Each Friday, Inquirer photo editors pick the best Philly sports images from the last seven days. This week, we’ve got Trevor Zegras and the Flyers taking some hits, Nick Sirianni and the Eagles getting dealt a Black Friday loss, and Joel Embiid making moves — both on and off the court. …
Flyers forward Trevor Zegras lays on the ice after being boarded by Buffalo’s Rasmus Dahlin in the second period. Zegras scored one of the Flyers’ five goals in Thursday’s win over the Sabres.
Flyers right wing Bobby Brink gets hit by the puck as he tries to settle in behind Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Kris Letang and set a screen on goaltender Tristan Jarry. The 5-1 loss on Monday ended the team’s three-game winning streak.
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni reacts as he walks off the field after his team’s Black Friday loss to the Chicago Bears. The 24-15 loss was the Eagles’ second straight and their fourth in their last eight games.
A.J. Brown had his best statistical game of the season against the Bears, and has three touchdowns in the Eagles’ last two games — but the Birds are 0-2 in those games.
First-year offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo has been the target of much of the criticism around the Eagles, with some crossing the line and vandalizing his N.J. home.
Joel Embiid signs autographs for Quentin Zheng, 10, left, and Mason Zheng, 9, center, during a release event for the Sixers center’s first signature shoe from Skechers, the SKX JE1, at Lapstone & Hammer on Wednesday.
The holiday season at City Hall was kicked off Thursday night with a lighting ceremony for what is officially called the “Philly Holiday Tree,” followed by live musical performances by Grammy-winning artists Ashanti and Lalah Hathaway.
The 50-foot-tall, 75-year-old Concolor Fir, sourced from Stutzman Farms in New York, will be displayed on the north side of City Hall through Jan. 1. The tree is bigger and brighter this year, with a reimagined base that serves as a centerpiece and more than 6,000 lights.
Mayor Cherelle Parker smiles alongside Santa during the annual City of Philadelphia Holiday Tree Lighting ceremony at City Hall on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025.Attendees wait in line for drinks during the annual City of Philadelphia Holiday Tree Lighting ceremony at City Hall on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025.Attendees with Grinch hats gather for the annual City of Philadelphia Holiday Tree Lighting ceremony at City Hall on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025.Ashanti performs at the annual City of Philadelphia Holiday Tree Lighting ceremony at City Hall on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025.Ashanti performs a medley during the BET Awards on Monday, June 9, 2025, at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker struck a replica Liberty Bell with a large hammer at 7:05 p.m. to signal the lighting of the tree.
Cassie Donegan, the current Miss America, sang “White Christmas” and “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.” The show was broadcast live on 6abc.
The annual city-run event is part of a wider event schedule to ring in the holiday season in Philadelphia, organized by Welcome America LLC, which also organizes the Wawa Welcome America festival on July 4.
Most days newspaper photographers are assigned to illustrate reporters’ stories, or cover news, events, or sports. We are given a time to be somewhere, the name of a contact and are either told, or have an idea of what we will be photographing.
Other times we have to come up with something on our own.
So how do I generate an idea from a completely blank slate? How we each do this is the magic of creativity.
My process is to look around, not just at what’s in front of me, but to think of what I’ve seen and read and thought about lately. I recall pictures I’ve made previously, or images I’ve admired by others. I let my thoughts drift, and try to notice patterns, juxtapositions, or things that seem out of place. And make connections.
Zhaomin Li records Weili Jia as she throws leaves in the air along Walnut Street at Washington Square Nov. 25, 2025. The couple was visiting from Carmel, Indiana.
I am patient, even when it seems inspiration is not going to hit me.
I seldom find that spark while driving. I need to get out of the car and walk. Or sit on a bench. And free associate.
This week I thought of autumn, the end of daylight savings, the sunlight low in the sky, and cooler days. In a park I watched squirrels scampering on leaves collecting and burying food for the even colder days coming.
More walking, and sitting, and I spotted an unusual black squirrel. I once read they are more common around the Great Lakes, but around here, plain old grey squirrels are what we have. (I googled it later. Less than 1% of the grey squirrel population on the East Coast “present heightened levels of the dark pigment melanin.”)
Back on my feet I came across a courtyard full of fan-shaped leaves, spread in front of me like a quiet, golden revelation.
Ginkgo biloba, I knew from previous assignments. The oldest tree species on Earth, it’s often called a “living fossil.” It has survived for over 200 million years, outlasting the dinosaurs, and has remained relatively unchanged.
That became my inspiration this week. Call me a biophiliac (having the hypothetical human tendency to interact or be closely associated with other forms of life in nature). But it’s how I made the connection and this week’s photo.
