August 7, 2023: Saying neither one was like Tom Sawyer, who tricked his friend Ben Rogers into finishing painting a fence in the Mark Twain novel, Woodrow Smith and Judith Pardun paint her fence together along busy Nicholson Road in Audubon, N.J.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer / Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
I recently marked an anniversary at The Inquirer, so I’ve been asked a lot lately if i haven’t gotten tired of being a newspaper photographer.
How can I be?
Advertisement
When I can drive past a scene straight out of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn — but then pull Into an Acme parking lot, walk across four lanes of busy traffic, approach a couple I don’t even know and say, “Hi. Which one of you is Tom Sawyer, trying to trick the other one into painting the whole fence?”
Pardum, the mother of Smith’s son, bought the fence two years ago with COVID American Rescue Plan money and Smith put it up for her. She waited a few years before getting around to painting it. Thankfully, Pardum said, she was on vacation the week after last week’s heat wave, so the weather was much more conducive to outdoor work. And, it was Smith’s day off.
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:
July 24, 2023: What’s left of the old Islander Raceway and Amusement Park, a longtime landmark at the foot of the George Redding Bridge on Rt. 47 just before Wildwood. Closed since 2002, it boasted six different go-kart tracks, bumper boats, mini golf and batting cages, and as the sign says, refreshments. Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
July 17, 2023: With its diversity of habitat — beach, dunes, ponds, forest, and marsh — Cape May Point is one of the best places to watch birds year-round. In addition to hawks, visitors can see breeding songbirds, waterbirds, terns, and passing migrants. When using the binoculars for a quarter on the Cape May Point State Park hawkwatch platform. just remember to look up.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
July 10, 2023: The Ferris Wheel on the midway at Independence Blue Cross RiverRink Summerfest is visible behind the stairway and ramp from the Market Street bridge to Penn’s Landing. Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
July 3, 2023: 18th century cannons point away from the Museum of the American Revolution at 3rd and Chestnut Streets. After the British occupation and the war, many old discarded canons and smaller carronades were embedded upright in the ground to protect structures and streets - much like the bollards we see today around most government and public buildings. Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
June 26, 2023: The morning pause in North Wildwood. Every day from April through September, every walker, runner, biker, and surrey rider stops at 11 a.m. as "The Star-Spangled Banner" is played on the boardwalk (followed by a Kate Smith recording of “God Bless America”). The playing of the anthem along the boardwalk, which stretches through Wildwood and North Wildwood, has happened as long as anyone can remember. Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
June 19, 2023: On the pedestrian walkway between the Cira Center and Amtrak’s William H. Gray III 30th Street Station. Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
June 12, 2023: Freshening up an arcade game on the boardwalk in Wildwood, ahead of the summer season at the Jersey Shore. Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
June 5, 2023: Maryanna Barr cuts the grass around the bird condominium tree trunk next to her Brooklawn, N.J home. She attributes the high bird occupancy rate — all her bird houses have residents — to her not feeding them. “I only do rooms, not board,” Barr says.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
May 29, 2023: Visitors watch the official welcome film of Philadelphia, playing for free in the Independence Visitor Center. The eight minute video runs all day on a continuous loop, previewing the city's sights and sounds in an open-walled theater. Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
May 22, 2023: A banner along Spring Garden Street reminded Philadelphians of Primary Election Day. There were a half dozen candidates running for mayor, and seven times that many seeking one of the 17 seats on City Council. Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
May 15, 2023: A PATCO Speedline train headed into Philadelphia from New Jersey on the Ben Franklin Bridge passes a campaign sign on the side of a building in Old City. Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer / Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
May 8, 2023: The Pennsylvania Railroad War Memorial (1950, installed 1952) by Walker Kirtland Hancock n the lobby of 30th Street Station known from the opening scene of the 1985 Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis film “Witness.“ The 39-foot monument is dedicated to the 1,307 Pennsylvania Railroad employees who died in World War II. It is known as “Angel of the Resurrection,” depicting the Archangel Michael lifting a lifeless soldier in his arms, his wings pointing directly to heaven as he frees the soldier from the flames of battle.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
May 1, 2023: From left, Two Liberty Place (1990), Alexander Milne Calder's sculpture of William Penn (1894) atop City Hall (1901), the PSFS Building (1932, now the Loews Philadelphia Hotel), and the Jefferson Center (1984, formerly known as the Aramark Tower and One Reading Center) are seen between the buildings along Market Street East.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
April 24, 2023: Ernest Owens, president the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists, moderates a forum with the Democratic candidates for mayor (left) at the Museum of the American Revolution. The event focused on issues impacting the local Black community.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
April 17, 2023: Taxpayers line up outside the William J. Green Jr. Federal Building at 6th & Arch Streets for free in-person tax preparation and help offered by the Internal Revenue Service.The deadline for most taxpayers to file 2022 returns or an extension is Tuesday, April 18. By law, Washington, D.C., holidays impact tax deadlines for everyone in the same way as federal holidays. The due date is April 18, instead of April 15, because of the weekend and the District of Columbia's Emancipation Day holiday, which falls on Monday, April 17. Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
