Stories & Series

Some of my favorite stories and photographic series

Trees

Studies in movement & nature

How Philly Moves

Philadelphians who love to dance – a few images from the series.

Feb 2021 Walk Around Philadelphia: Day 3

Pine Rd, the Northeast / Poquessing Creek / Knights Rd… This might be the longest and most ambitious segment of the six-day itinerary, at least for those of us coming from W. Philly / Center City. I was up by 4:15 in order to leave enough time to get ready and make it to the…

Invisible River – preview!

An amazing shoot on the Schuylkill river in preparation for choreographer Alie Vidich’s ‘Invisible River’ performance…

Airport & Southwest: Recap of final weekend of Fall 2021 walk

Segment 9:Around the airport (Hog Island Road) It’s the final weekend of this fall’s Walk Around Philadelphia and we’re headed into the home stretch, circumnavigating the airport today and then following the creek back up to 61st & Baltimore where I started a few weeks ago. (If you’ve missed the earlier blog posts, you might…

Delaware days: Recap of 3rd weekend of Fall 2021 walk.

Segment 6:Torresdale towards Bridesburg We started off this weekend’s iteration of Walk Around Philadelphia having already walked halfway ’round the city, from 61st & Baltimore up Cobbs Creek, along City Ave, up the Schuylkill and around Chestnut Hill all the way to Fox Chase (recap of first 3 days) and then all the way around…

Community Radio

Building low-power radio stations so that we can hear our neighbors…

Why do we compete?

Two interesting experiences from this weekend that I’d like to share: I spent Saturday evening onstage at the Kimmel Center, acting as a judge in Southeast Philadelphia Collaborative‘s talent show. While I’d originally been asked to act as a judge for the visual arts exhibit, I ended up being roped into judging the performance component…

If you cook it, they will come…

Here’s one of my recipes for community building… It’s not top secret; please go right ahead and replicate or adapt it for your own neighborhood. I guarantee nourishing results.

An invitation to Interfaith work

“Religion” & “Faith” are complex topics, and it’s often hard to have productive conversations with people whose beliefs differ from our own. Here are some folks who’ve figured it out.

A prison visit… [sort of]

Here’s a story about trying to support a friend who was incarcerated. The system seems pretty broken; I’m grateful to those who are working to fix it…

CIW & Fair Food

Images from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ Campaign for Fair Food

My first Truth Tour – Everyone Is Photogenic

One more trip down memory lane for JJ Tiziou Photography’s 10yr anniversary… That last post told you about how an invitation to document the creation of an LPFM radio station for a farmworker community in Florida first plugged me into the community media movement; this post is about how I got involved with the Coalition…

Radical Hospitality

How I learned the right way to make a breakfast burrito. Three hundred times in one morning.

Feb 2021 Walk Around Philadelphia: Day 5

The Navy Yard, Platt Bridge, Hog Island. We’d arrived back at Pier 68 before 7am in hopes of a sunrise over the river, but this morning was overcast. The forecast was calling for a potential ice storm hitting in the ~1pm range, and we were hoping it would hold off long enough for us to…

What We Made Possible Together This Year

Year-End Reflections from Walk Around Philadelphia & my other community practices There is so much bad news out there. And things are so hard on so many fronts: polarization, alienation, loneliness – nevermind technological disruptions and economic struggles. And yet, this year, I kept seeing something else. So here’s the good news: This year I…

Fear not the rain…

We’ve had a lot of storms and rain lately, and Philadelphians are probably relieved to see sunshine on the forecast. While I like the sun, I’m always a little bit surprised to see how upset people can be by rain. I was recently shooting in Manayunk, where we had a storm roll through our outdoor…

Music

Live music – it’s good for the soul.

We made it! The February 2021 Walk Around Philadelphia is complete…

I set out on February 7th for my 6th annual (and 7th total) pilgrimage around the city’s edge. One week later, after ~110 miles through snow and ice, detours and discoveries, setbacks and surprises, challenges and connections, I found my way back to the beginning, yet again amazed by the wonder of this city, and…