Besides shadows, reflections, silhouettes, pigeons, umbrellas, or hats one of my favorite photo gimmick-clichés is finding juxtapositions. Like catching historic reenactors in moments of chronological inconsistency.
The image of Ben above and George below was made on assignment for an upcoming story on the 21st season of Historic Philadelphia’s Once Upon a Nation program — where costumed actors perform first-person interpretations of real 18th-century Philadelphians in the Historic District and at Valley Forge National Historical Park.
The photo of the actor portraying Franklin was made from outside the Free Quaker Meeting House at 5th and Arch Streets. It was established during the Revolution when a rift occurred among the Society of Friends. As pacifists they would not take up arms, pay war taxes, or take an oath of allegiance. A group calling themselves “Free” Quakers supported the American cause and were expelled or “read out of meeting” by the mainstream Friends.
Among those Free Quakers was Timothy Matlack, a clerk in the Pennsylvania Statehouse known for his excellent penmanship. He was chosen by the Continental Congress to produce the handwritten copy of the Declaration of Independence — the engrossed parchment version that we all recognize as the “original” — that was signed by the 56 delegates in August 1776. (Matlack, who was born in Haddonfield, N.J. was also one of the earliest opponents of slavery in America, and he felt that the Quakers were not moving quickly enough to abolish it.)
I only mention the Declaration as, along with many other stories, I have been photographing for in the Historic District and at the President’s House, I’ve been working on a photo essay on some of the direct descendants of the men who were in the room in Independence Hall (then the Pennsylvania State House) as America was born. Their photos, along with interesting and little known facts about the 17 local Signers from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware will be published later this week as part of The Inquirer’s coverage of the 250th.
As promised in a previous column, I’ve collected a bunch of my Philly photo-anachronisms from over the years.
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:
» SEE MORE: Archived columns and Twenty years of a photo column.
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