Philadelphia's urban landscape is ever changing, and over time, many beautiful older structures have become disused, dilapidated, and in many cases, demolished. As WRTI's Jim Cotter reports, a collection of works by a preeminent Philadelphia photographer is keeping alive the memory of some of the city's architectural gems.
In the early 1990s, as more and more historic buildings in Philadelphia became endangered, Vincent Feldman began to concentrate on capturing how the city was being re-imagined by the use and abuse of these sometimes iconic structures. But beyond creating a pictorial record of vanishing cityscapes, his photography also helped uncover the storied past lives of these buildings and their surrounding neighborhood - where, why, and for what purpose they were built, and when and why they had outlived their original purpose.
Vincent Feldman's debut collection, City Abandoned: Charting the Loss of Civic Institutions in Philadelphia, is published by Paul Dry Books. The University of the Arts in Philadelphia is hosting an exhibition of Feldman's large-format photographs of abandoned architectural landmarks of Philadelphia from Jan. 17 - Feb. 7, 2015 in its Hamilton & Arronson Galleries.