s historical significance as the birthplace of America,” PAFA says.

This week marked the third anniversary from the date when the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Looking back, here are three image galleries from the early days.

More subtle scenes of the crisis, in the suburbs, beyond the often-seen closed businesses in downtown Philadelphia:

Creative reminders of six foot social distancing:

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 Inquirer’s local news section. Here are the most recent, in color:

» SEE MORE: Archived columns and Twenty years of a photo column