See more gingkoes (and another photo of the black squirrel) in the gallery:
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:
November 24, 2025: The old waiting room at 30th Street Station that most people only pass through on their way to the restrooms has been spiffed up with benches – and a Christmas tree. It was placed there this year in front of the 30-foot frieze, “The Spirit of Transportation” while the lobby of Amtrak’s $550 million station restoration is underway. The 1895 relief sculpture by Karl Bitter was originally hung in the Broad Street Station by City Hall, but was moved in 1933. It depicts travel from ancient to modern and even futuristic times. November 17, 2025: Students on a field trip from the Christian Academy in Brookhaven, Delaware County, pose for a group photo in front of the Liberty Bell in Independence National Historical Park on Thursday. The trip was planned weeks earlier, before they knew it would be on the day park buildings were reopening after the government shutdown ended. “We got so lucky,” a teacher said. Then corrected herself. “It’s because we prayed for it.” November 8, 2025: Multitasking during the Festival de Día de Muertos – Day of the Dead – in South Philadelphia.November 1, 2025: Marcy Boroff is at City Hall dressed as a Coke can, along with preschoolers and their caregivers, in support of former Mayor Jim Kenney’s 2017 tax on sweetened beverages. City Council is considering repealing the tax, which funds the city’s pre-K programs. October 25, 2025: Austin Gabauer, paint and production assistant at the Johnson Atelier, in Hamilton Twp, N.J. as the finished “O” letter awaits the return to Philadelphia. The “Y” part of the OY/YO sculpture is inside the painting booth. The well-known sculpture outside the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History was removed in May while construction continues on Market Street and has been undergoing refurbishment at the Atelier at the Grounds for Sculpture outside of Trenton.October 20, 2025:The yellow shipping container next to City Hall attracted a line of over 300 people that stretched around a corner of Dilworth Park. Bystanders wondered as they watched devotees reaching the front take their selfies inside a retro Philly diner-esque booth tableau. Followers on social media had been invited to “Climb on to immerse yourself in the worlds of Pleasing Fragrance, Big Lip, and exclusive treasures,” including a spin of the “Freebie Wheel,” for products of the unisex lifestyle brand Pleasing, created by former One Direction singer Harry Styles.October 11, 2025: Can you find the Phillie Phanatic, as he leaves a “Rally for Red October Bus Tour” stop in downtown Westmont, N.J. just before the start of the NLDS? There’s always next year and he’ll be back. The 2026 Spring Training schedule has yet to be announced by Major League Baseball, but Phillies pitchers and catchers generally first report to Clearwater, Florida in mid-February.October 6. 2025: Fluorescent orange safety cone, 28 in, Poly Ethylene. Right: Paint Torch (detail) Claes Oldenburg, 2011, Steel, Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic, Gelcoat and Polyurethane. (Gob of paint, 6 ft. Main sculpture, 51 ft.). Lenfest Plaza at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts on North Broad Street, across from the Convention Center.September 29, 2025: A concerned resident who follows Bucks County politics, Kevin Puls records the scene before a campaign rally for State Treasurer Stacy Garrity, the GOP candidate for governor. His T-shirt is “personal clickbait” with a url to direct people to the website for The Travis Manion Foundation created to empower veterans and families of fallen heroes. The image on the shirts is of Greg Stocker, one of the hosts of Kayal and Company, “A fun and entertaining conservative spin on Politics, News, and Sports,” mornings on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT.September 22, 2025: A shadow is cast by “The Cock’s Comb,” created by Alexander “Sandy” Calder in 1960, is the first work seen by visitors arriving at Calder Gardens, the new sanctuary on the Ben Franklin Parkway. The indoor and outdoor spaces feature the mobiles, stabiles, and paintings of Calder, who was born in Philadelphia in 1898, the third generation of the family’s artistic legacy in the city.September 15, 2025: Department of Streets Director of Operations Thomas Buck leaves City Hall following a news conference marking the activation of Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) cameras on the Broad Street corridor – one the city’s busiest and most dangerous roads. The speed limit on the street, also named PA Route 611, is 25 mph.September 8, 2025: Middle schoolers carry a boat to the water during their first outing in a learn-to-row program with the Cooper Junior Rowing Club, at the Camden County Boathouse on the Cooper River in Pennsauken. September 1, 2025: Trumpet player Rome Leone busks at City Hall’s Easr Portal. The Philadelphia native plays many instruments, including violin and piano, which he started playing when he was 3 years old. He tells those who stop to talk that his grandfather played with Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Nina Simone, and Dizzy Gillespie. August 25, 2025: Bicycling along on East Market Street.August 18, 2025: Just passing through Center City; another extraterrestrial among us.
In 1955, Dorcas Bates Reilly of Haddonfield was tinkering with her team in the home economics department at the Campbell Soup Co., trying to recreate a casserole recipe that a manager had tasted somewhere. The team had been tasked with using ingredients most American families would already have on hand.
After a series of experiments, documented on a typed recipe card that is now part of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, Reilly, who was 29 at the time, hit upon the six-ingredient winner.
Now known as green bean casserole, the dish that has become a Thanksgiving icon turns 70 this year.
The original green bean casserole recipe card in the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
The “Green Bean Bake,” as it was called at the time, mainly relied on green beans and Campbell’s condensed cream of mushroom soup, along with a splash of milk, soy sauce, and black pepper. Crispy fried onions topped it off.
“It was such a rewarding feeling when your recipe was published,” Reilly told Drexel University’s alumni spotlight when she visited the campus years later. She had graduated from Drexel’s Home Economics program in 1947.
She never knew her careful experimentation (“onions too salty, beans lack freshness, too many onions,” she wrote in an early version of the recipe) would become a national star.
“How would she know of the thousands of recipes she worked on over all those years that there was one that stood out?” Reilly’s daughter, Dorcas R. Tarbell, 64, asked.
Before settling on the final ingredients, Reilly had played around with adding Worcestershire and slices of ham. Campbell’s began printing Reilly’s recipe on the back of its cream of mushroom soup can labels in 1960.
Dorcas Reilly, on the set of live TV commercials that were filmed in the late 1940s atop the original Campbell’s plant in Camden. Reilly was a Campbell’s Soup kitchen supervisor in 1955 when she combined green beans and cream of mushroom soup, topped with crunchy fried onions. It is the most popular recipe ever to come out of the corporate kitchen at Campbell’s.
Tarbell said her mother had not known how popular the dish was until 1995, 40 years after its creation.
That was when Campbell’s marketing team studied sales data and found that cream of mushroom soup sales spiked in October and November, and dropped in January. They told Reilly that her recipe was the company’s most-requested ever.
After that, Reilly became “the ambassador of the green bean casserole,” Tarbell said. Each year, she talked to radio stations and newspapers, and traveled to stockholder meetings to talk about the dish.
Reilly died in 2018 and was celebrated in obituaries across the country as the “grandmother of the green bean casserole.”
Thomas H. Reilly, 99 years old, is reflected in his foyer mirror as he looks out the front door of his home in Haddonfield at the giant inflatable green bean casserole his daughter ordered to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the famous dish.
This year, to celebrate the anniversary of her mother’s famous dish, Tarbell ordered an enormous, custom-made, inflatable green bean casserole to bedeck the lawn of her 99-year-old father and Reilly’s widower, Thomas H. Reilly.
“I thought, what better gift can I give than to honor the love of his life through the green bean casserole?” Tarbell, who lives down the street, said. “At this point, you have to have humor in life.”
In a town full of yards featuring inflatable Thanksgiving turkeys and pilgrims (and a few early Santas and snowmen), the six-foot side dish stands out.
Also in honor of the 70th anniversary, Reilly’s niece, Evelynne Bates Stoklosa, who is 80, established a research grant in honor of her aunt through Phi Upsilon Omicron, a national honor society for the Family and Consumer Sciences, the modern name for home economics. The research focus for the next two years will be “areas representing culinary arts, food science, nutrition, and dietetics.”
As for her mother’s dish — which is especially popular in the Midwest — it will likely appear on more than half of Thanksgiving tables nationwide this week, Campbell said.
Growing up, Tarbell said the family never ate green bean casserole. But after they realized Reilly had created a star dish, the family embraced it.
“Of course, we have green bean casserole at Thanksgiving,” Tarbell said, adding, “We have it at Christmas. We have it at Easter.”
Dorcas Reilly and a small unnamed admirer, with the iconic green bean casserole Mrs. Reilly invented.
Thanksgiving is always the busiest travel time of the year and as always, the AAA has come up with their annual projection: this year a record 81.8 million Americans will be going somewhere, at least 50 miles from home.
6 million people will get there by plane, train, bus, or cruise, but nearly 73 million will travel by car, representing almost 90% of all holiday travelers.
I will not be among them. I get a lot of photo enjoyment out of road trips, but holiday travel is not the seeing-the-USA-in-your-Chevrolet or getting-your-kicks-on-Route-66 kind.
While my newspaper print column has been around since 1998, this online version actually started during the summer of 2007 with three or four posts every week (back then it was called blogging) as I traveled the region’s roadways with my camera, bent upon discovery.
After 9/11, like most Americans, I looked at my country in a new way. Inspired by the 200th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark expedition, I set out to retrace their 3,700 mile journey, known as the Corps of Discovery, on my own epic cross-country road trip across America.
Since then I have made lots of more local road trips. I sought out retro kitschy giant roadside Muffler Men‚ wandered New Jersey’s Pine Barrens, and Pennsylvania’s political T-zone during the 2020 election.
And one of my favorites: visiting all 10 of the New Jersey joints and restaurants featured in a 2015 episode of CNN’s Parts Unknown, by the late Anthony Bourdain, a chef, author, TV personality — and a Jersey Boy from Bergen County.
Speaking of food and other roadside attractions, this is on my maybe to-do road trip list this winter:
I photographed that Buc-ee’s sign near mile marker 291 on the westbound Pennsylvania Turnpike earlier this year, near the Bowmansville Service Plaza, back when the closest outpost of the Texas-based travel center described as a “theme park on the highway” was the one off I-95 in Florence, South Carolina.
My daughter has been sending me social media food videos (mostly by international visitors) and even bought me a mug, but I have never been to any of the chain’s 51 locations across 11 states or experienced their extensive gas stations, “world-famous” restrooms or Beaver Nuggets.
A new one opened in Virginia this past summer, off I-81, two hours southwest of Washington, D.C. — only 275 miles from Philadelphia’s City Hall.
So, readers, let me ask you. Is it worth a trip? Let me know here.
Or do I just stick with getting my highway food-fix at Wawa, Sheetz, Royal Farms, Turkey Hill, QuickChek, or Circle K?
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:
November 17, 2025: Students on a field trip from the Christian Academy in Brookhaven, Delaware County, pose for a group photo in front of the Liberty Bell in Independence National Historical Park on Thursday. The trip was planned weeks earlier, before they knew it would be on the day park buildings were reopening after the government shutdown ended. “We got so lucky,” a teacher said. Then corrected herself. “It’s because we prayed for it.” November 8, 2025: Multitasking during the Festival de Día de Muertos – Day of the Dead – in South Philadelphia.November 1, 2025: Marcy Boroff is at City Hall dressed as a Coke can, along with preschoolers and their caregivers, in support of former Mayor Jim Kenney’s 2017 tax on sweetened beverages. City Council is considering repealing the tax, which funds the city’s pre-K programs. October 25, 2025: Austin Gabauer, paint and production assistant at the Johnson Atelier, in Hamilton Twp, N.J. as the finished “O” letter awaits the return to Philadelphia. The “Y” part of the OY/YO sculpture is inside the painting booth. The well-known sculpture outside the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History was removed in May while construction continues on Market Street and has been undergoing refurbishment at the Atelier at the Grounds for Sculpture outside of Trenton.October 20, 2025:The yellow shipping container next to City Hall attracted a line of over 300 people that stretched around a corner of Dilworth Park. Bystanders wondered as they watched devotees reaching the front take their selfies inside a retro Philly diner-esque booth tableau. Followers on social media had been invited to “Climb on to immerse yourself in the worlds of Pleasing Fragrance, Big Lip, and exclusive treasures,” including a spin of the “Freebie Wheel,” for products of the unisex lifestyle brand Pleasing, created by former One Direction singer Harry Styles.October 11, 2025: Can you find the Phillie Phanatic, as he leaves a “Rally for Red October Bus Tour” stop in downtown Westmont, N.J. just before the start of the NLDS? There’s always next year and he’ll be back. The 2026 Spring Training schedule has yet to be announced by Major League Baseball, but Phillies pitchers and catchers generally first report to Clearwater, Florida in mid-February.October 6. 2025: Fluorescent orange safety cone, 28 in, Poly Ethylene. Right: Paint Torch (detail) Claes Oldenburg, 2011, Steel, Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic, Gelcoat and Polyurethane. (Gob of paint, 6 ft. Main sculpture, 51 ft.). Lenfest Plaza at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts on North Broad Street, across from the Convention Center.September 29, 2025: A concerned resident who follows Bucks County politics, Kevin Puls records the scene before a campaign rally for State Treasurer Stacy Garrity, the GOP candidate for governor. His T-shirt is “personal clickbait” with a url to direct people to the website for The Travis Manion Foundation created to empower veterans and families of fallen heroes. The image on the shirts is of Greg Stocker, one of the hosts of Kayal and Company, “A fun and entertaining conservative spin on Politics, News, and Sports,” mornings on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT.September 22, 2025: A shadow is cast by “The Cock’s Comb,” created by Alexander “Sandy” Calder in 1960, is the first work seen by visitors arriving at Calder Gardens, the new sanctuary on the Ben Franklin Parkway. The indoor and outdoor spaces feature the mobiles, stabiles, and paintings of Calder, who was born in Philadelphia in 1898, the third generation of the family’s artistic legacy in the city.September 15, 2025: Department of Streets Director of Operations Thomas Buck leaves City Hall following a news conference marking the activation of Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) cameras on the Broad Street corridor – one the city’s busiest and most dangerous roads. The speed limit on the street, also named PA Route 611, is 25 mph.September 8, 2025: Middle schoolers carry a boat to the water during their first outing in a learn-to-row program with the Cooper Junior Rowing Club, at the Camden County Boathouse on the Cooper River in Pennsauken. September 1, 2025: Trumpet player Rome Leone busks at City Hall’s Easr Portal. The Philadelphia native plays many instruments, including violin and piano, which he started playing when he was 3 years old. He tells those who stop to talk that his grandfather played with Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Nina Simone, and Dizzy Gillespie. August 25, 2025: Bicycling along on East Market Street.August 18, 2025: Just passing through Center City; another extraterrestrial among us. August 11, 2025: Chris Brown stows away Tongue, the mascot for a new hard iced tea brand, after wearing the lemon costume on a marketing stroll through the Historic District. Trenton-based Crooked Tea is a zero-sugar alcoholic tea brand founded by the creator of Bai, the antioxidant-infused coconut-flavored water, and launched in April with former Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham as a partner.August 4,2025: Shanna Chandler and her daughters figure out their plans for a morning spent in Independence National Historical Park on the map in the Independence Visitor Center. The women (from left) Lora, 20; Shanna; Lenna, 17; and Indigo, 29, were stopping on their way home to Richmond, Virginia after vacationing in Maine. The last time they were all in Philadelphia Shanna was pregnant with Lenna.
No longer at its home outside the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History on the corner of Fifth and Market Streets, the bright “Lamborghini yellow” sculpture that then-curator Josh Perelman called “an ongoing love letter to the city,” had gone away for some R & R — removal and refurbishment.
The “Y” waits to be refurbished at the Johnson Atelier in September.
Installed in 2022, the work by Brooklyn, N.Y.-based artist Deborah Kass quickly became one of our city’s most selfied spots — right up there with that bell just across Independence Mall.
It was only supposed to be here a year, but it stayed around (although the museum is hopeful, it’s still not officially permanent).
Students from Hillwood Middle School in Ft. Worth, Texas visit in 2022.
After years on the busy corner (and all those field-tripping middle-schoolers climbing on it) the museum scheduled a removal in May of the eight foot tall Y and O letters for freshening up, planned to coincide with the continuing construction along Market Street through Old City.
Knowing my feelings for their sculpture, the folks at the museum invited me to photograph the refurbishment.
The letters did not require extensive work, and the aluminum was treated not unlike body work on a car: removing dents, priming, painting and leaving a durable finish.
At the Johnson Atelier, a facility established by Seward Johnson in 1974 to give artists greater involvement in the production of their work, I was not allowed to photograph from any angle that showed any other art works in the background. And there were plenty (sigh), like an eight-foot tall metal hand sitting on the floor, right across from the “Y” (I had to sign an NDA).
Looking over the fence from a public area at Grounds for Sculpture in 2019. A collection of trompe-l’œil painted sculptures by Seward Johnson in the yard at the adjacent Johnson Atelier.
Adding to the lack of visual variety, the letters went into the painting booth one at a time, so I couldn’t make a picture of them in the same frame. And I could only see the workers in the booth from outside – through a couple of windows. But that is exactly the kind of photographic challenge I most enjoy.
Now, after a few months the two giant letters are both as good as new and are scheduled to be reinstalled this Saturday.
Weitzman president and CEO Dan Tadmor, looking forward to its return to their corner heading into the nation’s 250th says, “Deborah Kass’s OY/YO celebrates the spirit of a city that’s always spoken in its own voice: bold, funny, and full of heart.”
