Postcards from... Philadelphia & West Philadelphia, 1987
When I spent a year on the University of Pennsylvania campus, in 1987-88 (upcoming postcard series, stay tuned!), the European exchange student I was then was impressed by the Philadelphia skyline, as seen from the Museum steps made famous by the Rocky movies…
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… or, from the 25th floor of the high rise building I was living in, as it was beautifully lit by the setting sun.
The skyline was changing before my eyes: Philadelphia’s first iconic skyscraper, “One Liberty Place”, was being finished. Its 61 storeys and 945 feet dominated the entire city.
It was the first building to break the gentlemen's agreement not to build any structure in Center City higher than the statue of William Penn on top of Philadelphia City Hall built in 1901.
If Philadelphia actually wasn’t a particularly attractive city, it harbored a gem: its Philharmonic Orchestra, then directed by Ricardo Muti. Those motivated enough to arrive early and queue up could attend amazing concerts for just $2, from the top-most gallery, from which we had great views of the orchestra...
... and of the whole theater.
Outside, a more colorful type of music continued…
… reminding us that the centers of American cities were typically, after sundown, mostly left to the poorer among the population.
My campus was a small island of indecent wealth entrenched in the very poor neighborhood of West Philadelphia. In just a few steps, we could move from ostentatious success to misery…
… and signs of violence were visible at almost every street corner.
This environment gave me the opportunity to make my first street portrait:
In spite of the optimistic, voluntarist mural paintings…
… many places looked and felt like they belonged in the third world.
Still, culture and poetry are sometimes found in the most unexpected places, like on the back of this car, quoting “Jean Cocteau upon meeting M. Dietrich: “Madame, your name starts with a caress and ends with a whiplash” (1947)”
