South Kensington Community Archive Shows Identity of a Neighborhood Through Photos
The Philly Block Project Archive is comprised of past and present photographs sourced from historical archives and from the individuals who call South Kensington home, uniting the residents to each other and to their shared story. The Philly Block Project Archive team, led by noted photographer and visual storyteller Lori Waselchuk, includes the project’s curator, Kalia Brooks, artist and educator Tim Gibbon, historian Alysson Biermaier and photographer Andre Bradley.
Sarah Gearhart photographed friends sitting on her stoop. 2015.
Brooks’ task was to select images for the exhibition Archive Collective: South Kensington 19122 (which closed last week at the PPAC Gallery). “What is the identity of a neighborhood?” Brooks asked in the exhibition.”We asked residents to provide us with pictures that reflected their relationship to the neighborhood.”
An early selfie by Gilberto Gonzales in his basement with friends in the 1980’s.
In six months of outreach and engagement, the Archive team has collected more than 2,800 personal and historic photos that chronicle the evolution of the community: immigration, an industrial boom, abandonment, and a surge of small business and art spaces today.
Ezra Liu, Sarah Kate Burgess and Jacque Liu took a family selfie near their home. 2014.
“Ours is a process of identification through accumulation,” writes Brooks. “The archive is made up of a collection of documents that can represent South Kensington in its history and present. It does not claim to be a definitive survey, but rather a portrayal of an organism as it continues to evolve over time.”
![This photo of Jose Serano was taken by Maria Pabon and submitted by their daughter, Marilyn Cruz. Cruz said, “He used to go pajariando [going door to door], singing rancheros in the neighborhood with his guitar.”](https://spiritnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/2016_03_26_MarilynCruz007.jpg)
This photo of Jose Serano was taken by Maria Pabon and submitted by their daughter, Marilyn Cruz. Cruz said, “He used to go pajariando [going door to door], singing rancheros in the neighborhood with his guitar.”
Despite the closing of the the Archive Collective exhibition, PPAC Executive Director Sarah Stolfa hopes that the Archive team can continue collecting photos and stories from the neighborhood. “We feel like we have only scratched the surface of the amount of material we know exists in the neighborhood.” said Stolfa.
Photo of the Al-Aqsa Soccer team after winning 2nd place in a tournament in New Jersey. 1995.
Stolfa explains that the archive began as a way to create a unique exhibition for the Philly Block Project. But it has become a bigger project than they anticipates. “We feel we owe it to the neighborhood to include the diversity of the residents as well as help complete the picture of a neighborhood that has always and continues to experience drastic change.”
A cellphone photo of Fada Ahmad as she kisses her mother’s, Wardah Ibrahim, hand during a visit to Mukhmas, Palestine, Fada’s birth home, in November 2015.