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:
October 20, 2025:The yellow shipping container next to City Hall attracted a line of over 300 people that stretched around a corner of Dilworth Park. Bystanders wondered as they watched devotees reaching the front take their selfies inside a retro Philly diner-esque booth tableau. Followers on social media had been invited to “Climb on to immerse yourself in the worlds of Pleasing Fragrance, Big Lip, and exclusive treasures,” including a spin of the “Freebie Wheel,” for products of the unisex lifestyle brand Pleasing, created by former One Direction singer Harry Styles.October 11, 2025: Can you find the Phillie Phanatic, as he leaves a “Rally for Red October Bus Tour” stop in downtown Westmont, N.J. just before the start of the NLDS? There’s always next year and he’ll be back. The 2026 Spring Training schedule has yet to be announced by Major League Baseball, but Phillies pitchers and catchers generally first report to Clearwater, Florida in mid-February.October 6. 2025: Fluorescent orange safety cone, 28 in, Poly Ethylene. Right: Paint Torch (detail) Claes Oldenburg, 2011, Steel, Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic, Gelcoat and Polyurethane. (Gob of paint, 6 ft. Main sculpture, 51 ft.). Lenfest Plaza at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts on North Broad Street, across from the Convention Center.September 29, 2025: A concerned resident who follows Bucks County politics, Kevin Puls records the scene before a campaign rally for State Treasurer Stacy Garrity, the GOP candidate for governor. His T-shirt is “personal clickbait” with a url to direct people to the website for The Travis Manion Foundation created to empower veterans and families of fallen heroes. The image on the shirts is of Greg Stocker, one of the hosts of Kayal and Company, “A fun and entertaining conservative spin on Politics, News, and Sports,” mornings on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT.September 22, 2025: A shadow is cast by “The Cock’s Comb,” created by Alexander “Sandy” Calder in 1960, is the first work seen by visitors arriving at Calder Gardens, the new sanctuary on the Ben Franklin Parkway. The indoor and outdoor spaces feature the mobiles, stabiles, and paintings of Calder, who was born in Philadelphia in 1898, the third generation of the family’s artistic legacy in the city.September 15, 2025: Department of Streets Director of Operations Thomas Buck leaves City Hall following a news conference marking the activation of Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) cameras on the Broad Street corridor – one the city’s busiest and most dangerous roads. The speed limit on the street, also named PA Route 611, is 25 mph.September 8, 2025: Middle schoolers carry a boat to the water during their first outing in a learn-to-row program with the Cooper Junior Rowing Club, at the Camden County Boathouse on the Cooper River in Pennsauken. September 1, 2025: Trumpet player Rome Leone busks at City Hall’s Easr Portal. The Philadelphia native plays many instruments, including violin and piano, which he started playing when he was 3 years old. He tells those who stop to talk that his grandfather played with Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Nina Simone, and Dizzy Gillespie. August 25, 2025: Bicycling along on East Market Street.August 18, 2025: Just passing through Center City; another extraterrestrial among us. August 11, 2025: Chris Brown stows away Tongue, the mascot for a new hard iced tea brand, after wearing the lemon costume on a marketing stroll through the Historic District. Trenton-based Crooked Tea is a zero-sugar alcoholic tea brand founded by the creator of Bai, the antioxidant-infused coconut-flavored water, and launched in April with former Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham as a partner.August 4,2025: Shanna Chandler and her daughters figure out their plans for a morning spent in Independence National Historical Park on the map in the Independence Visitor Center. The women (from left) Lora, 20; Shanna; Lenna, 17; and Indigo, 29, were stopping on their way home to Richmond, Virginia after vacationing in Maine. The last time they were all in Philadelphia Shanna was pregnant with Lenna. July 28, 2025: Louis-Amaury Beauchet, a professional bridge player from Brittany, France, takes a break between game sessions in an empty ballroom during the North American Bridge Championships at the Center City Marriott with some 4000 people in town over week of the tournament. The American Contract Bridge League is hosting the week of meetings and tournaments with bridge players from all over the world. The ACBL is the largest bridge organization in North America, with over 120,000 members (down from around 165,000 before COVID). Bridge draws players of all ages and walks of life – fictional characters James Bond and Snoopy both played as do billionaires Bill Gates and Warren Buffett (who sometimes play as partners).July 21, 2015: Signage for the Kustard Korner in Egg Harbor City, on the way to the Jersey Shore. President Ronald Reagan designated July as National Ice Cream Month and the third Sunday of the month.July 14, 2025: Fans watch a game at the Maple Shade Babe Ruth Field, part of the 20th Annual Franny Friel Summer Classic, on a cool(er) night with a refreshing breeze, the weekend before the MLB All-Star Game (with Kyle Schwarber the lone Phillies representative).
There was a time — back when The Inquirer had multiple suburban bureaus — that photographers like myself who were assigned to the main newsroom on North Broad Street worked only in the city. (We’re now more like ride share drivers, going everywhere.)
So I walked a lot more to cover news and events in Center City, and more often stumbled into things and sights that piqued my curiosity.
Things like a long line.
Visitors queue up to get a glimpse through a single window in the Liberty Bell Center Oct. 12, 2025 while the building is closed due to the federal government shutdown.
Years ago seeing one likely meant unhoused people were waiting as church folks or outreach advocates served dinner on the street. Or they were waiting for concert tickets or movie premiers (Beanie Babies?).
I remember once questioning someone standing in a blocks-long line along Walnut Street and was flabbergasted to learn a new sneaker was dropping.
Or for a device that combined a portable media player, a cell phone, and an internet communicator.
Mayor John F. Street reads jokes aloud from his Blackberry as he waits with fellow technology enthusiasts in an alley off 16th Street to purchase an iPhone at the At&T store Jun. 29, 2007. There were two models available that day: a 4GB for $499 and the 8GB for $599.
Mayor Street was the third in line to buy the first-generation iPhone 2G launched that day. He said he arrived around 3:30 a.m. Leonard F. Johnson (far right) at the front of the line, arrived 36 hours ahead of the 6:00 p.m. official release.
Hizzoner defended the time he spent in line, saying he got work done and kept in touch with city officials on the issues of the day using his Blackberry to send emails and make phone calls.
I had no idea what the yellow shipping container was when I saw it next to City Hall last weekend. Even after I walked over and watched those at the front of the long line take their selfies inside a retro Philly diner-esque booth tableau.
I watched it all unfold, along with others, asking ourselves what was going on. Nobody knew. Except those in line.
It was the last stop on the Pleasing Express Line that ended its nation-wide tour in Philadelphia.
Followers on social media were invited to, “Climb on to immerse yourself in the worlds of Pleasing Fragrance, Big Lip, and exclusive treasures,” including a spin of the “Freebie Wheel,” for products of the unisex lifestyle brand Pleasing, created by former One Direction singer Harry Styles.
A spontaneous walk around Center City can build for me the same kind of excitement felt by those waiting in lines. Except they know their eventual reward. Mine comes from the anticipation of not knowing what’s around a corner.
And that is exactly what makes street photography worth the walk – and sometimes even the wait.
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:
October 11, 2025: Can you find the Phillie Phanatic, as he leaves a “Rally for Red October Bus Tour” stop in downtown Westmont, N.J. just before the start of the NLDS? There’s always next year and he’ll be back. The 2026 Spring Training schedule has yet to be announced by Major League Baseball, but Phillies pitchers and catchers generally first report to Clearwater, Florida in mid-February.October 6. 2025: Fluorescent orange safety cone, 28 in, Poly Ethylene. Right: Paint Torch (detail) Claes Oldenburg, 2011, Steel, Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic, Gelcoat and Polyurethane. (Gob of paint, 6 ft. Main sculpture, 51 ft.). Lenfest Plaza at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts on North Broad Street, across from the Convention Center.September 29, 2025: A concerned resident who follows Bucks County politics, Kevin Puls records the scene before a campaign rally for State Treasurer Stacy Garrity, the GOP candidate for governor. His T-shirt is “personal clickbait” with a url to direct people to the website for The Travis Manion Foundation created to empower veterans and families of fallen heroes. The image on the shirts is of Greg Stocker, one of the hosts of Kayal and Company, “A fun and entertaining conservative spin on Politics, News, and Sports,” mornings on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT.September 22, 2025: A shadow is cast by “The Cock’s Comb,” created by Alexander “Sandy” Calder in 1960, is the first work seen by visitors arriving at Calder Gardens, the new sanctuary on the Ben Franklin Parkway. The indoor and outdoor spaces feature the mobiles, stabiles, and paintings of Calder, who was born in Philadelphia in 1898, the third generation of the family’s artistic legacy in the city.September 15, 2025: Department of Streets Director of Operations Thomas Buck leaves City Hall following a news conference marking the activation of Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) cameras on the Broad Street corridor – one the city’s busiest and most dangerous roads. The speed limit on the street, also named PA Route 611, is 25 mph.September 8, 2025: Middle schoolers carry a boat to the water during their first outing in a learn-to-row program with the Cooper Junior Rowing Club, at the Camden County Boathouse on the Cooper River in Pennsauken. September 1, 2025: Trumpet player Rome Leone busks at City Hall’s Easr Portal. The Philadelphia native plays many instruments, including violin and piano, which he started playing when he was 3 years old. He tells those who stop to talk that his grandfather played with Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Nina Simone, and Dizzy Gillespie. August 25, 2025: Bicycling along on East Market Street.August 18, 2025: Just passing through Center City; another extraterrestrial among us. August 11, 2025: Chris Brown stows away Tongue, the mascot for a new hard iced tea brand, after wearing the lemon costume on a marketing stroll through the Historic District. Trenton-based Crooked Tea is a zero-sugar alcoholic tea brand founded by the creator of Bai, the antioxidant-infused coconut-flavored water, and launched in April with former Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham as a partner.August 4,2025: Shanna Chandler and her daughters figure out their plans for a morning spent in Independence National Historical Park on the map in the Independence Visitor Center. The women (from left) Lora, 20; Shanna; Lenna, 17; and Indigo, 29, were stopping on their way home to Richmond, Virginia after vacationing in Maine. The last time they were all in Philadelphia Shanna was pregnant with Lenna. July 28, 2025: Louis-Amaury Beauchet, a professional bridge player from Brittany, France, takes a break between game sessions in an empty ballroom during the North American Bridge Championships at the Center City Marriott with some 4000 people in town over week of the tournament. The American Contract Bridge League is hosting the week of meetings and tournaments with bridge players from all over the world. The ACBL is the largest bridge organization in North America, with over 120,000 members (down from around 165,000 before COVID). Bridge draws players of all ages and walks of life – fictional characters James Bond and Snoopy both played as do billionaires Bill Gates and Warren Buffett (who sometimes play as partners).July 21, 2015: Signage for the Kustard Korner in Egg Harbor City, on the way to the Jersey Shore. President Ronald Reagan designated July as National Ice Cream Month and the third Sunday of the month.July 14, 2025: Fans watch a game at the Maple Shade Babe Ruth Field, part of the 20th Annual Franny Friel Summer Classic, on a cool(er) night with a refreshing breeze, the weekend before the MLB All-Star Game (with Kyle Schwarber the lone Phillies representative).July 7, 2025: Caroline Small wheels her two year-old great-granddaughter atop a bag of garbage as she carts it to a drop-off site at the Tustin Playground at 60th St. and W Columbia Ave. as residential trash collection stopped when a strike was called by District Council 33. Small lives just around the corner and said of the toddler, “she was just walking too slow.”
Inquirer photographers and videographers captured tens of thousands of images in 2024. Here are some of our favorites.
By
Inquirer Staff Photographers
Published Dec 12, 2024
By the time the votes were counted, Donald Trump and rival Kamala Harris had shown up at more than 100 events in the Philly region and across the state in a year when Pennsylvania became the center of the political universe in the 2024 presidential election.
The sports year began with the retirement (and subsequent ubiquity) of Eagles legend Jason Kelce, photographed as he left the field in a final deflating defeat. It didn’t get much better for Philly’s other pro sports teams, failures perhaps best encapsulated by the image of a 76er who ended up in the stands, upside down, his red sneakers pointing to the ceiling.
Along the way, the people behind the cameras provided our readers with magical images — a 1-year-old in bunny costume on Easter Sunday on a South Jersey farm among 400,000 daffodils, a white-robed bishop being lowered into the Atlantic Ocean to bless the waters, skywatchers admiring the eclipse, an overweight Bull mastiff – eating a carrot.
Words have their place, but it is true that some things must be seen to be believed — like an apron-clad Donald Trump at a McDonald’s drive-through window.
Eagles center Jason Kelce walks off the field after the game. Eagles lose 32-9 to the Buccaneers in the wild-card round of the NFL playoffs at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fl. on Monday, Jan. 15, 2024.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerSixers forward Danuel House Jr. falls into the fans during the second quarter against the Brooklyn Nets on Feb. 3 at the Wells Fargo Center.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerSiddeeq Shabazz, a leading Philly Black cyclist who took up cycling during the pandemic and helped grow a local biking movement to increase diversity within the sport was shot and paralyzed last year. His 12-year-old daughter, Suri Shabbaz, his only child, is a student teacher dancer at a local studio. Every year for the last eight or so years, they have attended the father/daughter dance at the studio. This was the first year they didn't attend because of his injuries. They strike a dancing pose together on Feb. 27 at B’ella Ballerina Performing Arts Center.Charles Fox / Staff Photographer
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Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts pauses in prayer before the start of the game against the New Orleans Saints at the Superdome in New Orleans on Sept. 22.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerPhillies catcher J.T. Realmuto leaps past Pittsburgh Pirates baserunner Jared Triolo in the second inning during a split squad spring training game at BayCare Ballpark in Clearwater, Fla., on March 18.. Triolo was safe on the play.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Eagles running back Saquon Barkley leaps over Jacksonville Jaguars cornerback Jarrian Jones during the second quarter at Lincoln Financial Field on Nov. 3.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Making of a Photo: Witnessing Saquon Barkley's backward jump
Philadelphia Inquirer photographer, Yong Kim, was at the Linc when Eagles’ running back, Saquon Barkley, made an eye-catching play against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
A video deep dive of Yong Kim’s iconic photo.Gabe Coffey
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Marchers carry a 400-foot-long rainbow flag — the largest in Philadelphia history — moving it up Walnut Street on June 2 as Pride March and Festival kicks off with a march from Washington Square with the theme “Be You.”Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Allie Katch in the ring during Effy's Big Gay Brunch presented by Game Changer Wrestling at Penn's Landing Caterers in Philadelphia on April 6. The event was one of several that took place during Wrestlemania week. The event is a safe and inclusive space for LGBTQ+ wrestlers that seeks to promote their talent. “I’m glad they are starting to pay attention,” Taylor Gibson, better known by the ring name Effy, said to the sold-out crowd. “We have some of the best talent in the world.”Heather Khalifa / Staff PhotographerDrag queen Martha Graham Cracker (Dito van Reigersberg) performs at B. West in Philadelphia on March 15.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
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One-year-old Olivia Clavijo of Elizabeth, N.J., tightly hugs her tulips while spending the day with her family at the 2024 Dalton Farms Festival of Tulips! in Swedesboro, N.J. on Easter Sunday. The farm has 400,000 daffodils and 150 varieties of tulips and planted one million bulbs.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff PhotographerStudents at the Antonia Pantoja Charter School watch the eclipse in Philadelphia on April 8.Jessica Griffin / Staff PhotographerThe khachapuri Adjaruli and Lobio at Gamarjoba in Philadelphia. Food styling by Emilie FosnochtMonica Herndon / Staff PhotographerDennis Sullivan, bishop of the Diocese of Camden, is helped into an Atlantic City Beach Patrol boat on Aug. 15. Bishop Sullivan blessed the water by tossing a wreath into the surf. The tradition is called Wedding of the Sea. According to organizers the tradition began in Venice around the year 1000 AD. The tradition came to Atlantic City through St. Michael’s Church, a historically Italian parish.David Maialetti / Staff PhotographerThe Avalon Beach Patrol team celebrates the Lifeguard Championship in Brigantine on Aug. 12.Steven M. Falk / Staff Photographer
Ron Wolffe of Iowa watches Ariell Flight, of West Chester, on the Wall of Death. Acrobatic riders performed at the Race of Gentlemen in Wildwood on Oct. 4.Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff PhotographerAs the fog moves in, Caleesi Cohen (left), 10, and her sister Senaia-Imani Cohen, 17, move out after spending the day on the beach with their family in Wildwood on Memorial Day weekend. The girls’ father, Michael Cohen, (not in photo) said he pulled the cart across the expansive Wildwood beach when they arrived and now it was the girls’ turn. The family is from Sicklerville.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators march on Market Street as they head to Independence Mall prior to the Sept. 10 presidential debate at the National Constitution Center.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff PhotographerPeople get set up to camp out for the night to support Palestine on College Green in the heart of the University of Pennsylvania campus on April 25.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
Making of a Photo: Covering the Pro-Palestinian encampment at Penn
Philadelphia Inquirer photographer, Elizabeth Robertson, describes how she spent time overnight at the encampment where Penn students protested the war in Gaza.
