Street instrumentalist | Scene Through the Lens

If you’ve walked in the historic district you’ve no doubt seen, heard, talked to, or even dropped a buck in his horn case. A street musical institution, David Puryear has been performing his improvisational melodies - he doesn’t do requests - for over a decade.

I was delighted a few weeks ago to see the familiar figure out the corner of my eye, but I didn’t hear anything. It wasn’t Puryear, but a stencil put up overnight by the Philly street artist who goes by the name Bad Luck.

As our newsroom is just two blocks away, I see him all the time (he’s near our parking spaces). So do most of my colleagues. And many of us have also photographed him - like Alejandro A. Alvarez, just last week.

I hadn’t made any photos of him for the newspaper, as he’d appeared there a few times already. But last summer I happened to pass by the week he brought his then 8 year-old son to work. That was a different enough scene that I did work the visual angles with the two of them.

A few years earlier, reporter Stephanie Farr had profiled him for her We The People series. Videographer Lauren Schneiderman created this:

Before them, it was Jessica Griffin:

And, from what I can tell, David Puryear made his debut in The Inquirer in 2015, with a photo and story by Jeff Gammage. The Official Day of Kindness gave Philadelphia “some good vibrations,” his story said.

“There’s small things we can do to make a difference,” Puryear told him.

I stopped to check in with him yesterday, while I was photographing the metal fences installed around Independence Mall ahead of Tuesday, when former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris debate at the National Constitution Center.

He showed me an envelope he’d just been given by a couple who always greet him after nearby Shabbat services on Saturdays. They avoid handling money then, so they’d stopped by to give him a thank you gift, “for sharing your beautiful music with us and bringing so much light into the world.”

If you do see him this week, wish him a happy birthday. He turned 76 yesterday.

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: