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The magazine of the art-form of the photo-essay “A free, really high quality photo-essay magazine.  Fabulous!” Stephen Fry. British actor, writer and film & documentary maker
Jan 2015 back issue
The Picture that Remains
by Will Brown
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Marsha on Sunday Morning.  January 1973.  Courtesy of Laurence Miller Gallery, New York Marsha lived next door to us on Fulton Street with her mother, Ruth, and son, MC.
Passyunk Family II.  March 1973.  Courtesy of Laurence Miller Gallery, New York. A couple that lived on Passyunk Avenue.
Kids at Weccacoe.  January 1972.  Weccacoe Park was directly across Catharine Street from our house. It was poorly maintained by the city at that time. Some basketball was played there but I remember a lot of bottle breaking on the concrete.
David Frost.  1971.  Courtesy of Laurence Miller Gallery, New York.  David Frost had a tire repair shop where Passyunk Avenue, 5th Street and Monroe Street came together.
Afro.  January 1974.  Courtesy of Laurence Miller Gallery, New York.  I wish I could remember his name, a sweet kid from the neighborhood.
Stove Top.  March 1974.  Courtesy of Laurence Miller Gallery, New York.  Back from the store with a bag of Stove Top stuffing.
Sundress.  October 1972.  Courtesy of Laurence Miller Gallery, New York.
Boy with Bag.  October 1972.  Courtesy of Laurence Miller Gallery, New York.  A teenager and a boy on Fourth Street.
Gregory with Afro.  May 1970.  Courtesy of Laurence Miller Gallery, New York.  Gregory Hines of Fulton Street.
Two Buddies.  May, 1970.  Courtesy of Laurence Miller Gallery, New York.  Floyd Winston (on right) and a friend on Fulton Street.
Mr. Brown and His Topiaries, c. 1972.  Courtesy of Laurence Miller Gallery, New York.  Mr. Brown lived east of us on Catharine Street.  He was tremendously proud of his topiary shrubs. He asked me to photograph him and this was the result which he did not approve.
One-armed Boy, 1976.  Courtesy of Laurence Miller Gallery, New York.  I met a group of boys with a dog in Fairmount Park and this was one them.
Ben's, Feb 1972.  Courtesy of Laurence Miller Gallery, New York. Ben Dorfman's junk and truss shop on Kater Street.
Floyd & Friend-Fulton Street, June 1973. Floyd (on the right) with his friend. They lived on the same block of Fulton Street which was directly behind our house.
MC with Friend and a Dog, c. 1973.  Courtesy of Laurence Miller Gallery, New York.  These vacant houses were directly behind us on Fulton Street. MC lived next door with his mother and grandmother.
Floyd and friends, 1973.  Courtesy of Laurence Miller Gallery, New York. Floyd and the gang, mostly from Fulton Street, cooling off during a hot summer day.
Three Children-Nassau II, 1973.  Courtesy of Laurence Miller Gallery, New York. Caught on Bainbridge Street.
Three Men, 1971. Courtesy of Laurence Miller Gallery, New York. Neighbors on Passyunk Avenue.
The Blacksmith and his Dog, 1973. Courtesy of Laurence Miller Gallery, New York. Mr. Uska's blacksmith's shop on Fitzwater Street. He did general iron work and repaired horse drawn wagons until a nearby stable burned and all the horses were lost.
In the winter of 1967 my wife and I purchased a shell of an old house in the then- neglected Southwark section of Philadelphia. Fifteen years of hands-on repair and restoration followed while we lived there. Our earliest neighborhood friendships were with the children in the back street; they had enjoyed the empty place as their club house and were naturally curious about our lives and intentions. A pattern developed of my helping them with bike problems, and soon I had an informal Saturday morning clinic for them, fun for us all. Another way of connecting with the area was with my camera. The people in the neighborhood were interesting to me, and easy with my taking their photographs.  For several years I would go also out when the streets were quiet and the light low in the sky. The sense of past stories was very present in the store windows and cars. Some of the resulting pictures were exhibited in the early 1970s with a little critical success. I packed away the works and since then have photographed freelance, works of art for museums, collectors and publications. In 2008, by some magic, a few photographs came to the attention of Peter Barberie, curator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art; he included me in an exhibition there the following year. Interest has grown, In 2014 the book, The Picture that Remains, was published, The Fabric Workshop and Museum mounted a solo show, and Laurence Miller began to represent me  with a solo show in New York, NY.
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