A video deep dive of Elizabeth Robertson’s coverage of the Pro-Palestinian encampment at Penn.Gabe Coffey
A protester with the Penn Gaza Solidarity Encampment is arrested at South 34th St. near the Penn campus on May 17.Steven M. Falk / Staff PhotographerInside, after waiting in line outside in the heat for hours on July 31, a supporter takes a drink of water in the restroom at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg, before an appearance by former President Donald Trump.Tom Gralish / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker (center) arrives in City Council chambers to deliver her first budget address on March 14.Heather Khalifa / Staff PhotographerMel Lee, of Lansdale, with the Woori Center, marches along 11th Street during a Sept. 7 rally to protest the Sixers’ plans to build a new arena near Chinatown.Tyger Williams / Staff PhotographerVice President Kamala Harris greets children in the crowd of supporters after speaking at a Republicans for Harris event in Washington Crossing on Oct. 16.Tom Gralish / Staff PhotographerAn excited Elon Musk is about to greet former President Donald Trump at his Oct. 5 rally in Butler, Pa.Steven M. Falk / Staff Photographer
Jim Worthington gets a hug from Linda Mitchell as they learn Donald Trump has won Pennsylvania during an election night party in Newtown, Bucks County.Steven M. Falk / Staff PhotographerFormer President Donald Trump works the drive-through window at the McDonald’s in Feasterville, Bucks County, on Oct. 20 after saying on “Fox & Friends” he will “do everything” at the Golden Arches.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Making of a Photo: Documenting an election year in Pennsylvania, according to a Philadelphia Inquirer photographer
Philadelphia Inquirer photographer, Tom Gralish, has covered presidential elections for decades over his 40-year career as a photojournalist. This year’s election was unlike any other.
A video deep dive of Tom Gralish’s coverage of the 2024 election year in Pennsylvania.Gabe Coffey
Firefighters work the scene where two police officers were injured while responding to reported standoff in East Lansdowne on Feb. 7.Charles Fox / Staff PhotographerA person, who did not want to be named, struggles to pull a shopping cart past a mural on Somerset Street off Kensington Avenue on March 18. The mural is on a wall outside of Cantina La Martina.David Maialetti / Staff Photographer
A man kneels in prayer near the crime scene after multiple people were shot at an Eid al-Fitr gathering at Clara Muhammad Square in Philadelphia on April 10.Monica Herndon / Staff PhotographerRetired Army Maj. Andre McCoy, a member of American Legion Post 405 and the Philadelphia Veterans Advisory Commission, salutes the grave of Navy Cmdr. John Montgomery Dale after an abbreviated Memorial Day ceremony at the Christ Church Burial Ground in Old City. The Christ Church Preservation Trust program honored Dale (1797-1852).Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Nyshyia Thomas (right) is shown at home with her family, during an interview during which she talked about her son Da'Juan Brown, who was killed in a random shooting.Jessica Griffin / Staff PhotographerHigh School student, Ivan Bailey-Green is photographed with his paintings on May 7 during art class at St. Joseph's Preparatory School. Ivan was a member of the St. Joe's Prep football team and recently committed to East Stroudsburg. He is also considered by many to be the best artist in the school, something he came to lately but fell in love with. He plans to major in nursing but also explore art in college as a minor or possibly a career.Jose F. Moreno / Staff PhotographerRising sophomore Kylie Price, of Wilmington, stands in front of the University of the Arts Dorrance Hamilton Hall on South Broad Street in Philadelphia on June 9. Just over one week earlier, university officials announced that the school would be closing permanently.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff PhotographerPeople riding dirt bikes and four wheelers ride down the Art Museum steps on Feb. 3.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
People watch the Italian Air Force Frecce Tricolori during a flyover at the Philadelphia Museum of Art on Aug 12.Jose F. Moreno / Staff PhotographerSpectators watch as a group from Pace Roofing try to climb the greased pole during the Italian Market Festival on May 19.David Maialetti / Staff Photographer
Tugboats taking the Battleship New Jersey to the Paulsboro Marine Terminal pass near the flight plan for Philadelphia International Airport on March 21. After a stop in Paulsboro, the World War II-era battleship turned museum headed to the Navy Yard for repainting and repairs.Tom Gralish / Staff PhotographerAlmond Street resident Ryan Annau checks the depth of a large sinkhole on the 3100 block of Almond Street in Port Richmond on Jan. 28.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
Birders gather along South 51st Street at Botanic on Jan. 23 to look at a colorful male Painted Bunting, a bird that normally breeds in southern climates.Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff PhotographerRalphie, a bullmastiff who reached about 30% overweight. He's lost about 10 pounds but he has a good bit left to go. Healthy treats like carrots are now used to reward him.Charles Fox / Staff Photographer
Pennsylvania State Police and Philadelphia police keep an eye on a horse reported to have been running wild on I-95 on Feb. 20.Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer
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Staff Contributors
Introduction: Tony Wood
Art Direction: Julia Duarte
Editing: Brian Leighton
Photography: Alejandro A. Alvarez, Steven M. Falk, Charles Fox, Tom Gralish, Jessica Griffin, Monica Herndon, Heather Khalifa, Yong Kim, David Maialetti, Jose F. Moreno, Elizabeth Robertson, Tyger Williams
Videography: Gabe Coffey, Astrid Rodrigues
Photo Editing: Jasmine Goldband, Danese Kenon, Frank Wiese
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