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Not my first Fourth | Scene Through the Lens

Staff photographer Tom Gralish blogs about his work, covering events like the Fourth of July.

The audience is reflected in the glass of the Liberty Bell Pavilion (with the Bell inside) at the Philly Pops concert on the eve of the Fourth of July on Independence Mall July 3, 2019.
The audience is reflected in the glass of the Liberty Bell Pavilion (with the Bell inside) at the Philly Pops concert on the eve of the Fourth of July on Independence Mall July 3, 2019.Read moreTOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer

Tomorrow will be the 36th anniversary of my joining the Philadelphia Inquirer as a staff photographer. I didn’t cover the Fourth of July festivities that year, because I wasn’t working yet.

But over the years I have covered many Fourths. And firsts and lasts as well (this isn’t a goodbye, by the way), along with a bunch in between. I’ve enjoyed making photos almost every single day. One of the things that has kept me going was finding new ways to see the same Fourth, or another event, over and over again.

Last night I was shooting the Philly Pops orchestra concert on the mall in front of Independence Hall, again. The night was really hot and humid. The crowd was very subdued. Maybe it was that they were all really close, and the air was still. Or maybe the American popular music the orchestra performed was more Broadway and movie inspired than rousing patriotic. Other veteran Fourth photographers noticed it too. Three different people I photographed in the crowd told me they didn’t want to be in the newspaper, or wouldn’t give me their names. A fourth red-white-and blued gentleman, after watching me write down his name, left his beach chair five minutes later to hunt me down and tell me he’d changed his mind. “You know how it is these days,” he told me.

So I let my mind wander a bit, and ended up looking at the Liberty Bell. I’ve also photographed it lots of times over the years. In fact, I was there just last week looking at the crack for a story about fixing it. Sometimes, when on assignment nearby I just walk by to peek in, especially since they moved it to a more spacious, glass-walled pavilion in 2001 (yes, I covered the move too).

As I said, every time is just a little different. Whether it was the light, the crowd, or my mindset, this time I saw the reflections in the glass, and made the photo at the very top of this post. Happy Fourth. And the next first, last, or whatever.

>>SEE MORE: Photos from the whole week of Welcome America events by staff photographers of The Philadelphia Inquirer